Exclusive: Extent of child sexual abuse in England and Wales begins to become clear as inquiry passes on 100 cases a month
Posts Tagged ‘England’
How “disgusting” is the interference of pro-Israel lobbyists in England? Isn’t more the cowardice of UK institutions?
Posted on: June 4, 2021
UK: Ex-minister accuses pro-Israel lobbyists of ‘disgusting interference’
Alan Duncan has said that the Conservative Friends of Israel fiercely lobbied to prevent him becoming Middle East minister
By Alex MacDonald Published date: 8 April 2021
A former UK foreign office minister has accused pro-Israel lobbyists of “the most disgusting interference” in British public life, and of negatively influencing the country’s foreign policy in the Middle East.
Alan Duncan, a former Conservative MP and government minister until 2019, wrote in his newly published memoir that the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) had been responsible for pushing the country to adopt disproportionately anti-Palestinian and pro-Israel policies.
Founded in 1974, the CFI is a parliamentary group and unaffiliated organisation that supports the ruling Conservative Party and advocates for pro-Israel policies.
Former British Minister of State for Europe and the Americas Alan Duncan gestures during a joint press conference with Ecuador’s Ambassador Jaime Marchan at Victoria Gardens, Westminster, on 11 April 2019 (AFP)
Speaking to journalist Michael Crick about his diaries for the MailPlus website, Duncan said the CFI had injected a “Netanyahu-type view of Israeli politics into our foreign policy”, referring to Israel’s right-wing prime minister. He added that it had lobbied to prevent him becoming Middle East minister at the foreign office.
“A lot of things do not happen in foreign policy or in government for fear of offending them because that’s the way it’s put to them by the CFI,” he said.
“It’s a sort of buried scandal that has to stop… they will interfere at a high level in British politics in the interests of Israel on the back of donor power in the UK.”
He added that ultimately the influence of the CFI came at the expense of the Palestinians, emphasising that the group’s leadership would frame pro-Palestinian policies as potentially offending Jewish donors to the Conservative Party.
“Most of the Jewish donors would never want their donations to be used to influence in this way – I just think it’s a mess,” he said.PETER OBORNE: Duncan’s stand on settlements makes him Israeli targetRead More »
Duncan served as minister of state for Europe and the Americas between 2016 and 2019 under then Prime Minister Theresa May. Following her resignation and the ascension of Boris Johnson, he stepped down from his position and did not stand for re-election in the December 2019 parliamentary elections.
Known for his support for pro-Palestinian stances, such as his rejection of illegal Israeli settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories, Duncan has previously come under fire from pro-Israel circles.
In January 2017, opposition politicians in the UK called for an investigation into comments made by an Israeli embassy official who had talked of plotting to “take down” Duncan because of his public opposition to Israeli settlements.
Shai Masot, who would afterwards be removed from his position, was caught by an undercover reporter discussing with a British civil servant how to discredit Duncan. He would later apologise for his comments.
Crispin Blunt, a Conservative MP and then-chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, told Middle East Eye at the time that Britain could not have “Israel acting in the UK with the same impunity it enjoys in Palestine”.
“This is clearly interference in another country’s politics of the murkiest and most discreditable kind,” he said.
In the past, the CFI has claimed that 80 percent of Conservative MPs were members of the organisation. It has organised numerous trips to Israel for politicians.
Police expect 30,000 new child abuse reports from Goddard inquiry
The scale of child sexual abuse in England and Wales is being exposed by evidence from thousands of victims, with cases being passed to police at a rate of 100 a month by the public inquiry set up following the Jimmy Savile scandal.
Simon Bailey, head of the national coordinating unit Operation Hydrant, said his team was expecting to be given 30,000 reports of new child sexual offences by the end of the Goddard inquiry, and predicted the rate of referrals of allegations of abuse would increase.
Sandra Laville. 19 May 2016
Reports of child abuse to forces across the country are continuing to rise, said Bailey, who is the chief constable of Norfolk. He calculated that the continuing increase would mean that by 2020 police across the country would be investigating 200,000 cases of child sexual abuse.
Bailey added: “It is fair to say I am surprised by the extent of abuse being exposed, it is shocking. In trying to get a message across to the public about the scale of this, it is important to remember that behind each of these figures there is a victim.
“We are seeing a significant rise in the number of referrals each month from the Goddard inquiry, and these allegations relate to abuse in a range of institutions from the church, to schools, the scouts and hospitals.”
