Censorship and cover-up

[From UK Column News 24 July 2018]

"The UK conservative government is now clearly operating beyond authority. We have a cabal running the country. Even backbencher MPs have no idea what`s happening in Westminster. So it`s simply the members of the Cabinet Office and the secretive P... Office. which is dealing with the global corporations and international banks with connections through to the Privy Council and this is all secret, certainly to other members of parliament but also to the public. So we have a cabal, many people would say a criminal cabal, running the country. Let`s remember that the fuel for UK politics is the abuse of children."

 

"Just an amazing headline here from the Daily Mail a few days ago. Forget the bit about the The `drink sodden world` of EU boss sneering at Britain, what we`re really looking at is the main headline. `What a cosy cover-up!`"

"And basically this was pointing out that MPs have voted for anonymity if they`re accused of sexual harassment and if there`s any hint of expenses fraud. And what the Daily Mail article pointed out was that minutes after this vote was taken a list of politicians under investigation vanished from Parliament`s website."

"Now I find this particularly interesting because a few weeks ago we actually made contact with the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner`s office to ask some questions about Mr Keith Vaz , but on that particular day back in June - I think it was the 22nd June - what we established was that this lady....Kathryn Hudson was going to step down as the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner and we were intrigued to see that she was going to be replaced by a new lady. This is Kathryn Stone; and her background is looking after children with special needs before becoming a qualified child protection social worker and mental health expert."

"And this just seemed a fascinating qualification to then move over to be Parliamentary Standards Commissioner. It just seems a little bit too interesting."
 

Keith Vaz

 

"Well at the time ... 22 June, we had a look at the Parliamentary Standards web page and one of the things we could see here was `under Investigation by the Commissioner`. We were interested in Mr Vaz; and apparently the Vaz inquiry is confidential. That`s what we were told. No information can be disclosed to the public in the interests of fairness. That is clearly fair to Mr Vaz. I don`t think it`s particularly fair to the public but of course the public doesn`t count. We were told that no comment could be made on whether the video of Mr Vaz forms the base of evidence. This is the video which appeared to show him in a room with some rent boys and there was a discussion of drugs. The inquiry, even though there`s video evidence, could take years."

Mike Robinson: "Was there any explanation as to why."

"No, except I have to say the lady I spoke to was unbelievably nervous as I asked some fairly reasonable and gentle questions. She did say that Mr Vaz had not been suspended and she was also happy to say the first police investigation had been dropped."

"But the important thing here is that even going to the government website I was able to find some information because I knew that something was going on. But now enter 2018. So there was that web page. It`s been replaced by this web page. And what`s significant? Well we have the same designator ... Sorry we`ve got `Complaints and Investigations` but on the original screen on the left we have names on the screen. On the right we just have the Complaints process. So all these names disappear and they`ve been whitewashed out Mike. And the other thing is the Current Inquiries bar has also disappeared from the government`s website. So the MPs clearly circling the wagons now to defend themselves when people come forward with allegations of sexual harassment or expenses fraud."  

 
"Well Mr Vaz seems to be doing OK because the probe, not investigation - it`s called a probe now, whatever that means - has already lasted two years and nobody knows when this is going to be completed. Now if we remind ourselves what happened: he stood down as Chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, looking at matters to do with vice after the Sunday Mirror reported he had discussed buying cocaine with a rent boy (male prostitute). So the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner launched a probe into whether he was guilty of a conflict of interest because he had been leading a review of vice laws at the same time as the allegations. So that`s a very difficult thing for them to establish Mike, even with a video. So years have gone by and we`ve still not got any result but now the whole thing has become totally secret." 

"Something that was quite interesting was that the UK Column had a report, and I would say from a source that we would say was reliable, and in that report it was alleged that one or both of the rent boys who were apparently present at the incident with Mr Vaz were attacked and badly beaten in Poland by persons as yet unknown."

"So that`s the allegation that those rent boys were attacked and beaten very badly in Poland but there isn`t any evidence at the moment who did it. That`s what we are being told. We`ll see whether we get more reports on that."

"So here we are, a report in the Sun: police drop initial investigation, into the Leicester East MP 18 months ago and the new Standards Commissioner Kathryn Stone has told MPs she is referring the case back to the Met. But at the same time they`re apparently also looking into the fact people are not too sure where all his money is coming from."

