I don't want to make this party political, because clearly it isn't. Instead I want to make this personal.
Gordon Brown is a tit.
I have just watched yesterday's Prime ministers questions, in which he failed to agree with Ed Balls, the children's secretary, that it was not good for a department head to investigate whether their own department had failed.
Gordon Brown was crash in suggesting that David Cameron was making a party political point.
Gordon Brown kept saying that the executive summary of the self report or Haringey council had said that there were failures in the system, and those would be looked at.
The problem here is that the head of the department that potentially messed up not only commissioned but was heavily involved in a report which said her department did nothing wrong, and that there is a problem with the "system".
Is there? How come despite 60 visits over 8 months, no one spotted the abuse? The missing fingernails, fingertip, gauge to the head, broken ribs and broken back?
What system can there be that is so fool proof that if individuals fail to spot these things the system can be blamed?
The report also highlights the difficulties of "lying parents".You jest surely? If a parent abuses a child they will first of all lie to themselves, convincing themselves that what they are doing is not abuse, after that they will obviously lie to anyone else. very seldom will an abuser confess to a social worker.
At least Ed Balls has some balls and has called for an urgent inquiry. That said on Channel 4, whilst Michael Gove was broadly supportive of Ed Balls, Ed did refuse to answer the question, "are children safe in Haringey tonight?" Rather obviously no one could confidently say they were.
The BBC has the full PMQ's here, comment here and news of Ed Ball's inquiry here.
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3 comments:
It is a political issue though.
The reason Baby Peter died was because of an obsession with statistics that meant that it was more important to get him off the at risk register than to protect his life.
The mother was cooperating with this plan and therefore everything else was ignored.
Don't forget that the Ofsted report gives the social services a glowing report for reducing the numbers on the at risk register in the report they published in October, two months after Baby Peter died.
And it is precisely these sort of statistics that Gordon Brown loves to quote in the answer to any question, which is precisely why it is politcal issue, and why Gordon Brown was so keen on the Shoesmith report, because the last thing he wants is for the whole basis of his governemnt to be blown wide open, and child protection units actually to protect children.
Isn't the case of Baby P a prime example of why the death penalty should be brought back?
HARINGEY & ENFIELD
Come to visit Haringey and Enfield where the Race Equality Secret Service (RESS) is working locally to counter the promotion of Gun / Knife Crime and Domestic Violence that is the result of the activity of White Supremacist Racists in positions of trust, authority and POWER.
http://raceequalitysecretservice.blogspot.com/2009/10/ress-on-streets-haringey-enfield.html
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