"On 24 February 2014, Harriet Harman MP, a national officer of the NCCL as a young lawyer after 1976, appeared on Newsnight to deny renewed allegations that She and her husband Jack Dromey MP had supported PIE when it was affiliated to the NCCL. The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail had claimed that the couple and former Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt were apologists for child sex abuse while they were officers at the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL)."
"Harman claimed to be the victim of a politically motivated smear campaign and repeatedly refused to say that it was a mistake for the NCCL to accept PIE as an affiliate. She also attacked the Daily Mail, claiming it was "not above producing photographs of very young girls". Both newspapers demanded that Ed Milliband, the Labour leader, address the issue as a matter of urgency. Miliband backed Harman and stated that she had "huge decency and integrity". Patricia Hewitt did not comment on the allegations. Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, had already issued an apology about the links between the NCCL and the PIE. In December 2013, she said: "It is a source of continuing disgust and horror that even the NCCL had to expel paedophiles from its ranks in 1983 after infiltration at some point in the 70s."
"This letter from a Schoolhouse member to MSPs, urging rejection of the data mining and named person provisions within the Children and Young People Bill which is expected to be nodded through at Holyrood tomorrow, is reproduced below with the author’s permission. It does not necessarily reflect the views of Schoolhouse, but judging by their comments, the 2790 people who have now signed our petition would appear to concur with its sentiments." Dear MSP Re: CHYP Bill / Graveheart
"Since we both know that my raising concerns with you is almost as pointless an exercise as bothering to vote in elections, I won’t waste too much of your time or mine."
"Just for the record, I am writing to urge you to vote against the CHYP Bill on Wednesday since its provisions for routine data gathering and sharing and the compulsory imposition of a named person on every child in Scotland with no opt-out breach both Article 8 of the ECHR and the UK Data Protection Act. I have yet to see the Scottish Government’s legal advice, if indeed it exists."
"It is abhorrent to me that the Government and any right minded MSP should consider such provisions to be remotely acceptable in a free society and inconceivable that they should have ignored the advice of senior counsel and a myriad of legal and social work experts, while completely dismissing the views of parents, children and young people who do not want their privacy routinely invaded. So much for getting it right for every child; but that’s not what GIRFEC is about and never has been. Getting Information Recorded For Every Citizen is a much more accurate description."
"I feel obliged to bring to your attention the fact that Bill Alexander has gone on record as claiming there have been no complaints by parents in Highland about GIRFEC and the named person when I have personally been copied a catalogue of such complaints. He is quoted as saying: "The system has been operating formally for four years, and in that time not a single parent has raised any concerns [about it being intrusive]." Did he file all these parental complaints under ‘misunderstandings’, or were they just binned for convenience? Complainants who have been effectively silenced by Mr Alexander’s refusal to acknowledge serious concerns about the abuse of power by named persons and other professionals contend that misleading the public in this way amounts to gross misconduct. Having seen the nature of these complaints, it is difficult to disagree, but dissembling would appear to be part of the job description for any aspiring GIRFEC Gauleiter."
Read More http://www.schoolhouse.org.uk/home-ed-in-the-news/freedom-dumped-in-favour-of-glory-riches-and-honours-for-the-few
"It is 16 years today that Linda's daughter was kidnapped from her sick children's hospital bed in Florida."
"Four days later without any lawful or legal authority she was flown back to the UK on a false passport by Julie Rzezniczek ( pictured right ) and Alison Paysley agents of Neath Port Talbot Social Services."
"On arrival in the UK Linda's daughter was put in a psychiatric hospital where she was told her pain was imaginary."
"Now a victim of severe mental torture and immense cruelty from Julie Rzezniczek and others who ignored her desperate pleas to be reunited with her family."
"A false scenario was created by David Johnston, the former Welsh Assembly Government Inspector of Social Services, in which he claimed a letter he had seen stated that " Linda was going to enter into a suicide pact and kill herself and her daughter."
NO SUCH LETTER EVER EXISTED AND LINDA WAS NEVER QUESTIONED ABOUT THIS !
"A court order was made on this false assumption and Linda's daughter was cruelly taken and has never been returned."
"An injunction that is invalid and unlawful in law was granted in order to stop ANYONE speaking out about the crimes committed by Neath Port Talbot Social Services and the Welsh Assembly Government."
" No injunction can be taken out to cover up for criminal acts ."
"We believe that Linda's daughter is still under the impression that her Mother wanted to kill her."
"For 16 years an innocent mother and family have fought against all obstacles deliberately placed in their paths to clear their names."
"PAST and present moderators of the Free Church of Scotland have called on MSPs to drop part of a proposed child protection bill which they claim would create a "snooper’s charter".
"The Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill, to be debated in the Scottish Parliament next week, contains proposed legislation to appoint a ‘named person’ for every youngster in the country. Supporters claim the role, most likely to be taken on by a health visitor or teacher, would provide a system where concerns are brought to them by parents, children or other professionals who know the child or family, and ensure a co-ordinated response is put in place."