"So what can we see? We can see our parliament becoming increasingly secretive, to the extent it`s not even worth making an allegation because this will simply stay undercover and you have no idea whether any investigation takes place."

Cliff Richard

"So couple it with Cliff Richard, and we`ve pointed it out before, but basically as a result of incompetence or possibly a planned action by the BBC, we can now see the law rapidly moving towards a position where you cannot make any public allegation against anybody because this will come back on you, in order to protect the identity of these individuals."

"So at least Ian Murray here of the Society of Editors said it had worrying consequences for Press freedom and the public`s right to know ... But of course Tory MP Nigel Evans dismissed those concerns over Press Freedom saying: they [the journalists] are worried that they can`t trash people`s reputations."

Prince Charles and Peter Ball

"And that brings us nicely to the so-called independent child abuse inquiry because in the last few days it`s emerged that Prince Charles`s lawyers have been arguing with the inquiry`s legal team over the manner in which he produces evidence in relation to Bishop Ball who was imprisoned as a result of sexual abuse. So we`re not going to find out really what Prince Charles has got to say but interestingly enough one of the lawyers working for survivors said this: `We wish to register our surprise and concern that the Prince has chosen to put his evidence to the inquiry in the form of a letter as opposed to a witness statement verified by a statement of truth in the normal way that survivors giving evidence to this inquiry have done`. So one rule for the survivors. Totally different one for Prince Charles. And he goes on to say: `Concerns around Charles`s letter include that it may be `less than entirely frank about his personal relationship with Peter Ball and that it contains matters to which he is reluctant to attach a formal statement of truth`. And this lawyer, Richard Scorer, also retweeted this little report by a lady called Linda Woodhead. She said: `IICSA today on the Peter Ball scandal hears of the extraordinary lengths to which Prince Charles`s lawyers went to wiggle out of complying with IICSA`s request that the Prince give a witness statement to the inquiry like everyone else. Even invoking European convention on Human Rights`."

"So obviously Prince Charles desperate that he does not have to give evidence in the same way that survivors or members of the public would. Why would he be so shy?"

"Well this tweet was sent through to me. And I`ve got to say I think the gentleman`s comments fit. So it`s a Brian P Willmot and he says  `Any person who is Not prepared to stand and tell the Truth has something to hide` and it certainly seems that this is the case on this one Mike."

Melanie Shaw

"And perhaps this leads us nicely into Melanie Shaw. And let`s remind ourselves that Melanie Shaw`s local MP is a gentleman called Chris Leslie. Several people contacted me to point out that here was Mr Leslie getting very excited about the standards in prison. So we`re going back to January here, but he said: `Shocking `urgent notification` from Chief Inspector into `fundamentally unsafe` Nottingham Prison, echoing concerns I raised in Commons debate last year: eight suicides recently; 200 assaults in past 6 months; 30% positive for drugs. New Lord Chancellor David Gauke must act now`. But remarkable that this gentleman Mike doesn`t want to act for Melanie Shaw who`s been brutalised by these very failings in other prisons."

Mike Robinson: "And he was even her employer at one point."

"Yes he was her employer at one point and there is a photograph ... where he`s sat next to her on a sofa holding her hand to show his level of support for child abuse victims. But it appears like many MPs Chris Leslie is duplicitous when it comes to actions to protect Melanie Shaw."

"Now I`d like to just look at this excellent letter that Robert Green sent to Christ Leslie and let`s read through."

"`Dear Mr Leslie,

I have contacted you, as have many others over the years, about the disgraceful ongoing plight of your constituent Melanie Shaw.

I do not propose to go through the details of this case, as I feel confident that you have been fully informed about the state`s unrelenting persecution of this poor, defenceless and acknowledged victim of multiple sexual abuse, committed whilst in the supposed `care` of the Nottinghamshire authorities. Indeed, one local authority employee, Andris Logins, has been convicted of  multiple rapes committed at the very care home in which Melanie was placed and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. His wife, Helen Logins, another Nottingham council social worker, has also been convicted for aiding and abetting her husband.

I and others have been in regular contact with Amnesty International as the evidence suggests that Melanie, during her controversial imprisonment has been the victim of torture, administered by the UK state. The case is, I am told being currently considered by that international organisation...

We now know, due to recent revelations, that the British government is perfectly capable, not only of being complicit in torture, but also even prepared to publicly lie about it, as demonstrated by the misconduct of Jack Straw. At least one excuse, weak though it is, was that such torture was used on suspected foreign terrorists operating outside the United Kingdom.

