Lucy Powell dog whistle comments!

lafergar

eazybee

How many more times?
Yes, this happened years ago and is still happening. Local Inquiries haven't stopped it, neither have the police and social services agencies, because no-one is held accountable. Only when people in positions of authority are held to account publicly and punished, will these services take the continuing abuse seriously.

The simple reason people are calling for action is because Labour promised it.
The Conservatives did initiate inquiries, and they have proved to be inadequate. Hence the need to take stronger action, as promised by Labour, who have now reneged on their promises.

Thank You. What would you hope to see as a result of a National Inquiry please?

What would be the remit of such an inquiry and would Elon Musk or Tommy Robinson be in charge?

Oh very funny lafergar har-har🤬 could have been written by Lucy Powell.Let’s make fun of the subject hey?
Local government inquiries into their own dismal past and present performances around grooming gangs is like turkeys voting for Christmas.It simply has to be taken seriously as Eazybee outlines.Very little has been done and it’s still happening right now.Labour promised to do it and now won’t do it, what does that tell us? Afraid of losing votes? Very much looks like it.Another way forward for Labour to drive people to lumbering us with a future Reform government with Farage as PM.

TerriBull

I've always hated to read about those so called sex tourists, who go off to poorer countries and pay to abuse women who are actually often girls and even younger children, such men seem to be predominantly white westerners. I've also hated reading about the grooming gangs, predominantly Asian, or home grown white abusers. I don't care what race or ethnicity these people are, all of it is sickening it's taking advantage of vulnerable under age children and using them for their own sick gratification. It's carried out under various guises, not least of all from people who should be in a position of trust such as religious clerics, again pertaining to not just one religion or one ethnicity. Most of all I hate the way they try and justify their wrongs and somehow blame their victims.

I agree, who wouldn’t? I also hate those who make excuses for the inaction of governmental inquiries into abuse which is still going on simply for the reason that it fits with their own political affiliations.

MaizieD

^Any abuser of children, regardless of colour must be held to account.^

Well, precisely.

Which is why, there having already been a wide ranging statutory national inquiry into all aspects of child abuse, I am deeply suspicious of calls for another national inquiry which focuses on only one aspect.

I am talking about “ in general” I really don’t know what enquiries were held as I have never followed the subject.

Any abuser of children, regardless of colour must be held to account.

Well, precisely.

Which is why, there having already been a wide ranging statutory national inquiry into all aspects of child abuse, I am deeply suspicious of calls for another national inquiry which focuses on only one aspect.

TerriBull

I've always hated to read about those so called sex tourists, who go off to poorer countries and pay to abuse women who are actually often girls and even younger children, such men seem to be predominantly white westerners. I've also hated reading about the grooming gangs, predominantly Asian, or home grown white abusers. I don't care what race or ethnicity these people are, all of it is sickening it's taking advantage of vulnerable under age children and using them for their own sick gratification. It's carried out under various guises, not least of all from people who should be in a position of trust such as religious clerics, again pertaining to not just one religion or one ethnicity. Most of all I hate the way they try and justify their wrongs and somehow blame their victims.

Any abuser of children, regardless of colour must be held to account.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Wes Streeting said: “She’s also human. I’ve made mistakes in the past, I’m sure I’m going to make mistakes in the future.’
Lucy Connolly jailed for 31 months for a subsequently deleted Facebook post was not afforded the same understanding.

Exactly my thoughts earlier

I've always hated to read about those so called sex tourists, who go off to poorer countries and pay to abuse women who are actually often girls and even younger children, such men seem to be predominantly white westerners. I've also hated reading about the grooming gangs, predominantly Asian, or home grown white abusers. I don't care what race or ethnicity these people are, all of it is sickening it's taking advantage of vulnerable under age children and using them for their own sick gratification. It's carried out under various guises, not least of all from people who should be in a position of trust such as religious clerics, again pertaining to not just one religion or one ethnicity. Most of all I hate the way they try and justify their wrongs and somehow blame their victims.

eazybee

How many more times?
Yes, this happened years ago and is still happening. Local Inquiries haven't stopped it, neither have the police and social services agencies, because no-one is held accountable. Only when people in positions of authority are held to account publicly and punished, will these services take the continuing abuse seriously.

The simple reason people are calling for action is because Labour promised it.
The Conservatives did initiate inquiries, and they have proved to be inadequate. Hence the need to take stronger action, as promised by Labour, who have now reneged on their promises.

Thank You. What would you hope to see as a result of a National Inquiry please?

What would be the remit of such an inquiry and would Elon Musk or Tommy Robinson be in charge?

We have already had a statutory national inquiry into child sexual abuse which covered grooming gangs along with other aspects of child sexual abuse.

Can the revived furore be because we haven't had a National Inquiry into Asian Grooming Gangs?

I do wonder how much is concern for the victims and how much is pure racism.

We still have grooming gangs and other forms of child abuse and we still don't have an adequate response to them in the "here and now

The Jay enquiry cost £200.000.000 and made 20 recommendations in 2022 for the future investigation and prevention of grooming and other forms of child abuse.