"The group of Moderators, however, have branded the plans as a "gross intrusion into family life" and "completely undermining of parental responsibilities (sic)". A letter has been sent to First Minister Alex Salmond asking him to intervene, signed by six former Moderators and the current Moderator, Rev Angus J. Howat. The letter states: "Given that the vast majority of Scotland’s million children do not require any state intervention, we believe these proposals seriously overstep the mark."
"We would be wary of the statutory appointment of a ‘named person’ for every under-18 in Scotland, especially given that this ‘named person’ will have legal authority to ensure our young people are raised in a state-approved manner... "If this legislation is not amended, the Scottish Government will make itself the judge of every parent in this land... "This is the sort of thing we would expect in a Fascist or Marxist regime, not in 21st century Scotland."
"The ‘named person’ role has already been implemented by one local authority and has been welcomed by some children’s charities. "
"Bill Alexander, The Highland Council’s director of health and social care said: "The named person role has operated effectively in Highland for a number of years."
For immediate release and wide distribution to all free media and mainstream media worldwide:
Robert
green appeared in Aberdeen Sheriffs Court late afternoon yesterday
and has
been remanded in custody in Perth Prison until a new hearing takes
place on
21st February 2014 -
again at Aberdeen Sheriffs Court. It
is understood that
Bail was strongly opposed by the Procurator Fiscal's Scotland
Office under
the leadership of Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland QC. Mulholland is
the successor
to Elish Angiolini who is believed to be the principal party in
the case
against Robert Green's campaign for justice for abuse victim
Hollie Greig.
Lord
Advocate Frank Mulholland is the ministerial head of COPFS the
Crown Office
and Procurator Fiscal Service, leading the system of criminal prosecutions
and the investigation of deaths. He is the senior of the two Law Officers,
along with the Solicitor General for Scotland. Both are
appointed by
the Queen on the recommendation of the First Minister, with the
agreement of
the Scottish Parliament.
COPFS
claims to play a pivotal part in the justice system, working
with others
to make Scotland safe from crime, disorder and danger. "The
public interest
is at the heart of all we do as independent prosecutors. We take into
account the diverse needs of victims, witnesses, communities and
the rights
of those accused of crime. We support the Strategy for Justice
in Scotland
and, in particular, its priorities of: Reducing crime,
particularly violent
and serious organised crime, Tackling hate crime and
sectarianism, Supporting
victims and witnesses, and Increasing public confidence and reducing
fear of crime."
These
claims appear to fly in the face of the key point of Robert
Green's campaign
for justice for abuse victim Hollie Grieg; that Scottish police failed
to investigate abusers named by Hollie to family members and
during her
own police interview. Yet Hollie was declared a reliable and
trustworthy witness
by both professionals and Scottish police.
Having
been denied a lawyer sourced by his family it is understood that
a Scottish
Panel lawyer Peter Keen attended Robert as his defence lawyer.
Keen replaced
a Michael Allen who was first nominated from the Panel. It is
not know
if Allen either stood down or was taken off the case. Family members received
no information from the Scottish Justice Department regarding
the timing
of the case nor did they receive satisfactory information from Aberdeen
Sheriffs Court about the exact timing of Robert's hearing. No
family members
attended and it is not known if any members of the public or
press were
present. It appears highly unlikely that any members of the public
would have
been aware of the case and equally unlikely they could have attended
in time.
The Robert Green case would therefore appear to have been heard
within another
secret Scottish Justice hearing within the very Aberdeen Court
system that
is itself linked to historic aspects of the Hollie Greig abuse
case.
Sheriff
McDonald presided over this latest case against Robert. Sources
close to
the case allege that McDonald was specially drafted in from Dundee
as Aberdeen
Sheriffs refused to be involved with the trial. The UKColum is awaiting
further information concerning the reluctance of Aberdeen
Sheriffs to
be involved with this high profile case.
Robert
has recently released new information on his blog concerning the failure
of the Scottish Legal system, together with an expose of
activities and
professional standing of members of the Scottish based 'Violate'
S&M club,
and he has consistently alleged that former Procurator Fiscal
Elish Angiolini
and other key figures failed to take proper action within the Hollie
Grieg case. Robert has also been highly critical of the BBC
which originally
examined evidence, agreed that Hollie's case was valid and serious,
but then pulled a documentary on her abuse. Such action appears
to fit
the BBC cover-up which has now been exposed in relation to
prolific paedophile
Jimmy Savile. BBC reporters also withdrew from investigations
into the
sexual and physical abuse of youngsters at Oxford and Cherwell
Valley College,
having failed to meet victims in person and see witness
statements first
hand.
Sources
close to the Robert Green case believe it was Robert's latest
blog posts
that resulted in his arrest and the searching of his family home
under charges
of breaching a Non-Harassment Order. It appears personal
belongings such
as computers and mobile phone were taken by the police during
his arrest.
