January 2, 2025 - 1:30pm
Last week, I wrote that Labour, during half a year in office, has launched a staggering 67 reviews and consultations, as well as “a new quango every week since coming to power”.
But it seems there is such a thing as an inquiry too far. Yesterday, it was reported that Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips had formally rejected repeated requests for a Home Office-led inquiry into Oldham’s historic rape gangs scandal, following a request by the local council. X owner Elon Musk then called for Phillips to be jailed as a result.
Phillips acknowledged the strong sentiment that a further inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham should be conducted, but said that “it is for Oldham Council alone to decide to commission an inquiry into child sexual exploitation locally, rather than for the Government to intervene.”
A less charitable interpretation might point to self-preservation: despite her vocal opposition to violence against women and girls, Phillips may be worried about opening herself up to allegations of Islamophobia after nearly losing her seat to a pro-Gaza independent candidate last year. Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner’s seat of Ashton-under-Lyne previously covered part of Oldham, and Jim McMahon, the Local Government Minister, served as a councillor on the authority from 2003 and as leader between 2011-16.
The reasons for refusing a Government intervention can be disputed, but it cannot be disputed that it is reprehensible. The case for a centralised inquiry is clear: while this request was for Oldham alone, there has been a rape gang scandal in over 50 British towns and cities. This is a staggering scale of depravity, and most cases are marked by close resemblances in their systematic nature. The demographics of the rapists are often disproportionately men of Pakistani origin and their victims are particularly vulnerable young girls, often in social care. There have been large-scale cover-ups within ethnic communities, social services, police forces and council authorities.
Politicians have taken to passing laws named after victims — such as Martyn’s Law, Clare’s Law, Harper’s Law — to ensure the often appalling and nightmarish circumstances of their deaths never happen again. By contrast, it seems like politicians cannot wait to forget the victims of Britain’s grooming gang epidemic.
While there have been isolated inquiries, such as the Jay Report and a 2013 report by the Home Affairs Committee, these have not provided sufficient answers. But a report solely into the events in Oldham will arguably suffer from the same issue, as will any report provided by a council reporting on its own conduct. Given that many of those involved may still be serving, it will be difficult to name the individuals at fault.
Rather than treating each gang as a separate problem, the Government should launch an inquiry that deals with the disturbing phenomenon as a whole. It should treat this as what it is: a national problem, not isolated incidents. It should provide the resources, authority and backing necessary to deal with the crisis as such and tackle the institutional cover-ups which happened time and time again, regardless of the council area responsible.
If politicians want to look us in the face and promise “never again”, as they seem so keen to do on so many other issues, the inquiry must identify the exact names and positions of those responsible for cover-ups. Every single one should be named, fired, disbarred from public office and tried, not just pour encourager les autres but to provide justice for the thousands of vulnerable women and girls who were failed. That alone is not enough, though. We must establish RICO-like laws to allow for individual prosecutions of those abetting the gangs and, given the role of multiple police forces already established in cover-ups, authority should be handed to domestic intelligence agencies. A stain so large on the soul of our nation requires a national clean-up.
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SubscribeWell, what a silly question. Labour are open-borders neoliberal corporate globalists, importing millions of people from hostile alien cultures to drive down our wages and replace us. It’s not complicated.
They serve the 0.01%, not the indigenous people of this country, certainly not the indigenous working class, who are on the receiving end of this horror show.
If they keep this up it’ll swallow them too in the end. Phillips should have figured that out after her experiences in the last election. Things is, Phillips, Starmer, Lammy, Reeves none of them are stellar intellects are they. You wouldn’t actually consider them elites. More like drones.
Personally I rather value being told I’m wrong by smart people, but being told I’m stupid by midwits who’ve never had an original thought is contemptible.
stellar intellects
This has to be the most intellectually feeble Labour front bench in the Party’s history.
This does not bode well for the relationship between the US and the UK.