Yet the Conservatives implemented only one, and in the first week of April more measures were announced by Labour to further Jay report recommendations.

The Jay report did not fully cover all the people who delayed or sought to "cover up" the prosecution of Pakistani gangs although some local inquiries have uncovered some figures,
and the demands for Independent Inquiries is to find more who did.

The problem is that there has to be a balance struck between funding more enquiries into the past versus actually spending money on what is happening right now.

We havent got another £200.000.000 to spend on current measures to catch the appalling criminals still abusing children, to implement the Jay report,

and therefore I agree with the position that we do try to find those culpable in the past but funding has to be balanced with the needs of those suffering right now.

But the far right continue to beat the same drum and cant see the necessity of decisions that are realistic about resourcing and balance.

How many more times?
Yes, this happened years ago and is still happening. Local Inquiries haven't stopped it, neither have the police and social services agencies, because no-one is held accountable. Only when people in positions of authority are held to account publicly and punished, will these services take the continuing abuse seriously.

The simple reason people are calling for action is because Labour promised it.
The Conservatives did initiate inquiries, and they have proved to be inadequate. Hence the need to take stronger action, as promised by Labour, who have now reneged on their promises.

What I can't get my little pea brained head around is why now?

For short hand I'll use the phrase grooming gangs...this happened years ago. We have excellent TV dramas and documentaries, first class professionals who have worked and are working in this field and now we have the hard right sitting up and demanding an enquiry? Why now?

Hardly surprising when the poll is on GB news, is it?

Just seen a poll where 99% of people thought she should resign.

I think the governemnts argument is that there has already been a series of local enquiries and some authorities are still failing to implement the recommendations made.
This present government are presently looking into the reasons why and atempting to foce councils to implement thouse changes. This does not get the media coverage, however.
A national enquiry would take years and cost even more money. I think the argument is there's no point in having one if the perevious recommendations are still not being implemented.
Last week an all white grooming gang were sent to prison and I have seen no coverage of this at all (except for one Facebook page) so the focus on the muslim/pakistani gangs seems to feed into a racist trope which doesn't hold too much water when more closely investigated.
I didn't hear the comment from Powell but I sense she was touching on this aspect of the issue with her comment.

Sorry, but I saw it and I assumed people understood the term "dog whistle", as Lucy Powell presumably did. It's not the grooming gangs who are "dog whistle" (she didn't mention political football), but bringing up the topic in the way Tim Montgomerie did.

Thank you for explaining that a national enquiry can compel witnesses to attend.

PS. Haven't we already had a number of inquiries?

A Government Inquiry can compel people to attend; a local council Inquiry cannot.
The intention is not just to investigate the perpetrators but to expose the dismissive attitude of the Police and social services, which allowed the abuse to continue, and ensure it is still not continuing. Possibly some punitive measures.

Any Questions is a political programme, so why refer to Grooming gangs as a 'political football'?

Lucy Powell needs to speak plain English, not indulge in slang which mystified at least some of her audience.

Because Powell was not dismissing those historic concerns but objecting to that very "political capital" game.

And she was right, as even proved on this thread. Tim Montgomerie didn't need to mention the ethnicity of any of the gang members because he's provoked comments from the public.

Its quite right that people should be called to account for historic cover ups where they happened but what strikes me is that some posters go on about it (thread after thread)

- but seem apparently unconcerned and indeed have not mentioned here -

about whats happening right now as regards high levels of child abuse and unconcerned about the need to address it and ignoring new measures being brought in to try and address it.

Yes, political capital time, lafergar.

Because Powell was not dismissing those historic concerns but objecting to that very "political capital" game.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

The bottom line is - there is to be no national inquiry.
Now that IS disgraceful in my opinion.

What could a national inquiry achieve that local inquiries can't and won't?

lafergar

A Reform UK spokesman said Powell's "abhorrent comments truly demonstrate how out of touch the Labour Party is".

He went on: "She does not take the mass rape of young girls by predominantly Pakistani men seriously. The mask has slipped.

Utterly sickening to make political capital from this.

Ironically, of course, they are proving now that it was a "dog whistle" comment by Tim Montgomerie.

I watched the original interview on TV. Pakistanis weren't mentioned, but they are now and the whole issue is being widely discussed. That is precisely what dog whistle comments are about.

The bottom line is - there is to be no national inquiry.
Now that IS disgraceful in my opinion.

A Reform UK spokesman said Powell's "abhorrent comments truly demonstrate how out of touch the Labour Party is".

He went on: "She does not take the mass rape of young girls by predominantly Pakistani men seriously. The mask has slipped.

Utterly sickening to make political capital from this.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Disproportionate punishment though growstuff.
We shall have to agree to disagree over this.

What do you disagree about?

She made multiple comments which constituted racial hatred, including burning down hostels while immigrants were in them.

She pled guilty.

She tweeted that she would "'play the mental health card" and "If that makes me racist, so be it." She knew perfectly well what she was saying and admitted it.

In what way do you disagree with me - I didn't write anything about the severity of the sentence, so you don't even know what I think.

Disproportionate punishment though growstuff.
We shall have to agree to disagree over this.