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Whilst the failings of this current government over grooming gangs is pretty evident, the issue is more complex than the click bait headlines in some media outlets suggest and is being used by too many either as a political football or else to push the agendas of some before others. This is why some of the potential replacement chairs have turned down the position-something more than one of them have been quite candid about.
Jess Phillips has considerable experience in the area of abuse and not all victims involved in the inquiry say they want her gone. It is not that she does "not believe" those who have stepped away and demanded a new chair (as the right wing press particularly claim) but rather that she wanted this inquiry to be far more reaching in looking into Child ***ual Exploitation and abuse than being limited to looking into Pakistani Grooming Gangs alone.
The Independent online have a useful time-line of events leading up to where we are now which gives more nuance and context to it all (as well as showing that the Tory Party are extremely hypocritical when it comes to trying to shift the blame to the current government).
Had the recommendations of Prof. Alexis Jay's 2014 report into the Rotherham grooming gangs and that of the subsequent Inquiry launched by Theresa May been acted on far quicker then we would arguably not be where we are now and post 2015 victims may have been saved from abuse. And it wasn't Labour in power then. Both main political parties have been at fault here.
Jay's report was damming of police and council officers in the Rotherham case but whilst an increasing number of separate reports followed there was still a failure to implement her recommendations and more CSE grooming cases came to light in other areas of the country including Oxford and Telford. Whilst the involvement of those of Pakistani heritage in over-all CSE or abuse cases was no higher than any other ethnicities, it was plain, however, that when it came to grooming gangs their association was undeniable. In 2023, Suella Braverman again pointed this out and faced criticism for doing so but not just by those "lefties" whose woke attitudes made them blind to reality (as her supporters suggested was the case) but also by the NCPCC who argued that focusing just on race would create "blind spots" allowing other forms of abuse to continue. I think that where were are now is the latter argument re-emerging rather than Phillips "not believing" certain victims of grooming gangs.
The 2024 report into CSE Asian grooming gangs in Rochdale over the 2004-2013 period pretty much echoed Jay's 2014 report into Asian grooming gangs in Rotherham between 1997-2013 and was similarly damming of Police and Council officers. Despite several post 2014 reports saying that improvements had been made by both Police and local councils, this added fuel to the fire when published in January 2024 which then led to Labour being pushed to set up yet another Public Inquiry-the current one.
Labour may have been reluctant to launch another (very expensive) public inquiry because, frankly, previous ones had covered the ground on Asian grooming gangs already and the appalling failings were largely down to the dragging of feet when it came to implementing the recommendations of their reports. Given the public outcry, however, the government had little choice but to launch another inquiry but (doubtless influenced by Phillips and the NCPCC) wanted to broaden its reach to cover other aspects of CSE and abuse other than just Pakistani grooming gangs.
This is my reading of the situation, not that the victims of such grooming gangs are being ignored but that they are not the sole focus of the current inquiry and, after all, why shouldn't all aspects of Child ***ual Exploitation or abuse be investigated? The main take away is that whilst all these inquiries and reports have gone on into grooming gangs over the past ten years or so, vulnerable young girls have continued to fall victim to them because real actions had not been taken sooner. Trying to score political points out of the issue rather than all parties working together to stop all kinds of CSE and abuse is a sad incitement of those involved in doing so.
Originally Posted by Omegstrat6