Musk accused Jess Phillips of vetoing any enquiry to protect Starmer who, while in charge of the CPS , turned a blind eye to the rape gangs. Why not report this?
More spin from the increasingly political and now quite obviously compromised Unherd. Why such subservience to Starmer?
And why not report Phillips’ full job title? Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence against Women and Girls.
Think about that. Or is it Unherd’s purpose to deflect from that?
I can’t say agree with that. Yes, the article does pull punches, but there are our increasingly draconian laws and regulations to consider here. It does not exactly paint a pretty picture of government either. At the least, it states the decision is “reprehensible” which is certainly not spin.
I do agree that Starmer appears to be made from the same physics defying, friction-less material Blair is made from. Apparently, “I was not aware of it,” being his bullet proof defence to everything. If I were a professional journalist going after Starmer in the current climate, I would want every one of a very long line of ducks in a row.
‘Reprehensible’ after the decision has been made.
And that’s it? No one will be held responsible. Starmer is not even mentioned in the article.
Of course that is all spin. Deflection from criticism of Phillips and Starmer.
If I were a professional journalist going after Starmer
Unfortunately, with one or two noble exceptions like Charlie Peters and Patrick Christys, journalism just ain’t like that anymore. Where is Harry Evans when we need him?
“A less charitable interpretation might point to self-preservation: despite her vocal opposition to violence against women and girls, Phillips may be worried about opening herself up to allegations of Islamophobia after nearly losing her seat to a pro-Gaza independent candidate last year. Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner’s seat of Ashton-under-Lyne previously covered part of Oldham, and Jim McMahon, the Local Government Minister, served as a councillor on the authority from 2003 and as leader between 2011-16”
Literally the entire 4th paragraph of this very article explains why Labour may be reluctant to hold a proper inquiry. Do you even read the articles before commenting?
Still no mention of DPP Starmer, though, which was Littlewood’s main point.
Answer to headline: it might offend Muslim voters.
In a democracy, Labour answers to its voters.
Indeed, but as they are against racism and pedophilia they should not pander to the gangs that targeted white underage girls and whose members mostly came from one particular community.
Give us a break!
“Westminster or Davos?”
“Davos”. Every time!
The default position is that no-one is ever held accountable, unfortunately.
As far as I’m aware Professor Jay, who led the inquiry into multiple cases like this, was stating as recently as Nov she remains v frustrated the probe’s 20 recommendations had not been implemented more than two years after her Report.
Doesn’t that seem to be the bigger issue rather than doing another Inquiry? Of course that means Tories sat on the recommendations for 18 months, and guess who who was Under Sec for Families and then Equalities Minister as part of her portfolio, and thus who could have lent into this then if so wished – yep Kemi. She really is the ‘gift that keeps giving’. Regardless though Phillips should be pressed on Jay’s recommendations. Arguably the wrong point is being pressed on her.
As regards Elon, he’s given millions to someone who’s lost a Legal case regarding rape. He’s just exerting muscle for other reasons.
As regards Starmer, none of this is new. The convictions started and proceeded during his tenure and he appointed Nazir Afzul who nailed most of them. There is no evidence cases came across his desk he ignored. But now he’s PM he can’t ignore the Jay recommendations.
Jaqui Smith’s Home Office, we now know, memoed police forces effectively telling them to ignore these activities in 2008. Starmer claims he knew nothing until 2012 when he finally took action. Not very plausible – unless you’re a completely blinkered and uncritical Labour loyalist, of course.
The victims are white working class and there is no social group more loathed by our lofty liberal ruling elite.
There is a subset of people whose motto is “I’d rather be dead than be called a racist”. It is one of the tenets of the undeclared but quasi-official state religion, which one has to be an adherent if of one wants to be part of the power structure. The structure is the same as during any time in history, only the content is different.
Another favourite motto appears to be “I’d rather be a coward than make a stand if it goes against the current dogma of the day.”
