Remarkably, local officials and police don't think a public enquiry into their lack of interest in the rape gangs is necessary?. It was only the actions of a few women that helped raise the profile of the abuse in the first place. If the apologists shut down the questioning, the message it will send to present and future abusers is "you carry on, we won't stop you". And the public anger will grow, and the extremists on all sides will milk it for all it's worth.

Still miss him [Link]

I actually quite like the new Spurs ground it achieves quite a hard thing the ability not to seem enormous even though it is, very well designed

Tamworth have a proper football ground unlike the modern monstrosity their opponents have.

Go Pack Go

Or Peru šŸ˜€

Youā€™ll be telling me next that Paddington Bear didnā€™t really come from Chile all the way to England

RK - re your moral, I would say that I am not happy with history being rewritten by anybody.

My dad was on the Artic convoys, nearly lost his ears when going ashore in Archangel in Russia without his ear muffs

Maybe you should listen to Maggie Oliver Oi !

Who was that crazy Republican who thought the commies were the enemy in WW2? She was entertaining.

Padd, the Nazis were violently opposed to commumists and were often attacked in beer halls and streets. Moreover many were taken to concentration camps and executed. Landowners and businesses joined the Nazis mainlt bwcause tje Communists desired public ownership of all assets

collins - itā€™s definitely the case that there are some officers and officials who have questions to answerā€¦. It would probably take another 5-7 years or something, and probably cost tens of millions of pounds (Johnson would hate that!), but surely something needs to happen so that a line can then hopefully be drawn under it, plus it should act as a warning to anyone in future, who should know that thereā€™s no hiding placeā€¦.

Experts in the police say they don't want a new public enquiry they want action. Experts in such enquiries say that local enquiries work better, Telford is generally seen as a success story. The victims in Telford seem to believe that they are supported and still listened to. However politicians and foreign billionaires clearly know better than the people involved.

OI - the point of a public, not local enquiry, is that witnesses can be compelled to attend and answer questions. Members of the police and local authorities , and politicians who for years ignored the abuse will have to answer for their inaction, and explain it. The idea that it's 'kinder' to the victims to avoid a proper inquiry into the actions of the authorities looks like hoping the problem will go away.

Red Kite - from last night re Hitler's Germany- things are far subtler than you allow. At my north London grammar school in the sixties there was a large number of Jewish teachers and pupils. Our Jewish teacher of History 'O' Level made a big point of the 'socialist' aspect of National Socialism. She herself voted Liberal. All the history teachers told us how they voted, correctly believing it influenced their teaching. Several of us on here benefited from what was the best free education ever in this country.

OI - exactly, and people like Musk spreading misinformation really does nothing whatsoever to help the poor victims of these crimes šŸ˜’

Youngsters wonā€™t know who Steve Stride and Raj Parker are, up to us to keep the memory alive however painful

Only just seen Steve Strideā€™s post on Twitter from the other day, absolutely brilliant, well done to all the Wombles who commented, spat my tea out, fucking brilliantly funny, never forgive, never forget šŸ’™šŸ’›šŸ’™šŸ’›

Nobody is saying there shouldn't be investigations, the police should be investigating everywhere there are reports of grooming. Almost nobody is saying there shouldn't be enquiries but as the person who led the Telford one commented, it being a local enquiry meant he could talk much more easily with the victims in a non-stressful environment whereas a public enquiry would come with a lot of bureaucracy and many victims would decline to engage.

Morning all. It's cold, so here's an SW19 update - [Link]

On this day, an easy one! John Hartson

Anybody else have a power cut in the sw18 area during the night?had a mess on phone saying it was off bloody door bell went off at 2am

TBK (late reply from last night) - you are certainly right on your point, so I will say no more on that topic..

All grooming and child abuse cases should be investigated, not just those perpetrated by brown people - itā€™s a pity that a certain Boris Johnson said in 2019 that he thought investigating them was a waste of moneyā€¦. ā€œOne comment I would make is that I think an awful lot of the money, an awful lot of police time, now goes into these historic offences and all this malarkey - Ā£60m I saw was being spaffed up the wall on some investigation into historic child abuse and all this kind of thing. What on earth is that going to do to protect the public now?ā€ Maybe money and resources into these investigations got cut after his comments, and maybe thereā€™s been some covering up too (quite likely), and a certain amount of sheer incompetence too it seems. Anyone involved in any cover up should be prosecuted, and if the victims want further investigations, there should be more - theyā€™re the ones who actually matter. However, the implementation of the recommendations of the reports produced so far shouldnā€™t be delayed because of new investigations, they should happen right away. I suspect that if the victims had been posh girls from wealthy backgrounds, rather than mostly from poorer and disadvantaged homes, the whole thing might have been handled rather differentlyā€¦ šŸ¤”