Computers and phones taken from Robert's Cheshire home by
Scottish Police
in previous raids have never been returned - contrary to the law.
The seizures
denied Robert material for his defence and evidence to support
his accusations
of a cover-up. It now appears that the authorities are again desperate
to find sufficient 'evidence' to silence Robert in his campaign
to expose
child abuse and the failing of the Scottish Justice system to
protect youngsters.
Robert
can be held on remand for a maximum of 150 days. Members
of the public who are concerned at the failure of the Scottish
Legal System
and Scottish Police to fully investigate the Hollie Greig abuse
case, and
are concerned for Robert Green's treatment, safety and well-being
should contact
the relevant authorities. Already of great public interest, we
would also
encourage the public to spread details of Robert's case a widely
as possible.
As
always we encourage that all approaches to the relevant authorities
are suitably
robust in content and concerns, but also polite, calm and reasonable.
The
UK Column is grateful for all and any information relating to
Robert Green's
case and the cover-up of child abuse within the UK.
"Parliament in Belgium has passed a bill allowing euthanasia for terminally ill children without any age limit, by 86 votes to 44, with 12 abstentions."
"When, as expected, the bill is signed by the king, Belgium will become the first country in the world to remove any age limit on the practice."
"It may be requested by terminally ill children who are in great pain and also have parental consent."
"Opponents argue children cannot make such a difficult decision."
"It is 12 years since Belgium legalised euthanasia for adults."
"In the Netherlands, Belgium's northern neighbour, euthanasia is legal for children over the age of 12, if there is parental consent."
"A court hearing to protest the forced removal of children from their parents by a London Council has been timed to coincide with the presentation of a petition to the European Parliament to seek redress for similar actions by different councils for thousands of families nationwide. The petition has attracted over 2,500 signatures on http://www.change.org/petitions/eu-parliament-abolish-adoptions-without-parental-consent ."
"A special meeting of the EU Petitions Committee will receive also a petition on 19 March from Latvian Laila Brice, whose five year old daughter was taken by Merton Council without a court order and put up for adoption."
"On the same day Haringey Council will apply to the British Family court for the adoption of the two youngest of Gloria and Chiwar Musa whose older five children were forcefully removed by police acting for the Council and the parents later jailed for supposedly having abused them."
"The Association of McKenzie Friends, a voluntary organisation that supports both families, is campaigning to stop the forced removal of children from their parents and their subsequent fostering or adoption without due process."
Robert Green, campaigner on behalf of child abuse victim Hollie Greig has been arrested again by police from Aberdeen who went to his home in England to raid his house and take him away across the border.
His mission has been to push for a proper investigation by the Scottish establishment into the Hollie Greig case but instead he has been imprisoned on trumped up charges and it looks like the same is to happen again.
What is revealing is that the mainstream media will not report on these matters. We can only ask why ? For some background information see holliedemandsjustice
Syvret, the courageous and principled ex politician in Jersey who was imprisoned for his stance against injustice, and in defence of child abuse victims, has now had his blog taken down by Google which names the perpetrators of child abuse. He has left this message on Rico Sorda`s blog:
The Jersey Establishment’s Impossible War Against Accountability.
The Jersey establishment are living – and thrashing around in – a world of the past – still trying to press the buttons and pull the levers and twiddle the dials of an apparatus that lays at their feet in a cratered smoking entanglement of wreckage. Their ‘machine’ is shattered and broken beyond all remedy, but still they prod it, hoping to make it work again, not accepting that it is over. They still believe in a world of a handful of over-powered and unaccountable potentates - some publicly known – some not – where the “right words” amongst a couple of chaps, in the right circles – in Jersey, in London - could smooth over any problems – get the “machine” going – and massage any scandals from public view. After all – with no separation of powers in Jersey – no effective checks and balances – and the same narrow grouping of mutually promoting and protecting friends on the dinner-party-circuit – all meaningful power was in the same little club. That’s how “The Jersey Way” has functioned for 800 years; ‘why should it not carry on like that?’ In truth, such an extraordinarily narrow, unaccountable and unhealthy concentration of power was long-obsolete in respectable democratic nations by the time the canker was really taking hold of the Jersey establishment in the 1970s - when the place first started to be awash with money from off-shore finance and the unrestrained decadence of absolute power really began to run wild. The Jersey authorities and the bosses who control them were already living in a feudal fantasy whilst the failures, corruptions and cover-ups - and the cover-ups of the cover-ups - grew and accumulated throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Even before the internet really arrived – in truth, so corrupt, so hubristic, so rotten, was public administration in Jersey, the fake surface of “respectability” was already fracturing, and the scandals were inevitably going to emerge. But here cometh the 21st century. An epochal change unparalleled in all of human history. For the first time ever, the power to control what the public do or don’t get to know – to control what the public can or can’t say – is out of the hands of entrenched elites. The power of ordinary citizens to find and publish evidence that rulers and governments don’t like has arrived with the advent of the internet, and the result has been seismic – bringing down regimes around the world. The doomed last stand