Justice Lowell Goddard is running 13 investigations into institutional abuse, which include inquiries concerning Westminster, the Catholic Church, Church of England, and Lambeth borough, and concerning grooming and sexual exploitation in Rochdale, Devon, Cornwall, Oxford and Rotherham, and at the Medomsley detention centre in Durham.
Another 12 investigations will be pursued during the inquiry. Most of these 25 investigations will lead to public hearings.
Gabrielle Shaw, chief executive officer for the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said: “We have lifted the lid on a hidden problem, now survivors are coming forward in large numbers. These people were failed by institutions in childhood. They deserve to be heard now. Why were signs of child abuse ignored, unrecognised or unreported?
The insight survivors have is vital in shaping how our institutions protect children in future.”
On Thursday, the Goddard inquiry opened new offices in Manchester as part of its nationwide “truth project”, which invites victims of abuse to give detailed testimony of their experiences. In many cases these experiences have stayed unspoken about for decades.
Two thousand victims have already contacted the inquiry to give details about experiences of child sexual abuse, and about 600 have already indicated that they would give their full testimony to the truth project.
In Australia where a royal commission into child abuse is being held, the numbers of people who have come forward has surpassed predictions. Bailey said that the same would be true of the Goddard hearings.
Referrals to Bailey’s team on Operation Hydrant stem from allegations made by victims contacting the inquiry and through the investigations being carried out by the inquiry team.
“These referrals are allegations which are new to the police,” said Bailey. “Where there are criminal investigations they will be passed to the relevant police force.
What we are seeing is that the face of crime has fundamentally changed and it means we have had to move our resources to crimes against the vulnerable [and concerning] child abuse, adult abuse and rape.”
The huge increase in reports of child abuse to the police – a rise of 80% between 2012 and 2015 – was continuing, Bailey added. At this rate of increase, police will be investigating 200,000 cases by 2020, he predicted.
Police forces across England and Wales investigated 70,000 cases of child sexual abuse last year and 25% of the investigations were into non-recent abuse.
The chief constable said that the rise in investigations was due Not just to increased reporting but to more children being abused, with the internet acting as a facilitator for paedophiles to contact children. He has commissioned research in an attempt to establish whether this is correct.
The enormous draw on police resources of these investigations comes as a severe spending squeeze on police budgets continues.
Last week Alison Saunders, the director of public prosecutions, issued new guidance to remind police that her lawyers would not make charging decisions in relation to dead perpetrators, implying that police were not aware of the ruling that the dead could not be charged with criminal offences.
Bailey defended the police from criticism.
“It is vital that the police investigate allegations of child sexual abuse thoroughly and proportionately, whether the alleged crimes took place last week or many years ago,” he said. “Victims who report abuse by someone who is now dead have the same expectation that their allegations will be taken seriously and that they will have recourse to justice.
Police also need to determine whether the alleged offender may have worked with others who are still alive and could pose a risk today.”
He added that age was no bar to people committing child abuse, citing examples of cases in which men in their 90s were under investigation for abuse.
This week, Theresa May, the home secretary, spoke out against those who said police should only concentrate on current crimes.
“Perpetrators must never be allowed to think that their horrific acts will go overlooked or go unpunished … Victims and survivors … deserve to be heard now, just as they should have been years ago, and they deserve justice, just as they did then,” she said.
An American’s Observations About England Went Viral
Scott Waters is a 66 year old commercial artist and photographer from St Augustine, Florida.
He is also an amateur musician, gym enthusiast (in an attempt to maintain muscle tone and upright posture) and an ‘avid cyclist when my girlfriend pokes a flaming, hot stick near where I want to sit’.
A few weeks ago he visited England for the fourth time. (About time to observe more closely)
Upon learning that his Portreath-dwelling cousin had doorknobs older than America, he decided to create a list of observations about England which has now been shared over 50,000 times.
I was in England again a few weeks ago, mostly in small towns, but here’s some of what I learned:
- Almost everyone is very polite
- The food is generally outstanding
- There are no guns
- There are too many narrow stairs
- Everything is just a little bit different
- The pubs close too early
- The reason they drive on the left is because all their cars are built backwards
- Pubs are not bars, they are community living rooms.
- You’d better like peas, potatoes and sausage
- Refrigerators and washing machines are very small
- Everything is generally older, smaller and shorter
- People don’t seem to be afraid of their neighbors or the government
- Their paper money makes sense, the coins don’t
- Everyone has a washing machine but driers are rare
- Hot and cold water faucets. Remember them?