Recalls Leszek Kolakowski’s articulation of what motivated those in the West who from the 1960s through the 1980s regularly chanted “Better Red than Dead”. Namely “Better Slave Than Brave”.
Says it all, Simon.
Naz Sha, Labour MP, retweeted and liked a post saying that victims should shut up for the sake of diversity. Sarah Champion (another Labour MP) was bullied and heckled when she named the main demographic involved in the crimes. (It goes without saying that she was labeled as a racist). This is the Labour way of dealing with this awful situation – silencing anyone who might upset the apple cart. I’m sure the party will be doubling down on suppression and spin, now that the lazer-like beam of public interest will, in due course, rest on the one person who was ultimately responsible: Kier Starmer.
By the way, I have been thinking for many years that the crimes were “only” sex and drugs (bad enough, I know) however, as court transcripts are slowly leaking out into the public sphere, I have learned that torture, GBH and murder are very much in the mix. The very worst of human depravity was inflicted on vulnerable young girls by men who had no fear of punishment, who, because of the colour of their skins, were virtually given the green light to pursue their most depraved dreams.
We, as a country, need to put this issue to bed, once and for all by punishing the facilitators, past and present. We’ve heard the bla, bla, bla of ‘lessons have been learned’ bla bla for far too long. We must have a full Public Inquiry.
The quick answer is self-interest. Too many Labour MPs dependent on Muslim and white Progressive votes.
The longer answer is that if the full picture of depravity were ever admitted to, the diversity and multi-culturalism house of cards would come crashing down on their heads.
Also, the more ostentatiously moralistic people are, the more likely they are to act from self-interest rather than principle.
This is almost right; but I would substitute ‘self-regard’ for ‘self-interest’. With the caveat that the self-regard in question is really a second-order reflection (that is, a recognition) of the regard of one’s fellow tribespeople. Arguably the entire distinction between progressive and conservative, psychologically speaking, comes down to whether it is self-regard or self-interest which offers the greater temptation.
Self-interest, yes – but that of the man who was DPP at the time and all those desperately hanging on to his coat-tails.
Several northern councils have fallen into the hands of the Biradari clan. When Corbyn was leader women of Pakistani origin demanded an enquiry into the routine misogyny that meant women who tried to stand for election were met with a barrage of online attacks and slurs. ( see the Muslim women’s network, Shaista Gohir, 2016) Corbyn approached that in a very tepid way and I believe the enquiry panel had several of the men responsible on it. It was a joke. The fact is that Labour has allowed a situation to prevail because they have cultivated the vote from that community – it’s on borrowed time for soon they will no longer need Labour.
The Labour Party – and the Tories – have behaved treacherously.
The fact that these people aren’t being deported and the people who let them in locked up is a crime crying out to heaven for vengeance.
Our legal system provides sufficient loopholes and leeway for a certain type of lawyer to prevent the full force of justice from being done. What’s needed is reform and updating of the relevant laws, and any party which set out a manifesto to do so – with a clear plan and timeline of implementation – would gain a huge amount of popular support at the ballot box.
It goes without saying which current surgent party might take this on board.
This needs to happen whilst the demographics of the UK still favour the indigenous population.
I agree it is hugely provocative and they don’t care, they simply cancel or arrest those who react too strongly for their liking. Can you imagine a reverse situation being tolerated in any Islamic country or anywhere come to that?
So nothing will happen. No one held responsible. All criticism of Starmer and Phillips deflected away.
Typical Unherd spin-journalism. Does anyone think like I do that this site is a con?
Unherd – is a lie. It supports the Left-consensus, will deflect criticism, and only has herd-like contributors.
I, too, have pitched unsuccessfully to UnHerd in my time, Dickie. Get over it.
With almost every post, it’s becoming more clear that your sole purpose in subscribing and commenting is to seek to undermine Unherd.
