Sarah Champion

For many years we had mixed race family neighbour with whom we got on very well. Two of the daughters were away on holiday at Phuket that fateful day when the tsunami struck! They were on the water at the time and the boat capsized!

The parents were divorced at the time but the father, a Pakistani, made no attempt to locate them. I assisted the mother in registering them as missing up until the time they returned safely to the UK. Till this day, I am sworn never to tell them.

In his own way, he did love his children but his son came first. It was his culture that females were not important! Lets not let political correctness get in the way of factual truths!

In my opinion - she was pushed!

It was political correctness which allowed this terrible abuse to continue so long, and P C is still not allowing the scandals to be discussed.

We must remember that in court it was said these girls are slags and lesser beings by the men and some of the girls were underage. The crime was appalling These men are 4 percent of the population but doing 28 percent of this crime. So there is a problem. Forgive me for not caring if she missed out the word 'some' . We should be thinking of the victims and to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Afraid I was mystified as to why she 'had to go' till I read this thread and saw that had she interjected the word 'some' before Asian/Pakistani men, she may have been able to stay.

Surely there can be no doubt that we do have a problem such as has been described. Though there has been abuse in other communities (the bbc for one) the scale of it in this case seems systemic and is quite appalling.

We must be able to talk about it; how else is the issue to be discussed and ultimately resolved?

I meant pc but I am sure you all realised

I am so fed up with people not being able to speak in case they upset someone. I think she was speaking the facts as they are. Soon we won't be able to identify someone who wears glasses in case others are offended!

PUSHED!!

I think she should have deleted 'asian' or 'pakistani' and just said MUSLIM men and she couldn't have been pushed. We are altogether still so pic (makes me mad - we've got to change!

She said what I think was right but the press misinterpreted it as usual, especially that bloody paaper the sun. Never read it.

jalimaterrybull radicalnan and grsnnygrandby I agree with you all. Yes, we all know abuse occurs in all racial groups, and in all social classes, but, and it's a big but in my opinion, it is these particular cases, in 14 cities as I understand it, that the girls have received a second abuse, that of not being believed, or thought to be unreliable witnesses. And apparently the sex worker who reported, over and over again, to the authorities, that this abuse was happening in Rotherham, was rewarded for her efforts by being made redundant!!
We do our children no favours by pretending that this type of abuse is either, not happening, not about two particular racial groups (primarily Asian men and young white girls) and is just the same as any other abuse.
Anniebach You are correct in that Corbyn's actions are most likely to be about votes.

She only said what had just been proved in court and not for the first time. She was pushed. It is an awful thing per se but useful in that it provides a clear as a bell signal that some parts of the political divide cannot recognise or admit the truth even when it stares them in the face. This might, perhaps, get through to their followers who will begin to seek the truth and question political 'acts of faith'.

Objectivity, rationality, facts, evidence and debate rather than PC sloganising, are the way forward.

To try and silence this anger By sacking Sarah C will not help. The problems of why it is happening stretches into our class system, the misogynistic views of a patriarchal religion and our lack of care and educational chances for vulnerable girls. Remember the police thought they were not worth taking seriously. We should look at ourselves as well. And decry and reveal the misogyny in our culture too. Many wome like being in a patriarchal culture they feel valued and looked after but it is not equal and it is not the way forward. I am horrified at how this abuse has been allowed for so long. To silence it again and pretend it is a case of a bunch of criminals is wrong. We should all grow up and dig below the surface here. These groups of Pakistani men have revealed what was hidden. And we must scream and shout

