Grooming Scandals & Cover-ups

 Editorial Note:   Normally we at Northern Voices are uneasy about publishing anonymous comments and accounts, because they clearly do not in the nature of things carry the level of credibility of a signed authorised opinion.  And yet, we feel obliged to give space to the views expressed below about 'voting irregularities' in Rochdale even though we have no way of authenticating the details expressed.  When the Smith case was considered by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in the 1970s, it is said that it was decided that it was not in the public interest to pursue the matter.   Similarly in the light of current publicity about more cases of Asian grooming gangs in Huddersfield following earlier cases in Rochdale and Rotherham etc, it would seem that local authorities have been guilty of what we would describe as aspect blindness, and what others have entitled 'political correctness'.  For this reason we publish the unverified text by the anonymous author below.

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Anonymous said...

Voting irregularities are rife in this town.  My partner who is of South East Asian extraction knows of friends who only know how they have voted when their husbands tell them ( or not as the case may be) how they filled the postal vote form in.  Criminal prosecutions would be the result anywhere else but Rochdale.  Why does this kind of behaviour go unchallenged by the authorities I wonder?

In this town there is a proactive dysfunctional culture of wilful denial of inconvenient facts - a culture that allowed monsters like Smith to go unchallenged for decades and the Grooming Scandal to be allowed, then ignored - with a collective 'blind eye' being turned yet again - with a collective cognitive dissonance by the guilty, and complicit to allow the same abysmally piss-poor services to then make warped claims that because they are no longer as criminally incompetent and negligent at delivering basic service standards that they have as a result achieved some kind of magnificent improvement as a consequence.

I suspect there is so much more to be exposed in the political cess-pit that Rochdale has become ?

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Doncaster Bin-men's Strike called-off!

 Report from Rotherham Advertiser  

by Michael Upton | 22/08/2017

PLANNED strikes by dustmen in Doncaster which were due to begin tomorrow have been called off after a last minute pay offer was agreed.

But officials from trade union Unite warned that further industrial action was likely if an agreement is not reached with the private contractor 'Suez' over proposals to make over 100 of the 250 strong workforce redundant.

The workforce will receive a two per cent increase backdated to April 2017 and a further 2.7 per cent increase from September 2017.
Workers will see their pay further boosted with an additional 2.7 per cent increase earmarked for March 2018 brought forward and paid from September 2017.

The overall pay increase means that workers will be on average £1 an hour better off.
It was further agreed that during the lifetime of the contract the workforce will receive an annual pay increase equal to RPIx.

The redundancies are linked to a new refuse and recycling contract tendered by Doncaster Council, which is due to begin in April 2018.
Unite said it was determined to minimise job losses and an “absolute red line” for the union was that Suez removed the threat to make workers compulsorily redundant.
Strike action had been scheduled to begin tomorrow and run until Sunday, with another walkout planned from September 2 to 6.

Talks will begin at arbitration service Acas on Friday to allow for detailed negotiations to take place to discuss the new Doncaster refuse contract which will include “different collection methodologies, frequencies and collection crews”.

Unite regional officer, Shane Sweeting, said: “This deal has dramatically improved the wages of our members and means many of them are being paid above poverty pay rates for the first time.

“Residents of Doncaster will be relieved that their refuse collection will not be seriously disrupted by strike action this week.

“However until Suez withdraws the threat to make over 100 refuse workers compulsorily redundant the possibility of industrial action this autumn remains very much on the table.”

Nick Browning, of Suez, said: “In addition to securing a pay award for 2017, the long-term deal also sets in place a sustainable pay mechanism for up to ten years — linked to the cost of living.
“We would like to thank the residents of Doncaster for their patience and understanding while these negotiations have been ongoing.”

www.rotherhamadvertiser.co.uk/news/view,bin-strikes-averted-as-union-strikes-deal-with-waste-firm_23565.htm

Open-up on Orgreave!

THE Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign has asked that the new interim chief constable of South Yorkshire Police, Dave Jones, open up the force's archives into the police action at the Orgreave coking plant during the 1984 miners' strike .

The challenge from the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign came the day after Dave Jones marked the moment he took over temporary control of the South Yorkshire force by offering to listen to the activists, as well as families of the 96 people who died in the Hillsborough disaster.

The Yorkshire Post news correspondent, Mark Casci, reported today: 

'Campaign secretary Barbara Jackson said they will take up Mr Jones's offer but said they did not want it to be a "token gesture".  Mrs Jackson said they want the chief constable to intervene in their legal bid to push Home Secretary Theresa May to hold a public inquiry into the events at Orgreave 32 years ago. '

This call from campaigners comes on the heals of the findings in the Hillsborough inquest last week which found that the South Yorkshire Police had lied and fabricated evidence.