- Pants are called “trousers”, underwear are “pants” and sweaters are “jumpers”
- The bathroom light is a string hanging from the ceiling
- “Fanny” is a naughty word, as is “shag”
- All the signs are well designed with beautiful typography and written in full sentences with proper grammar.
- There’s no dress code
- Doors close by themselves, but they don’t always open
- They eat with their forks upside down
- The English are as crazy about their gardens as Americans are about cars
- They don’t seem to use facecloths or napkins or maybe they’re just neater then [sic] we are
- The wall outlets all have switches, some don’t do anything
- There are hardly any cops or police cars
- 5,000 year ago, someone arranged a lot of rocks all over, but no one is sure why
- When you do see police they seem to be in male & female pairs and often smiling
- Black people are just people: they didn’t quite do slavery here
- Everything comes with chips, which are French fries. You put vinegar on them
- Cookies are “biscuits” and potato chips are “crisps”
- HP sauce is better then catsup
- Obama is considered a hero, Bush is considered an idiot.
- After fish and chips, curry is the most popular food
- The water controls in showers need detailed instructions
- They can boil anything
- Folks don’t always lock their bikes
- It’s not unusual to see people dressed different and speaking different languages
- Your electronic devices will work fine with just a plug adapter
- Nearly everyone is better educated then we are
- If someone buys you a drink you must do the same
- There are no guns
- Look right, walk left. Again; look right, walk left. You’re welcome.
- Avoid British wine and French beer
- It’s not that hard to eat with the fork in your left hand with a little practice. If you don’t, everyone knows you’re an American
- Many of the roads are the size of our sidewalks
- There’s no AC
- Instead of turning the heat up, you put on a jumper
- Gas is “petrol”, it costs about $6 a gallon and is sold by the liter
- If you speed on a motorway, you get a ticket. Period. Always
- You don’t have to tip, really!
- Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Cornwall really are different countries
- Only 14% of Americans have a passport, everyone in the UK does
- You pay the price marked on products because the taxes (VAT) are built in
- Walking is the national pastime
- Their TV looks and sounds much better then ours
- They took the street signs down during WWII, but haven’t put them all back up yet
- Everyone enjoys a good joke
- There are no guns
- Dogs are very well behaved and welcome everywhere
- There are no window screens
- You can get on a bus and end up in Paris
- Everyone knows more about our history then we do
- Radio is still a big deal. The BBC is quite good
- The newspapers can be awful
- Everything costs the same but our money is worth less so you have to add 50% to the price to figure what you’re paying
- Beer comes in large, completely filled, actual pint glasses and the closer the brewery the better the beer
- Butter and eggs aren’t refrigerated
- The beer isn’t warm, each style is served at the proper temperature
- Cider (alcoholic) is quite good.
- Excess cider consumption can be very painful.
- The universal greeting is “Cheers” (pronounced “cheeahz” unless you are from Cornwall, then it’s “chairz”)
- The money is easy to understand: 1-2-5-10-20-50 pence, then-£1-£2-£5-£10, etc bills. There are no quarters.
- Their cash makes ours look like Monopoly money
- Cars don’t have bumper stickers
- Many doorknobs, buildings and tools are older than America
- By law, there are no crappy, old cars
- When the sign says something was built in 456, they didn’t lose the “1”
- Cake is is pudding, ice cream is pudding, anything served for desert is pudding, even pudding
- BBC 4 is NPR
- Everything closes by 1800 (6pm)
- Very few people smoke, those who do often roll their own
- You’re defined by your accent
- No one in Cornwall knows what the hell a Cornish Game Hen is
- Soccer is a religion, religion is a sport
- Europeans dress better then the British, we dress worse
- The trains work: a three minute delay is regrettable
- Drinks don’t come with ice
- There are far fewer fat English people
- There are a lot of healthy old folks around participating in life instead of hiding at home watching tv
- If you’re over 60, you get free tv and bus and rail passes.
- They don’t use Bose anything anywhere
- Displaying your political or religious affiliation is considered very bad taste
- Every pub has a pet drunk
- Their healthcare works, but they still bitch about it
- Cake is one of the major food groups
- Their coffee is mediocre but their tea is wonderful
- There are still no guns
- Towel warmers!
- Cheers
What a guy! Come and visit us again please, Scott!
Featured Image Credit: Huffington Post
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