I’ll repeat: you’re entitled to do that, but expect pushback from those who value this forum as one of the few places where intelligent yet forthright debate can occur. If you had the slightest interest in such a thing, you’d desist from your constant attacks, but it’s also becoming clear that you’re here for nefarious purposes.
I subscribed, innocently thinking Unherd would be what it advertised itself to me to be. Interesting articles not from the mainstream Left. It is a lie. I am paying money for a lie. It annoys me. So I will continue to call out the news outlet for what it really is: Left-concensus bilge.
If Unherd changed its stupid name to Just-More-Left-Wing-Bilge I would unsubscribe instantly.
Will you unsubscribe anyway? You clearly don’t like the site and your nonsense just clogs up the comment section for the rest of us. I’m sure there’s plenty of sites that just shout buzzwords into a void that would be much more up your alley
I agree that the article is a mere sketch of the controversy, and that overall it gives Starmer and the rest of the ‘gang’ (pun intended) an easy ride. If I had written an article on the same subject I would be punching hard, and as low as possible. It’s a wide open goal and the journalist failed to score. We KNOW KS was head of the CPS at the height of the cover ups. Good gracious, he even has his own specially protected pension from his tenure in the CPS. We have on VIDEO and in PRINT Labour MPs denying, shouting down, and generally deflecting away any talk of Pakistani males openly practicing pedophilia, sadism, extreme misogyny and violent crime. All under the protection of the state. You couldn’t make it up, and yet here we are. So yes, you are right that the article is a bit lightweight and spares the blushes of those who operate Jess Phillips’ strings. However, the value in most online articles IME is the below the line comments, of which some are very educational, many are outspoken and NO ONE pulls any punches. You are among friends below the line on Unherd, you just don’t know it.
I’m not so sure, MJ. The commentators here seem to be pretty disgusted with his antics. It’s perfectly reasonable to disagree with an article here and even thinking of UnHerd as. Left-wing site, while a bit… eccentric…is his right. But the stream of mouth frothing invective and relentless abuse, without ever offering much in the way of analysis, argument or even alternative, gets very tedious indeed.
the inquiry must identify the exact names and positions of those responsible for cover-ups
I think we all know by now where that would lead – which is why it won’t happen, at least not before 2029.
I would put money on every one of those responsible falling into the ‘progressive graduate’ category – Matt Goodwin’s new elite – they vote Labour and the party itself is riddled with them.
Labour will do everything in its power to protect it’s own – the real shock is the Tories have done that as well.
He’s called Keir. Who needs inquiries?
Where are the Unherd herd of Feminist writers? Anything to say?
Unherd is tainted. It is a con.
Your two questions are sensible. Your conclusions that follow them are not.
Oh, just because this site and it’s commenters don’t parrot every conspiracy fantasy you hold, you can’t stand it. UnHerd brings a range of views. I don’t agree with some of them myself. That’s its glory.
If you have a counter argument, make it.
Elon Musk needs to calm down and have a nice cuppa.
Calling the German president a tyrant, saying Jess Phillips should be in jail…the guy is elevating overegging the pudding to an art form.
It generates traffic.
That said, Jess Phillips triggers me, too.
If it hadn’t been for Musk this wouldn’t have got into the UK press. Even now Unherd (rancid news outlet) has deflected and span away his accusation against Phillips and Starmer.
Unherd is a political tool.
This is an abridged version of my first comment on Unherd. I am disgusted it is still as pertinent today.