The events of the 'Battle of Orgreave' came to symbolise the 1984 Miner's strike.   It took place at a coking plant on the borders of Rotherham and Sheffield, when large numbers of pickets were confronted by around 6,000 police from all around the UK.

A total of 95 miners were charged following the disturbances but their trial collapsed.

British 'Torrent of Rapes' in international media

THIS week both Rochdale and Rotherham featured in the International New York Times.  This was not the first time as the sexual exploitation of youngsters has been getting internation coverage and these northern towns have come to the attention of major media outlets.

On Monday the International New York Times's journalist Katrin Bennhold wrote:
'The recent revelations that at least 1,400 teenage and preteenage girls had been sexually exploited over 16 years by so-called grooming gangs in another northern English city, Rotherham, stunned the nation because of the sheer scale of the abuse.  And it put an uncomfortable spotlight on issues of race, religion and ethnicity in an increasingly multicultural nation:  Nearly all of the rape suspects are Pakistani men, and nearly all the victims are white.'

It seems that the problem and the slow law-enforcement response is not limited to Rotherham and Rochdale.   In nearby Sheffield, a local official has accused the police of ignoring data she passed along over the past decade, including addresses where she said abuse was taking place and names of those suspected of abuse.  The police and prosecutors say they are now pursuing cases more aggressively across the country, including in Manchester, where about 180 suspects are under investigation.

Katrin Bennhold writes:
'In a country already fiercely debating issues of immigration and national identity, the cases have prompted anti-Muslim demonstrations by far-right groups and some soul-searching generally. Why do British-Pakistani men figure so prominently? Were they deliberately targeting white girls and staying away from their own community? Did police and local officials turn a blind eye for fear of being accused of racism, losing votes among immigrant groups or stoking the kinds of tensions that have unleashed periodic rioting in other British towns?' 
Simon Bailey from the Association of Chief Police Officers has warned of 'many more Rotherhams to come'.

Fiona Woolf quits abuse enquiry

FIONA Woolf resigned as Chair of the government's sex abuse enquiry last night.  She has been under attack for days about her links to former Home Secretary Leon Brittan.  Last night she said that perhaps the government will find 'a hermit' somewhere to lead the enquiry.

Today, the Daily Mail a critic of Fiona Woolf and her predecessor in the post Lady Butler-Sloss, offered its own suggestions as to who may be in line to lead the enquiry (see below):

WHO'S NEXT IN LINE? 

Following the resignations of two sex abuse inquiry chairman in just four months, several names were last night being mentioned as possible replacements. They include:

 Professor Alexis Jay, who carried out the recent inquiry into how the authorities ignored widespread sex abuse in Rotherham. She is already an adviser but could be bumped up to chairman. However, is not a lawyer.

 Michael Mansfield, the campaigning QC who has played a significant role in high profile inquests and court cases involving such controversial issues as Bloody Sunday and the death of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, shot dead by the Met Police after being mistaken for a terrorist.

 Jim Gamble, the former senior police officer and exhead of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP). However, he fell out with Theresa May over bringing CEOP within the National Crime Agency.

 Esther Rantzen, the former presenter of That’s Life and Hearts of Gold, who founded and ran the child protection charity ChildLine. A long-standing campaigner on behalf of child abuse victims.

Our readers must decide who they fancy from this lot.

Smears in Rotherham & Rochdale

LABOUR in Rotherham has condemned the remarks of the Ukip candidate, Nathan Garbutt, as an 'unfounded smears'.  Mr Garbutt had accused Labour of protecting 'paedophiles in Rotherham' and of homophobia.

Garbutt in a statement in PinkNews.co.uk wrote;
'I have been called homophoic [sic] by the Labour party simply for being part of UKIP, imagine how twisted a mindset has to be to accuse gay man of homophobia? The good news is the public are seeing past Labour lies and I am delighted to be the first UKIP candidate to oppose Yvette Cooper in my home town at next years general election.'

Garbutt also wrote:
'...according to the Sun, senior officials in the Labour Party have been left ‘stunned’ by the recent surge in the popularity of UKIP.The decision to hold our annual gathering in Doncaster is a direct challenge to Ed Miliband on his home turf, and Labour should be worried the public are angry at Labours [sic] protection of paedophiles in Rotherham.'