being made by the Jersey oligarchy against citizens media – against real journalism – against the internet – against evidenced facts and the exposure of corruption - is their war against reality. Wars against reality only end one way. The Jersey oligarchs and their protectors in London think that they can do what no corrupt regime around the world had been able to do – and keep embarrassing exposures about them off the world wide web. My blog may have been taken-down by Google Blogger. But it - and all of the documented evidence it contains – will be up and available again somewhere on the world wide web in the coming days. And I know from the many messages I have had that many people welcome that. For some years now, really for the first time in the entire history of this small island community, the ordinary people have been able to see the reality of our leaders – the stagnation and failures – the frequent lawlessness of our governance. Not only have we seen it – increasingly, we understand it. We understand the wholly corrupted nature of power in this community. People who are victims of the corruption – of the failures – of the crimes - of the cover-ups – have been able to have evidence exposed and have their testimony published. That has only been able to happen because of Jersey’s bloggers – because of blogs like mine.Unfortunately for Jersey’s failed & unaccountable government, the genie is out of the bottle – and it can never be got back in. We as a community have seen the facts – enough evidence, of enough scandalous corruptions and cover-ups – to see the true nature of our public authorities. We’ve seen it now – and we’re never going to forget it. My blog – and what the previously powerless people of Jersey have been able to publish on it – the evidence we’ve been able to accumulate – the facts we’ve been able to expose – is an historic publication for the island. It marks an exposure of, and challenge to, traditional power in Jersey of a kind that’s never been able to happen previously. Not in over 800 years. And I’m proud that my blog has attracted so many oppressive attacks & lunatic abuses. I’m proud that the blog is targeted by these suppressions – proud that it elicits so much fear and hatred from the powerful. There are many people in Jersey – ordinary, vulnerable people – who have been the victims of corruption, oppression, violence, child-abuse, battery, rape, attempted murder – people who have been utterly failed, totally betrayed by Jersey’s public authorities - people who have been trampled and further abused by Jersey’s Crown prosecution and judicial apparatus. For so many of those people – so many of my former constituents who approached me with histories of the most scandalous failures of the system – abuses – shocking violence - simply overwhelming horror-stories – and by no means all concerning child-abuse – for many of those people, my blog was the first – and in many cases the only – public outlet for what they had suffered. Nowhere – ever – in any of Jersey’s traditional mainstream media – were the disastrous failures of the States – and the often horrifying criminal cover-ups by the Jersey system challenged and documented – as they are on my blog. Documents – facts – evidence; corruption exposed – failures challenged – fake consensuses overturned – crimes cited – names named. Just as real journalism in free Western countries is supposed to be. My blog became – and is - a source of hope - of validation - of support, for many powerless people in Jersey. And I am very proud of that fact. I’m proud that – with the support of others – I was able to do what Jersey’s establishment media failed to do for generations upon generations, and still fails to do. No matter that the establishment who run Jersey with the support of London, have tried everything to smear, discredit and stop the blog – and have persecuted me personally, tried all they could to discredit me, and tried to break me with all kinds of absurd and biased oppressions, even imprisoning me; no matter that they have tried everything they possibly could to make the blog seem some kind of bad and shameful thing – no matter that these people continue to try and make me think of my work on the blog as “bad” and “wrong” – I know, we know – that publishing the evidence – publishing witness testimony concerning serious wrongdoing – is a good and creditable thing.
What I - and Jersey bloggers like Rico Sorda and Voice for Children do is good for powerless people – good for this community. I’ve had many conversations with people who have suffered at the hands of the corruption, injustice, neglect and abuse that characterises power in Jersey. People should have been protected from such things. And when protection failed, the culpable should have been held to account - the wrongdoers should have been punished; justice should have been served. In so many cases in Jersey, that didn’t happen. The overwhelming motivation of Jersey’s stagnant public authorities has been the protection of those authorities - and the protection of the powerful. My blog publishes the facts – the witness testimony – the documents – the evidence. I’m proud of that fact. Many people have contacted me, upset that the powerful in Jersey seem to be concealing the truth again. I want people - whose stories are on my blog, and whose experiences inform so much of the blog – to know that their testimony – their brave whistle-blowing – their truth – will be restored, soon. The internet gives us that power. The power to share. To see. And to understand. And to never forget. I’m proud that my blog has given that power to so many previously voiceless people in Jersey. Stuart Syvret
Does your child need a "named person" in order to promote, support or safeguard their wellbeing? The Scottish Government is proposing just such a move, appointing a named person for every person under 18 in Scotland.
We debated the subject in Parliament this week and the Minister argued that such a person, typically a health visitor or a teacher, would help all families access services, information and support. Most of the children’s organisations such as Barnardo’s back such a move saying that taking a universal approach to providing children with a point of contact is in keeping with the GIRFEC principles, child protection based on Getting It Right For Every Child.
