Labour has come under fire after refusing to hold a public inquiry into historic sexual abuse by grooming gangs in Oldham.

my point is not about individuals but the underlying culture going unchallenged. the recent terrible death and torture of a vulnerable child by her fatherwho actually said he believed he was entitled to punish her because she was naughty,
it is the immensely bad attitude to girls and women that we need to challenge.

Thank you for posting that link, I hope that everyone who has criticised Jess will feel thoroughly ashamed.

sorry her speech in the Commons at the time is a FaceBook link- but it is her actual speech in the House.

Yes that comment from Johnson was and remains shocking

Whilst Jendrick did nothing at all, Johnson was talking about 'spaffing money up the wall'- this is what Jess said

fb.watch/wZgxwS7d05/

I’m with you Galaxy, I wasn’t a residential worker but had regular contact with managers and staff. I first became aware of the crimes we are discussing in 1998. The majority of sw/resi workers were clear, police investigation needed. An experienced group who shouted loud. Police claimed not enough resources for the specialists teams we knew were needed.
There iv said it. At no stage was ethnicity/fear of being accused of racism raised by anyone to my knowledge

Sorry Iam64 I moved back to serious stuff!

I managed children homes in the nineties, without going into it in detail, the children I worked with werent vulnerable to this specific issue, however I was party to
some discussions about girls who were vulnerable to it. There was a view of those girls amongst some professionals (a minority) that there was nothing they could do about the behaviour of the children, it was about 'choice'. The discussions I heard were mainly around drug use rather than abuse but it was similar. So there is another layer I think, not just fear of being called racist, not just seeing the girls as worthless, but also a layer about granting them consent/choice when they couldnt give it.

I suspect he has ‘people’ to run his businesses. I know it’s frivolous on such a serious thread but - reading Galaxy post the image I saw was Johnnie Depp as Willie Wonka.
Asperger’s is said to be a Musk diagnosis. As the gran of an adult neuro diverse grandson I say don’t excuse bad behaviour by a neuro diverse diagnosis. Musk is very bright and responsible for his own behaviiur

I do wonder how musk has the time to tweet so prolifically, whatever people may think of him, the businesses he runs are complex ones, I suppose on the other hand he wont have to do any of the things that 'ordinary' people have to do.

Thanks Oreo and Galaxy. It’s such a hideous subject. I’ve come too close to talking about children I know were abused by these gangs. I sit on my hands but it does bring some very painful disgusting things back

X posted with a number of people. I hope my post clarifies my sympathy is for victims not with the phone in caller who had the nerve to paint himself as one.

Galaxy

I hope Musk isnt litigious as they say

I think that like DT Musk tweets non stop and therefore won’t remember anything he says or anything others say😁

I know Iam64, I was being unduly snippy. I know without a doubt you prioritise women and children.

Iam64👍🏻

I hope Musk isnt litigious as they say

Galaxy I am sorry if my post read as though I was prioritising the man’s feelings over the children. That was absolutely not what I meant. I was trying to point to the need for dialogue that doesn’t include hurling abuse. Jenerick was inflammatory. The phone in caller to radio 5 emphasised what he perceived was his victim status. How dare he? He didn’t mention the thousands of victims, he (understandably in many ways)n wanted to emphasise the value placed on daughters.
That’s what led to me pondering on the silence from the large Muslim community in my town

I notice my town isn’t included in the list of towns affected by the organised grooming abuse and rape of vulnerable children, mostly girls by men of Pakistani origin, who claimed to follow the Muslim faith. I know it happened here

HousePlantQueen

Galaxy

You find it appalling that I think other feminists have done more for womens rights than Jess Phillips. You are easily offended.

As I assume nobody is playing Feminist Top Trumps (game not president elect), why can you not acknowledge the work that Jess Phillips has done, Galaxy?.

The thing about Jess Phillips is that she’s a politician so will never be able to work for women in a really strong feminist way.Politicians always have agendas to follow.I don’t mean to say she’s done nothing of course but fails to speak out in the way that say, JK Rowling does.
I further agree with Galaxy that we needn’t care how furious a man who is a Muslim and of Pakistani heritage is on this subject, his fury should be reserved for those men who raped and groomed young girls.

Galaxy - 50% of us (UK voters) are men. You can't dismiss them in any issue (I know this is about young girls abuse so you're tempted to say, nothing to do with men - but for centuries we were denied the vote because war, business, politics was "nothing to do with women") We need to listen to everyone & realise that the majority of men are not even potential abusers, be they Pakistani or any other ethnicity.
I do think action now on the last enquiry, which no-one has devalued (Elon Musk in all probability had no knowledge of it) is preferable to another national enquiry. A local enquiry to apportion responsibility & learning has taken place or is ongoing in ll the affected localities - surely that is the commonsense way forward for them?
Plus Kemi picking up on a Musk post & using it for politial advantage, whilst he as a white South African almost certainly regards her as a second class citizen because of her ethnicity, is just cringe-worthy.

The majority of men arent abusers, but it is important to talk about the risks posed by men to women and children and not skirt around that. We talk very freely about the issues of abuse within the catholic church, again this does not mean that all Catholics are abusers.

It's also racist because you're assuming that all immigrants come from countries where sex abuse is permissible. That's exactly what the police and some other agencies assumed.

pinkquartz

this issue is demonstrating the danger of allowing a very. different culture to set up home here and by people who will not allow integration to our way of life to take place.
there is danger here.
i think people need to learn that what westerners, who believe in democracy, will be dealing with in the future.
i think migrants need to know that our laws and culture are dominant. that we will. not be taken backwaeds to treat girls and women in such medieval ways.

the men in grooming gangs should be deported.

No! The vast majority aren't sex abusers. You're labelling everyone.

Galaxy

With the greatest respect Iam64, his feelings arent my priority at this time. Again this sounds very much like but what about the men.

That's sexist! Why shouldn't you care about all Muslim/Pakistani being labelled as sex abusers, just because of their ethnicity or religion? The vast majority are nothing of the sort.

With the greatest respect Iam64, his feelings arent my priority at this time. Again this sounds very much like but what about the men.

Many if the men who tortured and abused these children were born here, or have British citizenship so how can they be deported.
I heard a man of Pakistani heritage who is a Muslim on Nicky Campbell’s radio 5 phone in. The caller was furious that he feels people look at him with suspicion whenever ‘grooming gangs’ are being discussed. He talked at length about the positives in his faith, the value of girl children as something that paves the way to Paradise. He was outraged in the way Jenrick was but from the opposite extreme.
I’d welcome statements from women’s groups or mosques local to me expressing horror about these crimes.