In Rochdale it is the Labour Party brothers and sisters who issue the smears against each other.  Last weekend, at a trade union meeting another unsupported story was circulated suggesting that the former leader of the Rochdale Council, Colin Lambert, had fallen-out with Jim Dobbin, MP for Heywood and Middleton, shortly before Jim died.  The editor of Northern Voices spoke to Mr Dobbin shortly before his death earlier this month and there was no suggestion that there was any animosity between him and Colin Lambert.  After this story was put out last weekend we have approached others both inside the Labour Party and beyond, and can find no evidence to support it. 

It is yet more evidence of what Private Eye has called the fratricide that exists between the members of the constituency of Heywood and Middleton, and the Simon Danczuk's neighboring constituency  of Rochdale.  In the Rochdale Labour Party there is a kind of never ending in-house smear campaign.  It's a right old Punch and Judy show up here. 

Rotherham: Those who looked the other way?

THE Home Secretary, Theresa May, has said that social workers, council bosses and police chiefs who failed to act to prevent the Rotherham sex abuse scandal ought to resign.  This follows a damning report produced by Professor Alexis Jay. 

Mrs May has said:
'I’ve seen the horrific cases they have looked into where young girls were the victims of the most appalling sexual exploitation and threats of violence, grooming and abuse and yet their calls for help went unheeded by the council or the police. I think everybody needs to look at the role they played in this and their position.'

Among those identified for failing in their responsibilities are Shaun Wright, South Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner, who has so far refused to resign despite holding responsibility for children’s services on Rotherham council, and Joyce Thacker, head of the council’s children’s services.  Mr. Wright has resigned from the Labour Party after leading figures in the party told him he ought to give up his current job, but he has so far refused to resign his current position as police and crime commissioner.


Mr Wright, who was elected to the £85,000-a-year commissioner’s post in 2012, having previously served as a Labour councillor with responsibility for children’s services, said on Wednesday that he had no idea about the   'industrial scale' of the abuse that had taken place.


Prof Jay, for her part has insisted that, given her findings that 'nobody could say "I didn’t know".'


Others who will be challenged for their alleged roles in the scandal include:
Paul Laker, a Labour councillor; Jahangir Akhtar, the former deputy leader of Rotherham council; Dr Sonia Sharp, the director of children’s services between 2005 and 2008; and Diane Billups, the council’s director of education and head of children’s services between 2001 and 2005.


Mr. Laker, a former steel-worker, a cabinet member for children's services since 2010 and deputy council leader is claiming that he had only recently grasped the 'depth and breadth' of the sex abuse problem in Rotherham.  Mr. Akhtar, another former deputy leader of the council, was temporarily forced out of office after claims that he was aware of a relationship between one of his own relatives and a 14-year-old girl.  The police cleared him of any wrongdoing after an investigation, and he lost his seat on the council last May.  Mrs. Billups has since retired, and Dr. Sharp now works in a department of education in Austrialia.  Joyce Thacker, 56, is currently on £115,000-a-year as director of children and young people's services; she was in charge four years ago when five Asian men were convicted of raping three girls as young as 12. 


Ms. Thacker has said by way of explanation and justification:
'I would put the responsibility back on the parents. It is their duty to protect their children and keep them safe.  We couldn't be with them 24-hours a day.'

Yesterday, the former MP for Rotherham, Denise MacShane, was more straight-forward in accepting that he should have done more.  On BBC News Mr. MacShane said:
'I should have burrowed into this.  Perhaps, yes, as a true Guardian reader and a liberal leftie I suppose, I didn't want to rock the boat I didn't want to raise that too hard.'

It seems that Mr. MacShane has previously admitted that he, like other politicians, had feared losing Muslim votes if he aired 'the dirty secrets about bad practices in the Kashmiri Muslim community'.

We must wait to see if this mentality is more widespread among the politicians in our northern town halls.

Orwell Prize for breaking Rotherham Grooming Scandal

LAST week, Andrew Norfolk in The Times journalist instrumental in breaking the Rotherham grooming scandal won the Orwell Prize for journalism jointly with Tom Bergin of Reuters press agency. He recently won the Paul Foot Award for investigative journalism.
His submitted articles:
Police files reveal vast child protection scandal

Care home children sent North to save cash

A nations shame: hundreds of girls sexually abused by networks of men.

‘Asians pick me up. They get me drunk, they give me drugs and have sex with me. I want to move’.

Children’s homes ‘powerless’ to protect the vulnerable from predatory sex gangs.