Keir Starmer announces statutory inquiry into so called grooming gangs/organised child sexual abuse and exploitation

Reading through the Fullfact link supplied by Alira, Discussed before, the Naz Shah tweet 'white girls need to shut up in the interests of diversity' something along those lines, allegedly retweeted from a parody account. I realise public personas would get umpteen of these sent, but really! Don't they read the frigging load of bollocks first before retweeting, the consequences of which were hugely damaging and leaves the disquiet as to whether at best, was she merely being slapdash or at worst was she endorsing the very sentiments that have fanned the flames of how these ongoing crimes were intentionally ignored?

Allira

Primrose53

Oldwoman70

I am in full support of an enquiry - hopefully we will get a better result than the usual "lessons have been learned"

let’s hope Starmer resigns when the whole truth comes out and shows just how much he knew about what was going on. Most of the towns where this abuse went on are Labour towns and he didn’t want to upset the Muslim voters.

I'll attempt to reply more politely than previous replies to your post, but basically saying the same thing, Primrose.
This link gives the facts.

fullfact.org/online/starmer-muslim-grooming-prosecution-crime/

Thank you for posting that Allira. I hope people read it. It's more or less the same as the BBC Verify link I posted.

It helps to look at facts. Hopefully the enquiry will do that, and arrive at some helpful conclusions.
Some people, of course, already " know " everything, including the fact that Mr Starmer was in some way complicit and refused to act.
Who needs an enquiry when posters on GN can inform you of what you need to know?
We could save a fortune..

yanda

Lafegar...I don't admire TR or think he's blessed if that's what you think...just saying there was some truth in what he said.

Of course there was some truth. Even stopped clocks are right twice a day. No right-minded person would support the grooming gangs, so TR picked up on an issue for his own agenda, which he knew people would find abhorrent. Given the history of some of his followers, I would be surprised if he cares one jot about the victims of sexual abuse. All he wanted was a stick with which to hit Muslims.

Chocolatelovinggran

It helps to look at facts. Hopefully the enquiry will do that, and arrive at some helpful conclusions.
Some people, of course, already " know " everything, including the fact that Mr Starmer was in some way complicit and refused to act.
Who needs an enquiry when posters on GN can inform you of what you need to know?
We could save a fortune..

Aaaaahhh! If only ....

yanda

Lafegar...I don't admire TR or think he's blessed if that's what you think...just saying there was some truth in what he said.

The job of the Public Prosecutor is to decide whether there is enough evidence and enough people who are prepared to give that evidence in court and swear that it is true to make a case. If those involved refuse to give evidence, or change their story when questioned closely, then the defence lawyers will produce a case which will cause a jury to believe the accused.

The head of the Public Prosecution Service has many potential cases under his control, and relies on the report from the police in making his decision. If the police were unable to gather enough reliable witnesses to make a case, then time and money will be spent parading sketchy evidence against the accused, they would be acquitted by a jury who could only go on what they heard in court.

Growstuff....yes indeed he may not have cared a jot about the victims of the sexual abuse but noone else did either did they?The people who knew about it did nothing in fear of being label a racist.

Having seen what happened in Southport when people thought they knew that the man who murdered the children was an immigrant, fuelled by people with a racist agenda, I'm not surprised if there was reluctance to point out the race of the abusers.

As has been said, not all data collection included race, so again, it's not surprising that dots may not have been joined.

A willingness to assume motives to others is rarely helpful, but as people are often ready and willing to do so, ('he was scared of X', 'they didn't want to offend Y', they didn't want to be labelled Z') it's also unsurprising that we are where we are.

I hope this enquiry can reach a conclusion, but suspect that a paucity of evidence, and too much speculation and scaremongering will get in the way. As we can see from this thread, it has started already, and things are not under way yet.

yanda

Growstuff....yes indeed he may not have cared a jot about the victims of the sexual abuse but noone else did either did they?The people who knew about it did nothing in fear of being label a racist.

But they did care a jot! Some people were wimps and used being labelled a racist as an excuse. I hope we never have to rely on scumbags like Tommy Robinson to direct policy in this country.

Doodledog TR helped fuel the reaction in Southport. It's mind-blowing that some people seem to think he's some kind of hero.

