Opinions On Issues Of The Day- In Brief

[poliphilo]

Rotherham: Everyone who had anything to do with not protecting children should resign. It's the least they can do. Some of them should face prosecution.

Islamic State: Totally vile- but so is just about every other political group and government in the Middle East (including those we're allied with). The idea that we should curtail our liberties to guard ourselves against them is preposterous and pernicious.

UKIP: What a shower!

The EU: Looks like it's going to implode.

Boris Johnson: With any luck he'll be undone by his own irresponsibility and incompetence.

Scottish Independence: Bring it on. Anything that disrupts politics as usual has got to be a good thing.

Comments

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

UKIP a shower? With 8 MPs threatening to defect to them, you might want to revise that opinion.

I wouldn't be so pleased about the EU potentially imploding.

I'll ignore the blanket generalisation about the Middle East.

Re: Night Gallery.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm all for immigration myself.

But Cameron and May- making a promise to cut numbers that they knew they couldn't keep- what chancers!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Apparently Farage forgot to tell the UKIP candidate for Clacton that he was being supplanted. Yes, they're doing rather well at present, but they're still a shower- a collection of incompetents, buffers and bores.

Can you name me a Middle Eastern government that isn't foul? Actually, can you name me a government anywhere in the world that isn't?

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to get drawn into an argument with you - I suspect that anything I say is going to be wrong.

But your comment about Rotherham implies that you think that all teachers, nurses, doctors, social workers - all of whom have to go through safeguarding training - should resign. If you don't think that, that's what it looks like. Unless you'd prefer the people of Rotherham to have no public sector workers after this weekend.

[glitzfrau.livejournal.com]

Thank you. These are all the Facebook updates I would have made this week had I thought that my opinion had the slightest relevance to my friends....

Re: Night Gallery.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

They like to carry on as if they had more power than the EU allows them.

And then hope that no-one notices when their large promises can't be fulfilled.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I suppose I should have said "in charge of not safeguarding children".

There was an understanding in Rotherham- as in Rochdale and (I suspect)throughout the country- that the children of the poor didn't matter and no boats should be rocked to protect them. Thousands of people at every level will have been implicated in this culture- and a complete change of heart is called for. Obviously we can't replace everybody who was tainted but it might- as Voltaire said of the execution of Admiral Byng- encourage the others if a number of high profile heads were to roll.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It helps to let off steam every now and then.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

You seem to be completely entrenched in the idea that everyone who has any responsibility - no matter how tangenital - does not care about children of the poor. Your comment "a complete change of heart" shows how little you know. Every single day, dozens - yes, dozens - of Child protection issues ranging from neglect to sexual abuse are filed by those of us on the frontline. Sometimes all we can do is file it and send it on. For example, if a kid in my Tutor group turns up with bruising, or I over hear he/she hasn't eaten for a couple of days, do I turn a blind eye? No, I do not. I'll add that do not fall into the trap of thinking that abuse and neglect only happens amongst the poor - there is a surprising amount of neglect among middle class suburbia. I've seen it.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I think I understand what Tony is trying to get at. It isn't those at the coal face who should be taking the blame- its those taking obscene salaries and claiming complete ignorance of the issues like Shaun Wright and Joyce Thacker whose heads need to roll.

I was a teacher on that same front line, working specifically with disabled and abused kids.

As you say: 'Sometimes all we can do is file it and send it on'
But then you'd tear your hair out and lose sleep over the fact that no one was actually damn well doing anything about the issues and you couldn't, directly and that was twenty plus years back.

It was egregious then and appears to have become even more egregious in this case with a whole slew of people making excuses for simply sitting comfortably by whist this obscenity occurred.

I have a special reason for knowing what it's like to be one of those kids. I'm an abuse survivor.

[matrixmann]

Scottish Independence: Am I permitted to ask how chances are? What the results could be?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm not attacking you- or anybody in particular -apart from those we know about who allowed the abuse to happen in Rotherham- but the facts and figures speak for themselves. 14000 kids in one not very large S. Yorkshire town; God knows how many more across the nation. The system is broken.

Yes, middle-class kids suffer too. Don't get me started on private education...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The figures say the battle for independence will be lost, but I'm not so sure. I really wouldn't want to make a prediction.

[matrixmann]

Sounds like it's going to be tight.

[matrixmann]

So was I.

[matrixmann]

Probability is there. Media likes to manipulate (such) meaningful decisions.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I don't normally bet, but I've a feeling that they'll vote Yes. This would be a disappointment to me, so I may bet on it so that at least I'll have my winnings as compensation.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

I never said you were attacking me.