Now, I do not have a knee jerk opposition to state intervention, but I find myself questioning the need and the practicality of this measure. I am certainly not going to lay claim to being a perfect parent, but is this really the best use of tax payers’ money and teachers’ time? My main worry is that despite the best of intentions the whole exercise could end up diverting scarce resources away from the children most in need.
There are few people across Scotland who fail to recognise the need to protect and help our most vulnerable children. The national news is filled too often by stories of neglect and abuse and the all too horrific consequences with children dying at the hands of their own parents. At the same time, it is difficult to see how appointing a named person to look after for example each of my six children, will do anything to improve child protection or to prevent such deaths occurring again. I simply fail to follow the argument that by giving a health visitor or a teacher responsibility for let’s say 30 well brought up children, or even dare I say, not particularly well brought up children, that will help them recognise the one that needs support and intervention. The danger is that time spent filling in forms for 30 children who will never need any intervention is time that could be better spent on those children in desperate need of help. Resources diverted to children who are thriving, loved and nurtured are resources not spent on the neglected and vulnerable.
As far as I am aware, teachers already have a professional duty and an ethical and legal obligation to pick up on kids who are turning up late for school, badly fed, poorly dressed or otherwise showing signs of lack of care. The same duty applies even more clearly to health visitors. How does seeking assurance from those same teachers that the vast majority of children in their care do not need help in any way assist them in identifying those in danger of slipping through the net? Is there not an obvious risk of creating an administratively cumbersome and bureaucratically complex system but with no additional practical benefit? Will there be a file for every child? Who will keep that file? What happens when staff move on as they often do? At the very least we need to clarify what this additional duty as a named person will mean...
It is my understanding that the GIRFEC pilots have been viewed as successful and that the Education Committee is taking evidence on these very matters over the next few weeks and months...
My sons education has been ruined by the GIRFEC system already up and running in the highlands. We are now picking up the pieces for a fed up 17 year old boy.
His health problems were complicated and varied. School took no notice of this, made him and us feel ridiculous for even expecting any help. After taking the highland education authority to arbitration we were given a very minimal amount of help.
The education authority sent a “family worker” to help us. After two 30 min visits I was told that my son would be taken into care if he did not return to school.
He has since had two emergency life saving operations .
So the named person is the point of contact who will assess the child`s needs, and share data with other agencies to facilitate and co-ordinate the services .
"Since 2012, over 800,000 children have had their biometric data taken by the government in the United Kingdom via the school system. One 13-year-old girl is refusing to comply with the demands."
"In 31 percent of cases, the programs obtaining fingerprints or other biometric data from minors across the UK have done so without parental consent, according to Big Brother Watch. The civil liberties watchdog filed Freedom of Information Requests with over 3,000 schools. Less than half of those schools responded as required by law."
"As we are now one term into the 2013-14 academic year, and expect the number of schools using the technology to have increased over the summer, and the secondary school population now above 3.2 million, if the number of secondary schools using biometric technology increased from 25% to 30%, more than one million children would be fingerprinted."
"A 13-year-old student at a school in Wales refused to submit to the data collection. Melody, whose last name is being withheld due to her age, doubted the school’s good intentions when it was declared that fingerprints were going to be collected from students in order to shorten lines in the cafeteria. A simple act of defiance was not enough for Melody, who discussed her idea for a one-person protest with her mother, Kirstie, over dinner. Her mother signed a form stating that she did not give consent for her daughter to be fingerprinted."
"Thousands of children with autism are being illegally excluded from schools in England, a charity claims. In a survey of 500 families, Ambitious about Autism found four in 10 children had been informally excluded from school temporarily, which is illegal. The charity said children with autism were being asked to stay at home, miss school trips and activities and to attend lessons on a part-time basis."
"The charity said that as about 71,00 children have the condition, it could mean more than 28,000 children were subject to illegal exclusions across England. Schools in England must follow procedures set out by the Department for Education when excluding pupils, for example, a head teacher must notify parents of the period of the exclusion and the reasons for it. Ambitious about Autism suggests that schools may be resorting to informal exclusions - which could also mean refusing to allow youngsters to take part in social activities or school trips - because they are unable to support youngsters with autism."
"While schools have a legal right to formally exclude a child, this should be done only as a last resort, it argues, and plans should be put in place to ensure the pupil is still getting an education."
"One parent, Clare Moore, said: "I have lost count of the number of times different schools have rung and asked me to collect my son early or keep him at home because they could not support his needs."
"Jolanta Lasota, chief executive of Ambitious about Autism, said: "It is shocking so many children with autism are missing out on education. All schools are legally bound to provide quality full-time education to all pupils, including children with autism. Asking parents to collect their children early or putting them on part-time hours is against the law and fails to address the underlying need for schools to make reasonable adjustments to include children with autism."