I was kicked off CIF (the Guardian comment section) the same year Move any Mountain was made Commenter of the Year, 2009. The next year he was also banned for the same crime, trying to initiate an online conversation about so called “grooming gangs”. That chap Nick Griffin was tried in a court of law in 2006 after a BBC mole recorded him talking about it to his supporters. Tommy Robinson (another name to conjure with) has also been persecuted by the state over this topic. In his case, because he filmed muslim men going to a court of law to face charges over vile sex crimes. Telford grooming survivor Samantha Smith appeared on GB News, to say that police had appeared at her door to intimidate her because she had gone onto GB News the previous week to talk about her experience of “grooming”. The resistance to people talking about this subject, and the intimidation which follows, comes from the top. The very top. Why? You may wonder. I believe it’s the scale of it. The numbers are horrifying. The crimes are the vilest things possible. More than a thousand girls in Telford alone. Make no mistake. This has been going on in towns and cities up and down the UK for decades. Tens of thousands of victims. The numbers of perpetrators… well… Pluck a figure and it won’t come close. This thing is rife, in the Pakistani Muslim communities here in Britain. They won’t talk about it, but they all know someone involved. They know they are all tainted by it. The Silence is deafening. Our leaders are terrified of what may happen, yet they seem unable even to deport any of those found guilty of these horrific crimes. Where will all this lead? Maybe the carpet is no longer big enough, and the monstrous truth will be fully exposed. I doubt it. Personally I think this is just another convulsion, before people like Pippa Mills – (The Chief Constable of West Mercia Police) get to bury it deeper once more, at least while they are in office. Make no mistake. The taxis are still going round, the girls are getting in, the vilest most horrific sex crimes are happening again, today, just down the road from where you live.
Now Jess Phillips is responsible for making the carpet much bigger. It won’t wash. Trying to avoid the scandal of Labour Councils covering this up for decades, Phillips and the rest of them are burying the Labour Party up to their necks in collusion with the most widespread evil ever perpetrated in Britain. In Scotland, SNP the same. The evil of these people cannot be overstated. Burn in Hell.
Thursday, 7 July 2022 | Go to the comment.
Why? Because politicians generally use parliament as a status/network building exercise to springboard themselves into a life of comfort, wealth and self-congratulation. It’s a short term selfish game they play, and they don’t want to rock the boat before they’ve got to a safer shore.
Well said Ann. Succinct and straight to the point.
That is exactly what is wrong with the country and why it will be impossible to ‘fix’ in my opinion.
The Labour Party and the SNP have actively covered up the most depraved and widespread evil ever committed in the British Isles. People such as Jess Phillips should burn in Hell for eternity.
in the light of recent events in France then surely this is the time to take a definitive and proactive stand against organised sex gangs. You can’t burnish your liberal values loudly and publicly praising the courage of the magnificent Giselle Pelicot without taking an aggressive view of this disgusting organised rape culture in our own country.
Jess Phillips has always been just a “gob on a stick”… vocal but achieving nothing except PR for herself.
Of all the useless MPs she must almost top the list for vacuity…and it’s not a small field.
I think David Lamebrain would give her a run for her money on that title
All too true, unfortunately
It’s a little unfair to blame Jess Phillips and Starmer’s Labour. All governments for the last 20 years have followed a consistent policy of burying anything that might disturb race relations. It’s worked, to a degree, but it is starting to break down. There are just too many losers.
The principal losers right now are the Jews and those poor girls. They are too numerous to be brushed aside and ignored.
Starmer enabled all of this before he was even in power.
During his campaign to bring these things to light Simon Danszuck has had many conversations with Tory politicians, including Cameron and May, but never with Yvette Cooper. His only conversations with his erstwhile Labour colleagues on the matter consisted of them telling him to shut up.
It’s entirely fair to blame Labour. The party has been completely subverted by middle class apparatchiks who use it purely to enrich themselves. Time it was gone.
…very simple. Her party were mostly responsible for it…they were in charge of most of the places where it happened…their people shaped policy in respect of policing, “community relations”, social services…and most of the “professionals” involved will have voted for them, or been party members…in some cases being involved in party politics to an extent well beyond that allowed for senior local government officers in Politically Restricted Posts.
All roads lead back to them…at every level…and right across the Country…but especially in the “Red Wall” seats…or those where the main threat is from Islamists…
…the Tories made a huge mistake in not setting up the enquiry when they had an opportunity…hopefully, they and Reform will now promise one.