Melanie Shaw, on the other hand, is a Nottingham woman and UK national who has apparently been tortured in British prisons because of the evidence she is prepared to put before the IICSA, in providing details of serious crimes committed at Beechwood Home that may implicate high-ranking public individuals, including, I understand, a person formerly a colleague of the current Prime Minister.

As Melanie is clearly an absolutely crucial, high-profile witness in the IICSA investigation into widescale child sexual abuse in the Nottingham area, I found it shocking that the inquiry has not already interviewed her, regardless of the incarceration that can only be explained rationally as a means of silencing her.

I have therefore sent key details to the IICSA`s current head, Professor Alexis Jay and her deputy, Liz Long, has written to me to confirm that these details have indeed been read by Professor Jay. There can now be no further excuse for the failure to interview Melanie.

And he ends by saying,  As her elected parliamentary representative, what are you going to do about it?

Yours sincerely,

Robert Green.`"

"So a truly excellent letter from Robert and I think this should provide a lead for many other people to write to Chris Leslie with that key question: what are you going to do to help Melanie Shaw, Chris Leslie?"

"Well if we remind ourselves that IICSA itself still refuses to take evidence from Melanie Shaw or even communicate with her, despite the fact that Melanie has said publicly she wants to speak to the inquiry, despite the fact that contact has been made with the inquiry on her behalf, including, it`s alleged, by Mr Chris Leslie himself, IICSA says `can`t act unless Melanie calls us` but of course Melanie can`t call them because she`s denied phone calls in prison."

"And we`ll finish the section by reminding people, of course, of the untimely haste with which Beechwood Children`s Home was sold off and demolished after Nottingham police fail to carry out a full and proper forensic investigation and, more recently, UK Column has informed people that reports about Beechwood have been pulled from mainstream media sites and the BBC as a result of collaboration between Nottingham City & County Council and Nottingham police."

"So censoring of the news there Mike in order to help silence and cover up abuse of children."

 

"So we`ll come back to Robert here because this was such a wonderful statement. Robert said this: So Melanie Shaw is desperate to give evidence to IICSA and it has so far refused to take it.  Meanwhile Prince Charles is desperate to avoid giving evidence to IICSA.... What is going on?"

IICSA and NSPCC

"Well there can only be one answer. We`re witnessing a cover-up by the British government. And if we come back to the inquiry itself, a very big thank you to the person who pointed this out to us. The inquiry commissioned this report. It`s called A Rapid Evidence Assessment: What can be learnt from other jurisdictions about preventing and responding to child sexual abuse. And ... the University of Lancashire has been commissioned to carry out this piece of work by the so-called independent child abuse  inquiry."

"What did they do? They looked at information on the internet Mike."

"Really?"

"Yeah. So we have these people: Lorraine Radford, Helen Richardson Foster, Christine Barter and Nicky Stanely. They carried out this work for the so-called independent child abuse inquiry. Fascinating report. I would encourage people to see it online. Here`s the Executive Summary."

"This Rapid Evidence Assessment was commissioned by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales which is investigating  whether public bodies and other non-state institutions have taken seriously their duties to care for and protect children and young people from child sexual abuse and exploitation. The question for the review was: What can be learnt from jurisdictions outside of England and Wales, about the role of institutions, including accountable state and non-state organisations with responsibility for children in preventing and responding to child sexual abuse and exploitation?"

"What they seem to have done here, Mike, is to produce the answers for a whitewash. `No jurisdiction has everything right. While overall robust research on what is effective is limited, there is plenty of promising evidence that can be developed further to inform work in England and Wales`."

"So we got it wrong. but don`t worry because in the future we can put it right. `Adequately resourced, comprehensive, multi sector approaches that aim to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse and exploitation are likely to be the most effective approaches.` But these are the approaches that have failed. We`ve got a nice circular argument."

"What`s special about the research team? Well I did a little bit of an investigation and I find by an amazing coincidence they`re all linked to NSPCC and in their own report of course they`ve then used a lot of NSPCC information saying how NSPCC is apparently stopping the abuse of children. This is all independent you understand."

Mike Robinson: "And there`s no possibility that the NSPCC could ... be criticised by the independent public inquiry if the independent inquiry was doing their job properly."