"A PAEDOPHILE doctor has been freed from jail after a parole board rejected a Scottish Government plea to keep him behind bars over fears he will attack children. Leslie Mitchell, 60, was jailed for four years in 2010 for trying to lure two girls, aged 10 and 11, into his car. The judge at the High Court said Mitchell had wanted to have sex with the girls and told him he might never be released from prison after imposing a new order that allows the authorities to hold a prisoner indefinitely."
"But Mitchell, who told social workers he had sexually abused other girls, got his sentence reduced on appeal and has been freed despite ministers’ opposition. The doctor, originally from Falkirk, now lives in social housing in nearby Bo’ness. In parole board documents seen by the Sunday Mail, ministers said there was not enough evidence to suggest he would not be a risk to the public."
"But Mitchell told the board he needed to go back into the community to "test" whether his rehabilitation had worked. And he admitted to his psychologist during a risk assessment shortly before his release that he had engaged in sexual activity with young girls three times in the last decade. Despite this, his application was approved by all but one of the parole board’s members."
"Mitchell, who worked in the casualty ward at Stirling Royal Infirmary, was jailed for at least four years in September 2010 after trying to lure two girls into his car. He had been convicted at Falkirk Sheriff Court in June 2010."
|Scottish Conservative chief whip John Lamont said: "It sounds like this individual has been able to persuade the parole board rather easily. Releasing this man as a road-test of his rehabilitation is not the kind of risk we should be taking. "Now that his release has been highlighted, the Scottish Government better ensure they watch him extremely closely. If he does reoffend, there will be some extraordinarily difficult questions to answer."
"A sociology lecturer is warning that a plan for the government in Scotland to assign an adult overseer for every child born in the country could lead to the targeting of perfectly good and careful parents. According to a report from the Christian Institute, a legal organization that fights on behalf of parental rights, lecturer Stuart Waiton is warning of the negative consequences of a plan up for a vote later this month."
"It will take very little to trigger an investigation into a child and from there a false picture can easily be arrived at," he said. Innocent issues such as what a child eats, or the views they express, could make "good parents fair game" for the "health and safety zealots, obsessed with risk management," he said."
"Aidan O’Neill told in the organization’s report that the scheme, in fact, might violate the European Convention on Human Rights, which says the state should respect "private and family life."
"He said the bill appears to establish that the "primary relationship" for children will be with the government, not their parents."
"WND reported that Will Estrada, director of federal relations for the HSLDA, believes the idea is an outgrowth of the general belief held by organizations such as the United Nations that government knows best for everyone."
Free church leaders have criticised the Children and Young People Bill and in particular the proposal that there should be a named person involved in the life of every child because this would interfere with the traditional role of the family.
The key issue is the right of parents to consent to an investigation into their private and family life. In the rest of Britain, the state has to prove that a child is at risk of suffering significant harm before ordering an investigation. But the "Named Person" proposal would remove that threshold so the state could investigate a family for any reason.
A similar scheme, called Every Child Matters, was tried in the Isle of Man several years ago. Public authorities were encouraged to report even the slightest concern to children’s social care. In the first year, referrals to children’s social care increased by 500 per cent, but there was no increase in the average number of children on the child protection register. Over-referral then led to a huge problem with the employment and retention of social workers due to the increased workload.
The island’s social care minister told a select committee of the Tynwald in July that the government would never use a similar scheme in the future. The committee has publicly stated that over-referral of children to social services threatens the protection of children at risk of significant harm because of the difficulty of finding the needle when you make the haystack enormous. If the Isle of Man can learn from its mistakes, then so can Scotland.
"A loving mother was spied on by teachers and accused of making up her child’s autism after she demanded more help in the classroom. Jenny Lockley was suspected of having Münchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP) – in which sufferers fabricate illness in a child to draw attention to themselves – because she insisted her son Sam had needed support."
Nursery school teachers dismissed three diagnoses of autism, one by a world-renowned doctor, and put the 39-year-old through an experience she described as a ‘witch hunt’.
Mrs Lockley is just one of dozens of parents of autistic children who have contacted The Mail on Sunday saying teachers or social workers have accused them of fabricating their offspring’s disorder.
This is despite statistics showing there are only about 64 cases a year in Britain of MSBP, while one in 100 children are thought to be autistic.
It is also despite the fact that the label MSBP has been discredited but has still been used to cover-up vaccine damage.
"The story of what happened to the UK professional Lisa Blakemore-Brown when she voiced her concerns about vaccines, has all the intrigue and drama associated with an Agatha Christie crime novel. The sad reality is that this has not been written as a work of fiction but to expose the horrific facts surrounding her case and the efforts made to cover up vaccine damage in children."
