Political freedom and Rotherham

[french frank]

I understand from news bulletins that the couple in question are one time Labour voters, and have successfully fostered other children in the past. Now they have changed their allegiance to UKIP, and the council has stepped in, so they are effectively being punished for using their democratic right to change their minds.

People who foster have to have very good personal attributes. They deal with young people who are often very disturbed, and this work requires a degree of loving patience that would be beyond many of us. Perhaps they should be the politicians.

Good fosterers but poor UKIP members?

[Resurrection Man]

......
Rotherham Council, if I am not mistaken (I just checked it on-line to make quite sure) was the governing body that ignored warnings about Pakistani sex gangs operating within its jurisdiction. .....

No, you are not mistaken. It is the 'elephant in the room' that gets tippy-toed around for precisely the reason you gave...for fear of being called racist.

[MrGongGong]

No, you are not mistaken. It is the 'elephant in the room' that gets tippy-toed around for precisely the reason you gave...for fear of being called racist.

I suspect this might have a wee bit to do with it as well

http://www.rotherham.gov.uk/info/362/elections-voting/2395/uk_parliamentary_by-election_for_rotherham_constituency/3

[Simon]

Nurse, he's out of bed again ..................

I guess the Kippers all live on the tops of hills

Deluded nonsense indeed

Culture ?

Education ?

all bonkers nonsense which makes Gove seem like a reasonable bloke

You know, when you see such posts as this you wonder why you bother.

Don't these people know that "Nurse, he's out of bed again" and similar such tired old comments = "I have no reasoned argument against this so I'll insult instead"?

[Simon]

As this has been queried with me ,

What do you mean, "queried" with you? I see no query. Is my PC playing up?

[french frank]

What do you mean, "queried" with you? I see no query. Is my PC playing up?

Not unless you have set it to hack into my computer and read my emails

[Mandryka]

Being in possession of most of the facts that are now in the public domain.....does it not seem that the real major failure (on the part of Rotherham Social Services) was one of news management? They should have known that this story would be a red rag to the tabloids.....so, why didn't they manage it better/neutralise it?

My heart sank when I heard the 'director' of RSS trotting out hackneyed phrases about 'social and ethnic needs going forward'.....

[MrGongGong]

You know, when you see such posts as this you wonder why you bother.

Don't these people know that "Nurse, he's out of bed again" and similar such tired old comments = "I have no reasoned argument against this so I'll insult instead"?

You asked the question about Kipper policy but don't seem to have any answer either

So to summarise

Global warming is a made up conspiracy (good job you don't live in Peterborough then)
the conspiracy theory of global warming suits the Kippers as it chimes nicely with the idea that all our troubles are caused by the EU ..... another daft conspiracy

We believe in "freedom" BUT not for Gay people

The UK can "revert" to it's "traditional" fishing grounds...... That's Icelandic coastal waters to the rest of the world.....
and

We should abolish teacher training and replace it with "on the job" schemes (like WOT Gove is doing to the dismay of those who know about this )

and as for Culture ? no idea mate but i'm sure once we've run away from the nasty folks over the channel we can all sink into our armchairs with a dose of Elgar

presenting opinions as facts might work for your forelock tugging yokels down the Fishpond

[Resurrection Man]

Being in possession of most of the facts that are now in the public domain.....does it not seem that the real major failure (on the part of Rotherham Social Services) was one of news management? They should have known that this story would be a red rag to the tabloids.....so, why didn't they manage it better/neutralise it?

My heart sank when I heard the 'director' of RSS trotting out hackneyed phrases about 'social and ethnic needs going forward'.....

Or not even made such a daft decision in the first place.

[french frank]

Or not even made such a daft decision in the first place.

I would charitably put that down to human error. Others might wish to make a political point

[MrGongGong]

I would charitably put that down to human error. Others might wish to make a political point

It's not as if there's something like an election coming up there is it ?

[teamsaint]

I wouldn't be a social worker for all the tea in china.

[Simon]

I would charitably put that down to human error.

I thought you might.

But your charity and readiness to excuse, borne in this instance of an antipathy to UKIP and your extremely pro-EU beliefs, is, unusually for you, warping your judgement. And you know how much I respect your usual fairness.

Error there may have been, but what this incident shows so clearly - and everyone with any insight knows it, whether they will admit it or not! - is the style of politically correct fascism that exists in some places within our social services network. It's just one example, for once so clearly and accidentally evidenced, of the kind of behaviour that is generally kept under wraps and directly unknown to most of us, unless we meet it within our own lives or hear of it from our families or acquaintances.

Ir is unforgiveable, it is undemocratic and it is unfair. In its possible effect, in this particular case, on the children, it is leaning towards being evil.

[Simon]

As this has been queried with me , I'd like to clarify: I meant that if Rotherham council has guidelines not to place immigrant children for fostering with parents who may hold anti-immigrant views (whatever you think about such a guideline), it is surely their duty to discover such views before they place the children.

Yes, I can imagine that horrified private email, from someone who hadn't the guts to make their point openly on the forum. Who was it, by the way?

"Hey, ff - your post seems to imply that Rotherham SS were in the wrong and UKIP is right. Surely you don't want people thinking that?"

But that, of course, is exactly the position. They have neither right nor duty to take into account any foster family's political views, unless those views would reasonably be likely to endanger the welfare of the children. What will we have next? No conservatives allowed to adopt?

What is wrong about the affair is a) that some idiot thought UKIP was a racist party and b) that any politically-correct guideline that implied that anti-immigration views are somehow more "wrong" than pro-immigration views shouldn't have existed in the first place. They are both valid viewpoints and can be argued rationally, though clearly those on each side believe that theirs is the more rational. So not only the individual, but the whole ethos of the Council, should take the blame.

Placing them and then taking them away 'because they belong to UKIP' will, on the basis of fair treatment (natural justice?), be a gift to UKIP.

It will indeed. Because it was WRONG!

[ahinton]

I thought you might.

But your charity and readiness to excuse, borne in this instance of an antipathy to UKIP and your extremely pro-EU beliefs, is, unusually for you, warping your judgement. And you know how much I respect your usual fairness.

Error there may have been, but what this incident shows so clearly - and everyone with any insight knows it, whether they will admit it or not! - is the style of politically correct fascism that exists in some places within our social services network. It's just one example, for once so clearly and accidentally evidenced, of the kind of behaviour that is generally kept under wraps and directly unknown to most of us, unless we meet it within our own lives or hear of it from our families or acquaintances.

Ir is unforgiveable, it is undemocratic and it is unfair. In its possible effect, in this particular case, on the children, it is leaning towards being evil.

That what has happened to the children concerned is unforgivable, undemocratic and unfair is something that quite a few people here would agree, I think - and that extends not only to the children themselves but also, of course, to the ex-foster parents. Speaking personally, I harbour no especial "antipathy" towards UKIP but, as I wrote earlier, the minuscule proportion of its representation at local and national level in Britain is sufficient to warrant the fact that your personal support of that party is not something that could be expected to be taken on board in considering the kind of situation under discussion here. You may - and are of course entitled to - believe that what you refer to as "antipathy to UKIP and...extremely pro-EU beliefs" (can one be "extremely" pro-EU? - isn;t one either pro- or anti-EU?) warps the judgement of those holding such views, but that is merely a personal viewpoint rather than a fact and should be presented as such.

What you call politically correct fascism "within our social service network" must include the legal advisers to that network which does not make autonomous decisions without prior reference to legal advice, do bear this salient fact in mind.