Wednesday 1 October 2014

Child Sexual Exploitation for 'Political Gain' or 'Personal Profit'?

Who is exploiting sexual grooming?
LAST Friday The Guardian reported that 'the father of the main prosecution witness in Britain's biggest child grooming scandal' had accused Nigel Farage of exploiting the issue for 'political gain' in his party's attempt to 'unseat Labour' in the Heywood and Middleton by-election.  In The Guardian piece the father was given the name 'Tom' to protect his daughter

Heywood in Greater Manchester was the centre of yet another Rochdale scandal in which a sexual trafficing gang of men of mostly Pakistani origin were found to have exploited at least 47 young white girls.  Mr. Farage in a leaflet distributed around the  constituency blamed the Labour Party for its 'love affair' with 'immigration, political correctness and multiculturalism' for betraying the 'white working-class girls'.

It is known that Simon Danczuk, Labour MP for the neighbouring constituency of Rochdale, has had contact with one of the fathers of one of the victims of the earlier sexual abuse grooming scandal which led to the prosecution of nine Asian men in 2012.  Mr. Danczuk has also claimed that a culture existed in Rochdale which allowed these activities to flourish.  Judging from the contents of his book 'Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith' that he and his fellow author Mat. Baker are pushing at the Rochdale Literature & Ideas Festival, he still believes in this narrative.

This book by Danzcuk shows that Mr. Danzcuk has some skills not only in the realm of Victorian melodrama, but in the ability to get other people to utter statements that fit his own narrative. 

The Guardian report states:  'Tom was moved to speak to the Guardian about Ukip’s tactics after receiving the leaflets through this door.'  [and] 'To heap blame on “political correctness” did not fully explain the many reasons why the abuse was allowed to continue, he said.'

'Tom' the father of the girl, concluded:  'Its a complex issue about the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and social services, all turning a blind eye.  It’s not all about political correctness, although it was a factor.'

The Guardian story notes:  'Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale who has campaigned for greater transparency around child sex abuse, has been drafted in to help.'

Mr. Danczuk declares:  'Ukip are a genuine threat and people across the party are working hard to fight them street by street...'

The problem here is that Simon Danczuk, with all the money he has made from the serialisation of his book by of all newspapers the Daily Mail, could also be accused of making hay out of exploiting child sexual grooming for both political gain and personal profit.  Certainly when I spoke to the former Labour MP for Heywood and Middleton, Jim Dobbin, some weeks before he died he told me that the whole thing 'had become a money making exercise', and he wasn't referring just to the book that had been published but to the serialisation in the Daily Mail by Danczuk and Baker.

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