Author Archives: Clare Sambrook

The Independent View: Child detention – mind the gap between rhetoric and reality

‘Today marks a big culture shift within our immigration system,’ said Nick Clegg two weeks ago, announcing plans purporting to end child detention. ‘That practice, the practice we inherited, ends here,’ he said.

Sadly, it didn’t end there.

Liberal Democrats interested in these matters might take a look at two dossiers of evidence compiled by End Child Detention Now and published on openDemocracy.

Mind the Gap! Coalition claims and realities for child detention in the UK tests the new ‘compassionate approach to family returns’ as expressed in government documents released on December 16

Drawing on evidence elsewhere, for instance an HMIP report on …

Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged | 18 Comments

The Independent View: Please make sure they really do end child detention

Liberal Democrats are understandably confused about whether child detention is ending or not.

Nick Clegg got the commitment to end child detention into the Coalition Agreement. Only last Thursday Sarah Teather promised: ‘Rest assured. It will be done.’ She also said: ‘We have to be careful not to rush into this as we are dealing with the safety and well-being of often vulnerable children and it is essential it is done properly.’

Quite how children’s safety might be served by not rushing to end a practice proven to wreck their lives is a mystery that suggests leading Liberal Democrats have been

Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged , , , and | 26 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • Chris Cory
    @Richard Whelan. You speak the truth. There is no compelling narrative. People feel that we represent a sort of middle of the road, a tweak here and a tweak ...
  • Chris Cory
    Clearly NS is a complex character and as such is capable of great kindness. I remember reading that when David Cameron’s father was taken ill in the South ...
  • Peter Davies
    @Peter water companies are generally geographically split according to the centres of population supplied not the areas from which it is extracted. They dispose...
  • Barry Rhodes
    Caron this is such an accurate account of the all talk show. Iain Dale is such a great interviewer bringing out the best in anyone he interviews. I agree...
  • Peter Martin
    @ Peter, " If you treat (supply of water and sewage disposal) as one industry and structure it to provide the commodity, the real problem will not get f...