Brian Gerrish laughs. "eh Yes And we remember that it was NSPCC that was first of all taking phone calls and there was such outrage amongst the abuse survivors and others that they had to drop the contract."

"Right. So they were running the call centre for the independent inquiry at the beginning and whereas many of the survivors were saying, `well hold on`, the NSPCC was involved in the abuse, or at least helped cover it up in the past; so what are they doing taking phone calls off of us?"

"Yes. ... Well this is what independence is about Mike. But it gets better because I did a little bit of research before the news today on IICSA`s site and here we`ve got their own documentation showing that in Rochdale going back into 1974 - 1989 we`ve got NSPCC taking over child protection from the local authorities. So seemingly here NSPCC must be implicated in the very failings that the independent inquiry is now asking an NSPCC experienced team to report on."

"Good stuff."

"But it`s not a cover-up."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH4A4UL1KDY

More time wasting for discredited Named Person scheme

[Tom Peterkin]

"The controversial scheme to give every Scottish child a named person is set for yet more delays after the academic charged with making it workable was granted more time to do his job."

"Professor Ian Welsh has been put in charge of a panel tasked with sorting out data protection issues that saw the original policy rejected by the Supreme Court."

"Welsh has written to Education Secretary John Swinney to say that his panel needs `additional time` and has asked for its September deadline for reporting back to be extended until `later in the autumn`."

"The legislation has already been subjected to major delay as a result of it being taken to court. In his letter Welsh said the impact of the summer holidays on the education sector meant more time was needed."

"A spokesman for No To Named Person campaign which took the court action said: `It`s another day, another delay and a whole lot more taxpayers` money wasted on this embarrassment of a policy. It`s no surprise that John Swinney is `happy to accept` another delay. It seems he will do whatever it takes to dodge the only decision that ought to be taken: ditching this discredited legislation`."

[Scotsman 22 July 2018]

Named Person recap

Also Seemis: Overriding consent for sharing information

Anti-extremism scheme for boy activist

Who`s behind government policy ?

"We suffer the consequences, but who makes the policy?" asks Brian Gerrish on UK Column News, Wednesday 18 July 2018.

"And as we`ve just heard at the start of our news today the British government is descending into chaos. But somebody behind the scenes is still pulling the strings and making the decisions." 

 

"Let`s have a look at this organisation which was flagged up to us a couple of days ago: the Horizon Scanning Programme team.  `Horizon Scanning is about exploring what the future might look like to understand uncertainties better`. And the UK government is crowing about this in quite a number of places. So apparently it`s not about making predictions, but systematically investigating evidence about future trends. Horizon scanning apparently helps government to `analyse whether it`s adequately prepared for potential opportunities and threats, and this helps ensure that policies are resilient to different future environments`."

"So we`ve got a Horizon Scanning Programme team `coordinating strategic horizon scanning work across departments, drawing on insights from experts in and outside government to challenge our thinking`. So note there that we`re bringing in experts from outside government. Who are these experts? It`s not easy to see but we`re going to work on this and see whether we can pin some of them down at least."

 

"But here`s the Horizon Programme team responsible for `coordinating work between departments and input from those experts outside the Civil Service; creating communities of interest around specific topics; improving cross-government horizon scanning; developing networks to gather and share information; bringing emerging issues to a senior-level audience`."

"So this is really incredible stuff. It`s working on government policy but they say `well it isn`t really`. Let`s have a look at the detail. How does this thing come about? Well prior to 2014 we had a Cabinet Office Horizon Scanning Secretariat and we had a Government Office of Science`s Horizon Scanning Centre. They merged March. That produced the Horizon Scanning Programme Team."

"We`ve got a Steering Group which is the Cabinet Secretary`s Advisory Group. And if you don`t know what these organisations are, I`m going to say we didn`t until recently. Research it yourself because there`s a lot of questions to be asked here."

 

"So here`s the overall chair. It`s our old friend Jeremy Heywood, immensely powerful individual within government and the Civil Service; and the overall minister the Rt Hon David Lidington CBE MP. Now he`s the Duchy of Lancaster, treasurer, so that`s a very important role. Previously he was [with] BP and another pretty high profile global company. So what takes place in these organisations? Well we`re hopefully now starting to get a glimpse. But what we can say with certainty is that they are closely tied in with what was the government`s Behavioural Insights team and this was the British government using applied psychology in order to change the way people.... think and behave."

