Some thoughts on Rotherham

Been waiting to hear what Great Leader Ed had to say before I wrote this.

I'll start with the obvious and say we all know who is responsible for the issue, in terms of perpetrators, and, as per usual, there are the excuses and sadly still sufficient excuse makes to make folk wonder what the hell needs to happen before something is done about them.

Ruzwana Bashir makes it very clear here that the issues solely isn't one of some Asian men on white women and girls, they are just as bad in their own community, towards their own women and others have made very good points on the role of the idiot left and the part they played in the 'fear factor' that some seem to have when not just dealing with these individuals but the mentality they appear to have when even thinking of how to deal with these issues but, for me, while the above can not and must not be ignored the failures of Rotherham, Rochdale and others is down to the very same issues that have led to deaths through crime and massive failings in the health service, especially things like Mid Staffs and others.

That issue is the lack of accountability within the hierarchy of the public sector and the woeful inability to manage processes in place to protect us.

We can largely thank localism for it, the process of letting 'local people who know best for the area' get on with the job, but we can not and must not ignore the role played by the 'political elite' and those sat at the top table making policy, rules and regulations for all without ensuring and insisting they are followed through or adhered to correctly.

Look on any council website and you will find 'strategies', 'key objectives', 'master plans' and the like to deal with every situation, most brought about by something that has previously gone wrong, a Baby P for example and a directive from an Ed, Dave or Cleggy type passed down to prevent them in future and in the worse cases them from ever happening and we need to ask those at the very top why, with these protections in place are we being failed.

Until accountability is in place and proper monitoring done we will only ever become aware of problems after events like Rotherham have taken place, that creates victims and, for me, is a price to high to pay.