"Her case began when a number of unsubstantiated complaints arrived at the offices of the British Psychological Society attacking the professionalism of the leading educational psychologist and expert in autism Ms. Lisa Blakemore-Brown. Instead of backing their psychologist as one would expect, the BPS backed the complainants and accused Ms Blakemore-Brown of being paranoid. On each occasion she won her case, one complaint turning out to be based on a forged document and the final complaint being lodged by a support group heavily funded by a drugs company. Despite her spectacular wins however, she not only lost her home but she has had her career totally sabotaged."
"The suicides have turned Bridgend-a working-class former mining town of some 39,000 people near the western shore of South Wales-into a place of palpable sorrow and dread. Nestled in a valley and often shadowed by dark clouds and thick fog, the town cannot escape the specter of so many unexplained deaths, and authorities there are desperately trying to prevent copycats. Two years ago police asked the media to stop covering the suicides, which has led many to believe the death toll is higher. An officer at the Bridgend police station told a reporter for PEOPLE, "I'm not allowed to talk about it. It would be my job." And the South Wales police department declined to comment beyond saying through a press officer that "we do not believe the deaths were linked."
"The absence of concrete answers or plans on how to control the deaths has led to wild speculation: Could the deaths be the work of a serial killer? Could there be a suicide cult? Did the victims-most of them normal kids, many with solid plans for the future-make some kind of secret pact to meet on the other side? Prior to the news blackout, police insisted there was no evidence of such a cult or pact. Yet there is no denying the connections among the victims or the feeling each hanging somehow triggered the next-an unstoppable contagion that has left locals terrified. After her husband's death, "If my son was late getting up, I was petrified, and he felt the same way about me," Michelle, a schoolteacher's assistant, says of her son, now 19. "I still wonder sometimes what am I going to find upstairs."
Dr David Healy is a psychiatrist and author who has written a post about the Bridgend suicides. He raises the point that coroners often do not take heed of the medications, such as antidepressants, that the deceased person had been taking. Yet it is known that many drugs can trigger suicidal tendencies and this has been demonstrated by him in trials of healthy individuals.
In the England and Wales there are roughly 5000 suicides in roughly 60 million people per year. This would until recently have led to around 2000 hangings per year, 34 hangings per million people per year, 3.5 per 100,000 people per year.
Bridgend in South Wales has a population of 40,000. The greater Bridgend area has a population of 130,000. There should be 18 hangings per 100,000 people over a 5 year period, 24 per 130,000 per year.
In recent years however in both the US and UK there has been a rise in the number of hangings so that this mode of death now accounts for 50% of cases. If this applies in the Bridgend area, we might expect 28 hangings per 130,000 over a 5 year period, roughly 6 per year.
There were in fact 79 hangings in Bridgend between January 2007 and February 2012. The hangings continue unabated, so the true figure may be in the 90s. This means there have been 16 per year – an excess of 10 or more hangings per year.
The police could find no evidence to link the deaths but according to the coroner it was the sensationalist reporting by the media that was causing copycat suicides. One link that was ignored was the fact that many of the deceased young people were on antidepressants.
Having coroners refuse to keep a public record of drug intake and browbeat the media into keeping silent seems like the worst of all possible worlds.
A laptop computer containing sensitive data about looked after children was stolen from a member of a fostering and adoption panel in Edinburgh. Among the files on the computer were minutes from dozens of reviews regarding children removed from their families by social services. Edinburgh City Council, which operates the fostering system, admitted the laptop data had not been encrypted.
Foster parents spoke of their concerns over the theft. Reviews of parents are carried out periodically and involve discussing how the fostered children are settling with the family, along with any behavioural or medical problems.
One foster parent told the Evening News: "The council got in touch and said the minutes of dozens of meetings were contained on a laptop which had been stolen, and there may have been a data protection leak. From what we understood there could have been several years’ worth.
"We got the impression that they were supposed to be very hot on confidentiality. You can’t discuss certain things with your neighbours, so it’s somewhat ironic that this has happened at their end."
It appears that lessons are not easily learned. Again councils and care agencies have been criticised for failing to safeguard personal data. Local authorities and independent fostering and adoption agencies are not always adequately protecting the information on their computers about looked-after children.
An investigation by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) found "highly sensitive" information about children and adults is routinely emailed between independent agencies and local authorities for the purposes of arranging care placements without encryption safeguards being put in place.
The information includes the medical history, marital status, relationship information, employment, criminal convictions and religious beliefs of the prospective foster carer/adopter; as well as medical history, birth parent information, placement history, educational achievement, behaviour issues and ethnicity details for children awaiting a foster carer or adopter.
Last year, the ICO issued two councils with penalties totalling £150,000 after sensitive information about the care of young people was lost by children’s services.
Given that the GIRFEC approach in Scotland involves gathering data on all children, even before a child is born, and continuing with the data mining for 18 years after the birth, the amount of information in files is going to be enormous. Apart from a consideration of the other issues which opponents express about the GIRFEC Bill, past experience informs us that whenever there is data to play around with, not only is the data exchanged between officials not always accurate - but keeping that data secure cannot be guaranteed.