"And apparently this organisation has had its own ten commandments and so we`ve got a Dr John Carney here, the Principal Scientist within the Systems Thinking and Consulting Group of the Defence Science and Technology lab but he`s previously been Team Leader for Horizon Scanning."

"He had this to say: `Don`t think that Horizon Scanning is about predicting the future - this is a common misconception. The value of Horizon Scanning is using it to change mind-sets.`  So that`s a pretty powerful statement there that. These people, not all of them are in government, certainly not put in positions of power by a democratic process, but they`re working to change our mind-sets. We`re not actually told how those mind-sets are going to be changed..."
 
"But this is the sort of stuff they`re getting up to. And the bottom one here caught my attention. `Social attitudes of young people`. We can find one of their papers here. The interesting thing about this paper is that there`s no authors mentioned on it. So they don`t seem to want to say who actually put the thing together in any detail but down at the bottom it says in capitals: `THIS IS NOT STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT POLICY`. Now this is a very interesting claim because of course this material is clearly being used as the basis of government policy ."

"So what sort of thing are they saying? They say `In some areas, we see little change in young people`s attitudes, behaviours and experiences compared to older generations. For instance, when we ask people of different ages what is important in life, we find remarkably little difference between generations. Similarly, we see little evidence of generational shifts in willingness to justify selfish behaviour, such as tax and benefit fraud`. What an amazing label to stamp on a future generation. `Or appetite for being involved in community engagement. These areas where there are few, if any, changes between generations remind us that we should not overstate the possible changes over the next 10 years in young people`s attitudes, behaviours and experiences`." 

"So clearly the government [is] working behind the scenes to change the way that young people think."

"And it goes on here. I found this staggering. `As well as shaping evolving attitudes, we would expect to see continued changes in the behaviours and experiences of young people in the next 10 years. One way that this could occur would be through an intensification of the trend towards longer routes and more complex routes to full adulthood and independence`."

Mike Robinson interjects. "What does that mean?"

"Well I`ve read it several times Mike. What I pick up from this is that they`re talking about delaying people becoming adult."

"But how can they delay people becoming adult when they sexualise them at ever younger ages and push more and more adult themes on to ever younger children?"

"Well that`s occurring at one end of the spectrum. Of course the other thing that`s actually happening is you`re seeing, for example, in social services documents that even when somebody`s got to the age of twenty one or twenty six they are still deemed to be under the control of the state. What I picked up from this is it`s almost like the state is expecting us to be children in the eyes of the state and anything they can do to increase the childish behaviour will continue." 

"If we go to the other extreme we could say that years ago we had people at the age of sixteen doing some really important work within apprenticeship. They had to turn up at work; they had to have the right tools, the right skills to do a skilful job. Many youngsters now at the age of sixteen are still effectively playing games."

"But who knows who devised the policy?"

"And on the back of that I`m going to thank this viewer for getting in contact with us. The email was this: `Dear Brian, Don`t know if this is of any interest ... The summer reading challenge in libraries this year is based on The Beano ... you know, Denis the Menace and Beryl the Peril ... but the staff have been told not to use the words PERIL or MENACE when speaking to the children! This disturbed me so I started to look into it`."

"It is all the work of The Reading Agency; and their partners include the British Council and the BBC. Funders include the Cabinet Offices` Social Action Fund and the Wellcome Trust .... There are evaluation forms and a family survey that staff seem to complete but details only available to staff`."

"Trawling around this site I found `The Public Library Universal Health Offer` from the SCL ... _{all very creepy ... SCL organise the `shelf help` books training young children in anxiety, depression, self harm, body image, eating disorders and bullying`."}

"And so it goes on. This is sort of part of the material this lady was looking at and I can see why she`s concerned about it. And let`s bring in the `Vision` of the Reading Agency."

"`Reading for pleasure enhances people`s literacy, life chances and quality of life. It is vital for our prosperity`. And number 2 here. `Libraries aim to be a force for social change through reading. They bring people recreation and pleasure, learning and literacy, health and wellbeing`. So we know this is linked up with the Cabinet Office and here we can now see that libraries themselves are aiming to be a force for social change."

Mike Robinson. "And they`re using childish material to do that."

"And they`re using childish material. And this was the second part of this presentation. I`ve just shown that first slide. And I couldn`t help but see this. `Libraries` reading work helps local authorities achieve key outcomes`. So this is nothing about assisting the individual. This is about assisting a local authority to achieve its outcomes and those outcomes have been set by the Cabinet Office and central government."