There are organised abusers in all communities. The exploitation and commodification of vulnerable young women by men who think that they are entitled to do so is the problem. It is not a problem of religion, it is a problem of a particular brand of toxic masculinity which festers unchecked and leads to these cases. This is happening in every town and city - those prosecutions are the tip of the iceberg. Until we stop blaming the victims and start shaming the views and behaviours of this toxic, entitled masculinity (which is widespread across all communities) then nothing will change. Champion's remarks were ill-informed, opportunistic and unhelpful, and she deserved to go. If you pander to the latent racism you create 'the other' as perpetrator and absolve your own community from responsibility, which is not helpful and frankly irresponsible. There is a lot of wriggling around about this issue and not a lot of action. What has happened to these young women will affect them for their whole lives. There are young women out there to whom it is happening right now, with little hope of escape. We as a whole country should be ashamed for perpetuating a culture in which not only is the abuse of children so common, but victims are still often disbelieved and blamed for the crimes committed against them.

Hear hear radicalnan

She was pushed I am pretty sure of it.

There doesn't seem to be anywhere near enough support for the abused young women, who do seem to be mainly white and poor, no benefit concerts going on or Go Fund Me pages......I find that all a bit racist really, but only some groups seem to attract concern.

We ought to be ashamed of ourselves the way these thing are and have been handled so far.

I have not met anyone from Rotherham who was directly involved Jalima (although it's my home town and very dear to my heart) but have met and worked with many survivors of abuse from many different communities. If you can't see what's wrong with her statement I'm sorry. She has done nothing by her choice of words to help us develop a greater understanding of where racial/ cultural factors might play a part in organised abuse, but instead has indeed demonised a whole community. That's why I said it's about political sensitivity rather than political correctness (with all the pejorative associations that go along with that term).

certainly not ALL Pakistani men are abusers ,so she should have qualified her remark As to calling a spade a spade isn't the non pc language thats occuring now a huge problem when racism rears its head and believes its justified.Same in the USA with all the right wing rhetoric being bandied about ..maybe time to think being PC is the way to go,certainly less trouble if we all take care with what we say

Meant to say it makes everything far worse if we don't.

"Some" or a "small minority" have to be key words when discussing any problem that occurs within communities and it's obviously crucial to make that point at the outset. I have not read the article in "The Sun" I don't read that paper either on line or otherwise.

I do think it's very, very important to discuss uncomfortable issues it just makes everything far worse. Especially for the girls and their parents, particularly when they have to face perpertrators and their supporters mocking them and then find out that two of the Rotheram abusers are getting even more legal aid to fight their deportation. I'd like to know who decides the eligibilty for that because some of the brave interpreters who worked with our army were turned down

There was a leaked email yesterday that she was purported to have sent to the Sun thanking them for printing the article and complaining that the photo they used was not a good one.

If Britain doesn't have a problem with this then I am at a loss nightowl or hearing different news to you - and I ask if you have ever met anyone involved which could put a different perspective on this.
It is not the only problem but it has been a problem and thank goodness it is recognised at last.

She was pushed but perhaps this was not the right paper to choose - but then would the pc Guardian print her views anyway?

The Sun changed what she had written slightly, her aides approved it without checking with her. Given that it was for a toxic newspaper with an anti-Corbyn and anti-Labour agenda, she and they should have been much more careful. I don't think it was the subject matter that was the problem, she's ( rightly) been a standard bearer for that ( like Ann Cryer) it was the blanket comment - had the word 'some' been inserted, it would have expressed what she says over and over again to her great credit. It was next to another article by Trevor Kavanagh I believe which quoted from her article - she didn't know this was going to happen and it shows how dirty the Sun plays - but she should know that. He used the phrase 'the Moslem Problem' which is an echo of 'the Jewish Problem' well used elsewhere. I think she'll be back and that meanwhile, she'll carry on with her sterling work

Not politic correctness, loss of votes

How can saying "Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls" be acceptable? I'm at a loss.

Is that all British Pakistani men? Is it only British Pakistani men? What did she hope to achieve by saying this? She didn't help herself by trying to distance herself from the article afterwards when her office had signed it off (only quibbling about the choice of an unflattering photo).

She said somewhere that the Sun had "misrepresented" her words.