This is a quickie - I was challenged by a friend and reader when I referred to “industrial rape gangs” on Twitter, so this is by way of a defence of that usage.
I appreciate your boldness and strength in defending this.
I would say sexual predation- and especially the billion dollar organized sex-trade- is one of the ugliest and most under-highlighted "causalities" of our "Modernity Myth" (that everything is getting better, now).
With the emptiness of godlessness (to use my own brazenly old-fashioned term), we are left with the oldest, basest human passions. I personally believe (without having done the research; I'm open to being wrong), the vastness and horror of the global sex-trade is under-reported and under-appreciated at a popular level, because invariably the power-holders and news-makers, they are beneficiaries of these "services."
Bluntly: all powerful men, they use the sex trade themselves.
Anyway.
Kudos for going where Christian's aught to be, boldly, in our care for the most vulnerable.
No recommendations were implemented by the previous government & the current government have begun to implement some. I can't see that another statutory inquiry will achieve much at this stage: I think it'll only serve to delay the issue & do little to help victims.
You make it very clear that it is hard to provide precise data: it is. I think one of the recommendations of the Jay inquiry is to do this: then we can support the use of 'industrial'- I submit now that that term isn't helpful: it tends to inflame & make this a political football. It doesn't help victims & it doesn't advance prosecutions.
It is clear from what has already emerged that there was some collision: the Jay report makes it clear. I think the Rotherham issue will eventually show significant historical abuse & failings (although the Jay report makes it clear).
I'd submit that the current furore is driven a lot by political rhetoric and has elevated into the level of a moral panic.
I submit that we need clear thinking, prosecutions, implementation of the Jay report, encouragement of whistle blowers etc to come forth etcetera.
Were we living in better version of Britain, I would agree with you, but it is clear that this was just more of the Westminster sport of kicking issues into the long grass.
Jay's report is quite hard-hitting, but it will never be implemented because too many institutions were at fault.
I think the exchange between Tim Montogmerie and Lucy Powell on Any Questions sums it up:
Montgomerie: “I don’t know if you saw that documentary on Channel 4 about rape gangs?“
Lucy Powell: “Oh, we want to blow that little trumpet now, do we? Let’s get that dog whistle out, shall we, yeah?“
I appreciate your boldness and strength in defending this.
I would say sexual predation- and especially the billion dollar organized sex-trade- is one of the ugliest and most under-highlighted "causalities" of our "Modernity Myth" (that everything is getting better, now).
With the emptiness of godlessness (to use my own brazenly old-fashioned term), we are left with the oldest, basest human passions. I personally believe (without having done the research; I'm open to being wrong), the vastness and horror of the global sex-trade is under-reported and under-appreciated at a popular level, because invariably the power-holders and news-makers, they are beneficiaries of these "services."
Bluntly: all powerful men, they use the sex trade themselves.
Anyway.
Kudos for going where Christian's aught to be, boldly, in our care for the most vulnerable.
-mb
We've had a national inquiry & it reported less than 3 years ago:-
https://www.iicsa.org.uk/reports-recommendations/publications/inquiry/final-report.html
No recommendations were implemented by the previous government & the current government have begun to implement some. I can't see that another statutory inquiry will achieve much at this stage: I think it'll only serve to delay the issue & do little to help victims.
You make it very clear that it is hard to provide precise data: it is. I think one of the recommendations of the Jay inquiry is to do this: then we can support the use of 'industrial'- I submit now that that term isn't helpful: it tends to inflame & make this a political football. It doesn't help victims & it doesn't advance prosecutions.
It is clear from what has already emerged that there was some collision: the Jay report makes it clear. I think the Rotherham issue will eventually show significant historical abuse & failings (although the Jay report makes it clear).
I'd submit that the current furore is driven a lot by political rhetoric and has elevated into the level of a moral panic.
I submit that we need clear thinking, prosecutions, implementation of the Jay report, encouragement of whistle blowers etc to come forth etcetera.
Were we living in better version of Britain, I would agree with you, but it is clear that this was just more of the Westminster sport of kicking issues into the long grass.
Jay's report is quite hard-hitting, but it will never be implemented because too many institutions were at fault.
I think the exchange between Tim Montogmerie and Lucy Powell on Any Questions sums it up:
Montgomerie: “I don’t know if you saw that documentary on Channel 4 about rape gangs?“
Lucy Powell: “Oh, we want to blow that little trumpet now, do we? Let’s get that dog whistle out, shall we, yeah?“