"And I`ll just end on this one, which was also sent to us. This is Rhonda Borough Council which is looking for somebody to fulfil a contract. They want a wellbeing game and the wellbeing game will be for 6 to 14 years. `This project will support school pupils to reflect on wellbeing. It will involve pupils reflecting upon their wellbeing profile and completing `real world` activities to help them develop within a wellbeing context. The main aim of the Wellbeing Game is through gamification to enable pupils to reflect on their personal wellbeing profile and to engage in the world of challenges that will help them build personal strengths and character. Pupils wellbeing challenges will then be linked to the virtual world to promote engagement. "

"With many young children committing suicide in South Wales I don`t get a warm feeling about that contract which is being offered particularly when we can see, or we`re getting closer to seeing, the real detail of the links back into the Cabinet Office itself and outside agencies that are helping the British government form policy."

See UK Column News HERE

Integration of Health & Social Care

Ready for takeover.

"To understand what is happening to the NHS, you must understand the relationship between private healthcare corporations and those who are running our NHS."
[EL4C]
 

Health and social care integration in Scotland.

"The way we plan and deliver health and social care services in Scotland has changed. In 2016 we legislated to bring together health and social care in to a single, integrated system, with Integration Authorities now responsible for £8.5 billion of funding for local services, which was previously managed separately by NHS Boards and Local Authorities"

" Integration is the most significant change to health and social care services in Scotland since the creation of the NHS in 1948."

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Policy/Health-Social-Care-Integration

Common Purpose spin

linked to video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1jy_DIZ4fs

More spin:

`There`s a whole new generation who see both party politics and office politics as irrelevant to their lives. They`re looking for their own ways to change the world. And they`re looking to Common Purpose to help.`

 

Richard Sambrook [Director, BBC News]

How many young people are looking to Common Purpose to help change the world ?

 

Not a lot.

 

The silencing of Melanie Shaw

UK Column News reports on the Melanie Shaw case, 3 July 2018.

 

Following the Mentions hearing on 2 July, Melanie Shaw, the Beechwood child abuse survivor, is to appear at Leeds Crown Court on 10 July 2018.  Brian Gerrish goes on to say: "She is going to face arson and sexual assault charges and these alleged offences were, of course, carried out in prison."

"Now having said that there`s been huge confusion about what has been happening to Melanie. This is not unusual because it was happening at the very start of Melanie`s trials and tribulations, before she went into prison for the very first time and continued all the way through. But... 2 July, let`s have a little look at what we can report on that. So this was a hearing which was not posted publicly until a few days before. Now that can be normal. Sometimes it`s not, but the pattern with Melanie Shaw is usually postings publicly of her hearings are ... very late, if at all."

"But what do we know? Well the court hearing was a `Mentions hearing` and the UK Column was accurate in reporting that ... Some people saw a report that it was a `Non-compliance hearing` of a `community order`. That was never the case. It was to be a Mentions hearing and that is actually what took place. Now we understand that Melanie did not appear in court, nor did she appear by video link, and this is normal for the cases with Melanie that she has certainly not been appearing in court; and, of course, where she has had the advantage of a video link that has often broken down as Melanie started to stand up and give her own defence."

"So we would say to our audience today if you want to understand the dangers of the wider upgrade of the court system which Mike has been talking about in many UK Column news editions we are now really starting to see it because where the state has got a vendetta against the accused they can simply make sure that you can never get your evidence into court because they cut the video link."

"Now her solicitor did not appear in Court and a barrister was used to represent Melanie without her instruction."

"This is where things get subtle because I have to say at the moment I`m not able to release all the information that I have. That is for Melanie`s protection. But the fact that her solicitor did not appear in court, there`s not necessarily anything to read into that. However, that a barrister was used to represent her without her instruction we find very strange. That is as much as I can give on that. We may be able to report more in the coming days."

"So Melanie is currently on remand in HMP Styal. Remember that this lady has now served over two years in prison and at least 18 months of that time, possibly nearer nineteen months, she`s spent in solitary confinement and remember that Melanie is a child abuse survivor. She does suffer with trauma, and solitary confinement must have been one of the most vicious environments to put her in that we can imagine. Whether this will be taken into account in the charges we don`t know. She is allegedly facing four arson charges and one of sexual assault. What I can say is at the time these charges were created Melanie was able to say to some of the people in communication with her that she was facing extreme bullying inside the prison. She was fearful for her safety and she frequently talked about being put in a situation where she felt she was at risk of assault, certainly by -  I`ll say overzealous warders - but also by some of the other inmates..."