And I agree with you that speculation and scaremongering gets in the way. It seems some people just can't keep their inner racism down.

noone else did either did they?

Many people care and cared.

That man is no hero

Far right campaigner Tommy Robinson put a child sex ring case in jeopardy by “aggressively” confronting the defendants and risking scaring them away from attending the trial, it is alleged

Not sure the concept of heroes and villains it that helpful in this.

Galaxy

Not sure the concept of heroes and villains it that helpful in this.

Tell that to Tommy Robinson and his followers!

Quite clearly not but when somebody asserts that a certain individual was the only person to draw attention to abuse, there is a danger that some people will regard said individual as a hero.

I mean obviously the men who raped children were villians that goes without saying.
Sometimes there are difficult things that need to be talked about, and saying them doesn't mean people are scapegoating a community. As Iam64 mentioned upthread men commit the majority of child sex abuse, we can say this hopefully without 'not all men', there were serious safeguarding problems within the Catholic Church again not a slur on all catholics, women shoplift at a high rate, that information does not cause me to feel responsible for shoplifting. And so on.

Lafegar....I didn't say TR was the only person to draw attention to the abuse...I actually said he was one of the first to do so. I was listening to a debate on the TV and it was mentioned. I couldn't care less about him to be honest I certainly don't consider him to be a hero. It's a pity if you say many people did care that the abuse went on for so long to so many .

In what way was he one of the first? Andrew Norfolk?

Pointless discussing this.

It complex and emotional. And of course terribly terribly sad for the victims.

yanda

Lafegar....I didn't say TR was the only person to draw attention to the abuse...I actually said he was one of the first to do so. I was listening to a debate on the TV and it was mentioned. I couldn't care less about him to be honest I certainly don't consider him to be a hero. It's a pity if you say many people did care that the abuse went on for so long to so many .

I actually said he was one of the first to do so
Perhaps you might like to educate yourself.
Andrew Norfolk.

www.durham.ac.uk/news-events/latest-news/2025/05/uk-prime-minister-leads-tributes-to-durham-alumnus-who-exposed-uk-grooming-gangs/

Someone pointed out on another forum that Robinson was right. Completely oblivious to the fact that he encourages misogyny in his followers.

"Pointless discussing this" Why? It's been covered up for too long. I perceive the problem there is it's an uncomfortable truth and those who find it such, just want it to go away. Terribly, terribly sad doesn't really do it. There were some victims and members of their families who were murdered, it's far bigger than a bit sad.

yanda

Lafegar....I didn't say TR was the only person to draw attention to the abuse...I actually said he was one of the first to do so. I was listening to a debate on the TV and it was mentioned. I couldn't care less about him to be honest I certainly don't consider him to be a hero. It's a pity if you say many people did care that the abuse went on for so long to so many .

But he wasn't one of the first.

petra

yanda

Lafegar....I didn't say TR was the only person to draw attention to the abuse...I actually said he was one of the first to do so. I was listening to a debate on the TV and it was mentioned. I couldn't care less about him to be honest I certainly don't consider him to be a hero. It's a pity if you say many people did care that the abuse went on for so long to so many .

I actually said he was one of the first to do so
Perhaps you might like to educate yourself.
Andrew Norfolk.

www.durham.ac.uk/news-events/latest-news/2025/05/uk-prime-minister-leads-tributes-to-durham-alumnus-who-exposed-uk-grooming-gangs/

Thank you for that petra. I couldn't remember the man's name, but I remember him.

Galaxy

I mean obviously the men who raped children were villians that goes without saying.
Sometimes there are difficult things that need to be talked about, and saying them doesn't mean people are scapegoating a community. As Iam64 mentioned upthread men commit the majority of child sex abuse, we can say this hopefully without 'not all men', there were serious safeguarding problems within the Catholic Church again not a slur on all catholics, women shoplift at a high rate, that information does not cause me to feel responsible for shoplifting. And so on.

Nobody should be scapegoating a whole community, but unfortunately that's exactly what happens.

And we help to avoid that by being open about the subject, because the reluctance to talk about the issues has made any scapegoating even more likely.