Tag Archives: rotherham

Labour hang on in South Yorkshire – my guilty part

By Joe Otten | Fri 31st October 2014 - 4:19 pm

Labour have retained the post of Police and Crime Commissioner, following the resignation of Shaun Wright, with 50.02% of first preferences ahead of UKIP on 31.66% with a turnout of 14%. The Liberal Democrats did not stand a candidate.

The campaign was dominated by the issue of the child sexual exploitation scandal in Rotherham, with UKIP accused of crassly exploiting the issue for their own political ends, and Labour accused of being responsible for the authorities that failed those children. Both accusations have merit, though in my book failing to protect 1600 children is worse than crass politicking. I’m not suggesting that Labour’s policy was to fail these children, but any virtual one-party state is likely to fail its people and needs to be voted out.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged PCC | 41 Comments

Reflections on Rotherham (4): Lessons were not learnt before. They cannot be ignored again.

By Colin Ross | Sat 30th August 2014 - 10:15 am

The report into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham issued this week makes tragic reading. It highlights the collective failure of the authorities to take robust action over a number of years. It is a matter of astonishment that the findings of no less than three reports were either dismissed or treated as exaggerating the situation. How many fewer victims would there have been if a more aggressive approach had been taken at an earlier stage?

Let us not forget that the real villains in this are the perpetrators of these crimes, who have committed unspeakable acts of violence and abuse on …

Posted in Op-eds | 26 Comments

Chris Davies wades into Ukip foster care row. Why?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 16th January 2013 - 8:40 pm

A couple of months ago you may recall a big row when it was alleged three eastern European children were removed from their foster parents by Rotherham council because the couple were members of Ukip.

Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies certainly recalls it. And on Monday he made a one-minute speech in the European Parliament about it:

Chris Davies (ALDE ). – Mr President, before Christmas there was, rightly, a furore when social workers in Rotherham took away children from foster parents because they belonged to UKIP,

…

Posted in News | Also tagged chris davies, european parliament and ukip | 14 Comments

Bad day in Black Rock… and Croydon North and Rotherham…

By Mark Valladares | Fri 30th November 2012 - 10:02 am

It is perhaps a sign of the times that three Parliamentary by-elections took place yesterday, and even your day editor mentally filed them under “not that interesting”. After all, all three were safe Labour seats at a point in the electoral cycle when the other two major parties are doing a bunch of unpopular things. Naturally, Labour held all three easily, although had they managed to lose even one, the media would doubtless have found room on their front page somehow.

In Croydon North, Marisha Ray did at least have the consolation of beating Respect’s Lee Jasper into sixth place, coming …

Posted in News and Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged croydon north and middlesbrough | 238 Comments