Barnardo`s Scotland has addressed the criticisms of the Children and Young People Bill made by Mel Kelly in OurKingdom last week. They feel that Mel Kelly has misunderstood the role of universal services and preventative work.
According to Barnardo`s the Bill will generate a legal framework to allow the various public bodies who provide services to children to co-ordinate their effort in order to work with children and families at an earlier stage. The named person will all ready be known to the child and will be the first point of contact. Barnardo`s goes on to say:
Mel sets out two main pillars for her case against these proposals, and in particular the named person. Firstly she argues that "no state government is fit to be the over-riding guardian of every child in any country" and secondly that while "when children are identified as at risk and social work departments are involved it is vital there is a "named person", but that checking on all our children's wellbeing will lead to a system that is "overzealous and overburdened by tracking every child in Scotland – whether they are at risk or not". [Barnardo`s muddle]
However, children are not born with an ‘at risk’ label on their forehead. If it was this easy to spot the children who were in danger social work would be a much easier job.[Barnardo`s is saying: Let`s make the job of social work easier, by targetting EVERYBODY. That is, `Be overzealous.`]
"The Scottish parliament is on its way to passing a law that would assign a state 'named person' to every child in Scotland until the age of 18. Not only is this an unacceptable intrusion on liberty but it could actually harm the state's ability to track genuinely at risk children like Mikaeel Kumar."
"In 2012, the SNP government undertook a consultation on their proposed Children and Young Person Bill which set out a range of ambitious proposals for children’s rights and services. This far-reaching bill passed its first reading in November 2013 and will cover children’s rights, adoption, nursery provision, child protection, child detention and a clear definition of "Corporate Parenting". Will it address the failings in the current child protection system which failed to stop the death of 3 year old Mikaeel Kular?"
The Belgian government announced today that the debate on the child euthanasia bill, in the Chamber of Deputies, will occur on February 12 and the vote will likely happen the next day, but possibly on the same day of the debate.
Similar to the Groningen Protocol in the Netherlands, the extension of euthanasia to children in Belgian is based on allowing euthanasia for children with disabilities.
It is likely that the bill is being fast tracked because a strong opposition to the bill is developing.
"A Fathers4Justice campaigner has been jailed for six months for defacing a portrait of the Queen with paint in Westminster Abbey."
"Tim Haries, who told jurors he vandalised the picture to highlight the "social justice issue of our time", had denied causing criminal damage of more than £5,000 but was found guilty at London's Southwark crown court last month."
"The judge said the sentence must acknowledge Haries's distress and unhappiness, but have regard to the case's aggravating features, and to a degree deter others."
"I accept that your separation from your daughters for a period of four years caused you real anguish. I also accept that you felt that the legal processes by which you tried to have contact with them had failed you."
"But I do not accept that the means that you chose to adopt to make your protest were in any way justified."
Such is the state of the justice system in the United Kingdom that in contrast many paedophiles, convicted of crimes against children, are let off with suspended sentences or community orders.
"Women who had their childhoods ‘stolen away’, locked up in Catholic-run workhouses received a qualified apology from the Irish government ... Over a period of 70 years, an estimated 10,000 were sent to the ‘Magdalene laundries’ to carry out unpaid manual labour under the supervision of nuns."
"Some were sent because they were the children of unmarried mothers, others for crimes as minor as not paying a train ticket. Survivors of the Catholic-run institutions have asked for a fuller and more frank admission from government and the religious orders involved."
"Incredibly the last of the ten laundries, which washed clothes and linen for major hotel groups, the Irish armed forces and even the brewer Guinness, was in operation until 1996. They were established in 1922."
"The move follows an 18-month inquiry chaired by senator Martin McAleese which found one in four of the women sent to the laundries had been sent by the state."
There is a drive towards reducing the amount of time children spend with their families with calls for extended school days and shorter holidays. The Government is also introducing legislation to make it easier to allow schools to provide nursery provision for two-year-olds. Ministers say this should help mothers get back into part-time work. Others say this is a move towards disrupting family life and more state control of children.
The Government would like to see primary school sites open for more hours in the day, from 8-6 if possible, and for more weeks in the year, offering a blend of education, childcare and extra-curricular activities."
The DfE suggested that primaries and secondaries follow the lead of schools such as the Harris Academy Chain and Norwich Free School.
Norwich Free School has chidlcare facilities open from 8.15am to 5.45pm, 51 weeks of the year, and offers occasional sleepovers, the DfE said, while every new Harris Academy will open from 8am to 6pm, as well as giving parents the option of holiday childcare.
"On 24 February 2014, Harriet Harman MP, a national officer of the NCCL as a young lawyer after 1976, appeared on Newsnight to deny renewed allegations that She and her husband Jack Dromey MP had supported PIE when it was affiliated to the NCCL. The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail had claimed that the couple and former Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt were apologists for child sex abuse while they were officers at the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL)."
