Grooming gangs gain the trust of their victims and then abuse them.
It seems they are not the only ones. On Wednesday, immediately before PMQs began, Mims Davies MP (Con) asked Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson:
‘Will the Minister confirm that those in their ivory towers in Whitehall can now be compelled to give evidence under oath on their actions and assumptions—including, vitally, senior civil servants, former Crown Prosecution Service employees, and previous Directors of Public Prosecutions?’Phillipson replied, ‘As the Home Secretary set out on Monday, anyone found to have been responsible for covering up or hiding vile crimes of child sexual abuse must and will be prosecuted.’
Similarly when announcing Sir Keir’s decision to call a statutory inquiry into organised rape gangs, a No 10 spokesperson said that it will go beyond merely considering the perpetrators:
‘By setting up a new inquiry under the inquiries act with statutory powers to compel witnesses, the local authorities and institutions who fail to act to protect young people will not be able to hide and will finally be held to account for their action.’Nevertheless there is scepticism about the depth of the new investigation, whose remit has not yet been made clear. The gangs in question tend/ed to operate in Labour-controlled authorities and Baroness Casey’s just-released report says that those who could have taken action earlier stayed their hand fearing accusations of racism and worrying about stoking community tensions. A full examination might reveal serious dereliction of duty by local police, social workers, councillors and constituency MPs.
Properly conducted, it could even lead into Whitehall itself. For example, as long ago as 2011, says Dominic Cummings, then at the Department of Education. Rotherham Council was asking the Department to help suppress revelations by The Times newspaper about sexual abuse and trafficking of children. To his credit Cummings and his boss Michael Gove resisted but Cummings says there were officials who were willing to take the other side.
The mainstream media, still read and watched by trusting millions, have also colluded. Two years ago Guardian columnist Owen Jones dismissed the grooming gang allegations - presumably in good faith but blinded by his political prejudices; now he denies that that he had said so. The BBC’s Emily Maitlis - that distinctive haircut in search of a fully-informed and impartial brain to sit on - recently smeared Rupert Lowe MP to his face as ‘probably racist’ for pointing the finger at Pakistani Muslims; what will she say now that Baroness Casey’s report has been published?
If as seems to have been its approach up to now the Labour Party places party above country it will wish to limit the terms of these fresh hearings. However we are now in the court of public opinion also. As YouTube commentator June Slater says, ‘the cat is out of the bag.’
Mr Lowe, who set up a crowdfunded independent inquiry when it became clear that the Government was trying to fudge things with locally-based and non-statutory explorations, now says he will continue with the project despite the PM’s U-turn. He will be looking to catch whatever the official inquiry tries to exclude.
Other disturbing aspects may come to light. The official failure to protect the young women may have had additional motivations besides fears of social and political embarrassment. If ‘Clarissa’ who wrote to ‘Granniopterix’ is telling the truth we could be uncovering a parallel system within the gangs of drug dealing and corruption; big money and tight mouths.
Claiming to be a victim of British Pakistani rapists in the early Seventies, ‘Clarissa’ alleges that Pakistani gangs were at that time also running drugs into Heathrow with the connivance of baggage handlers and ‘probably customs officers as well.’
Trust in our public institutions is in danger of breaking down. Full disclosure could be highly explosive.
And so to PMQs. ‘Macavity’ Starmer was not there: though returned from the G7 summit in Canada he was too busy meeting some footballers to face the music in Westminster’s “tribal shouting place.”
His role was taken by Deputy PM Angela Rayner, facing shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp for the Opposition. Their exchanges focused on the impending inquiry.
Philp said the victims he had met yesterday demanded that it be ‘independently led, has full statutory powers, and covers all 50 towns affected, including Bradford. They will also only have confidence in it if those who covered this up are prosecuted, foreign perpetrators are all deported, survivors are closely involved, and it is set up before the summer recess.’
Ms Rayner promised only the first two points - and to implement the Jay report - and thanked him ‘for his tone, and for putting the survivors and victims at the heart of his question.’ To some this might sound like ‘don’t look here, look over there.’
Then we had discussion of Sir Keir’s smearing campaigners as ‘jumping on a “far-right bandwagon”’ which Rayner spun as ‘specifically about Tory Ministers who sat for years in Government and did absolutely nothing about this scandal.’ We moved on to the boats, Rwanda and so on. Philp accused the Deputy PM as having a ‘brass neck’ and ‘cheek’; she is certainly tough.
Speaking of tone, Rayner or her scriptwriters have adopted Sir Keir’s bully-phrase ‘I gently say’ - she used it with three different people here. Just imagine what she might be like if she chose to!
After all the ‘point scoring’ Sarah Champion (Lab) pertinently raised the issue of rape gang victims being denied Government compensation ‘on bizarre technicalities.’ The Deputy PM said the three year time limit for civil court claims would be abolished and mentioned other measures to support survivors.
Support for staff and pupils at Bishop Challoner (independent) school - to shut because of the school fees VAT imposition - was not forthcoming: ‘taxpayers in this country should not be subsidising tax breaks for private schools.’ There is no tax relief on school fees and wealthy parents subsidise the State school system through their taxes without - until now - accessing places in it for their children; but we have another four years of this Government ahead and they have an overwhelming majority in Parliament; it is quite easy for a leadership to be tough under these circumstances. One wonders why Starmer makes any concessions at all; perhaps it is because the Party is looking beyond his reign.
Israel featured once again in this session and there needs to be some clarity in the public’s mind about what that nation faces.
Regarding Iran, Iranian-born activist Elica le Bon explains to ‘Triggernometry’ that among Shia Muslims there is a prophecy that when ‘the last drop of blood of Israel falls’ the twelfth Imam - hidden for over a thousand years so far - will return and establish permanent peace and justice. The sooner every Jew has been killed, the sooner will come the long-desired Millennium.
To this end Iran has sponsored terrorist movements against Israel, in Lebanon, Gaza and elsewhere. But if it can manage to make a nuclear-tipped missile its theocratic leadership will have no compunction about launching it at the Israelis.
Retaliation does not matter to the ardent faithful; what is death here - inevitable anyway - compared with forever in Heaven, to which martyrdom is a short cut? To understand the sensual delights of that Heaven, watch this video by Gaza Islamic scholar Ahmad Khadoura. What young man could resist such a vision?
In Gaza Hamas rules. Their 1988 Covenant quotes the Prophet as saying (Article Seven):
‘The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’Hamas’ later Charter of 2017 appears less anti-semitic. But even Wikipedia notes:
‘While some welcomed it as a sign of pragmatism and increased political maturity, and a potential step on the way to peace, many others dismissed it as a merely cosmetic effort designed to make Hamas sound more palatable while changing nothing about Hamas' underlying aims and methods.’Even in this Charter it says (Point 20): ‘Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.’ If there was any doubt, the atrocities of October 7 2023 have dispelled it.
‘Father of the House’ Sir Edward Leigh (Con) raised the issue of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank ‘which is simply leading to radicalisation and desperation throughout the region’ and Ms Rayner agreed that they were ‘appalling and completely unacceptable.’ Nevertheless she repeated the official British line calling for a ceasefire, the release of hostages (the taking of whom is forbidden under international law), resumption of aid into Gaza and the ‘two-state solution.’
Our secular Western politicians think they can impose secular solutions on a red-hot religious movement. Unless and until Islam has the Reformation called for by apostate Ayaan Hirsi Ali, we face in its extreme adherents deadly and implacable opponents of worldly Western values.
Let us demonstrate those values by cleaning house here with a full inquiry - several may be needed - and reinstating the rule of law without fear or favour.