"We understand that some of the original 2017 charges have been dropped."

"So, how can we sum this up? Well we can best sum it up by saying that it is remarkable that in Theresa May`s conservative Britain in 2018 an extremely vulnerable child abuse survivor is not only kept in solitary confinement and brutalised in a series of British prisons but when her case goes to court we suddenly end up in a black hole where the video links don`t work or the public notices are not published on time. Well there`s a reason for this. We think there is. But let`s have a look at some of the evidence that other people saw."

"This is a report that several picked up where the day was listed as a Non-Compliance hearing. So where this came from we don`t know because it was clear via the legal teams that this was to be a Mentions hearing, and a Mentions hearing if you don`t know is simply the discussion on the procedural aspects of the case."

"Why was it reported as Non-Compliance? We don`t know."

"Now let`s bring in the Independent Child Sexual Abuse Inquiry because I have been personally in correspondence with them about Melanie Shaw and this was a response that I received."  

"Thank you for contacting the inquiry via our Information Line on 13 June. I believe that in your call you asked what the inquiry will do to obtain evidence of abuse at Beechwood Children`s Home from a specific individual who is currently held in prison."

"Well of course there was no specific individual. The lady I was referring to, and referred to in detail, was Melanie Shaw and I was very confident in doing that because as we will see Melanie Shaw has consistently tried to give evidence to the Child Abuse Inquiry. They went on:"

"I am afraid that unless we have the consent of that individual we are unable to contact the individual directly, nor discuss that individual`s alleged experience with anyone else. This is to ensure her confidentiality and right to privacy are preserved. If this individual chooses to contact us directly, then we will be happy to engage with her."

"Brian Gerrish explains: "But the whole point of my call was to report that of course Melanie did not have normal communications and therefore had been unable to make contact with the Inquiry. Hence I alerted the Inquiry and suggested that they actually spoke to her directly. However, we now see that they are not prepared to go into prison to talk to any of the abuse survivors who are currently in prison."

"The Inquiry`s Terms of Reference, which are available on our website... state that we will pass all allegations of child abuse to the police. Having reviewed a record of your call to the Inquiry, it appears that the information you gave about child abuse at Beechwood Children`s home is already known to the police and your call contained no new allegations. As such, we will not be passing this information or your contact details to the police."

"This is remarkable Mike because of course one of the points I made is that when Melanie attempted to give information she was bullied and harassed by the police and subsequently has been put out of commission in prison. So my warning was that the Inquiry needed to speak to this lady in order to see through the wall of silence which has occurred with the help of Nottinghamshire police."

"But it gets more interesting. Let`s move on to this one. I just need to catch up with myself on the other screen. Here we are. So this is an email which has been sent to another IICSA lady, Elizabeth Long. I`ll read it very quickly."

 

He reads: "Attached is a letter you have sent to and been forwarded on to me by a colleague. I am the Lay Advocate of the lady in question and I do have lawful authority to act for her and have endeavoured to have her rights upheld and her wishes, which are publicly known about from her approaches herself, and on her Facebook page requesting full participation in this inquiry."

"I have been contacting the inquiry since October 2016 on her behalf as she is unlawfully detained against her will and seems there are thousands of prisoners who are being denied access to this inquiry who have had lives of hell due to institutionalised child sexual abuse in the care system in UK."

"I have been told you are going to have a prison line to enable those detained access to this inquiry so when do you intend for this to happen as thousands detained are being positively denied the right to participate and engage in this inquiry"

"On her behalf,  I was due to be visited by an IICSA individual, an inquiry manager from Exeter last August, and am still waiting, likewise my calls to you from October 2016 and August 2017 when I requested copies of them under GDPRA15 seem to have disappeared?"

"When are you going to do as you claim and allow the real victims of CSA access to this inquiry so their voices are heard and form part of it please? You do have the consent of this lady who requires access to this inquiry. If it continues to be denied her situation will be made public of your denial to allow her participation and the bringing of this inquiry into total disrepute."

"I myself contacted the inquiry 11, 13 and 18 June 2018 and once again still no courtesy of the promised return call or response. Why is this?"

"So Mike, it`s becoming very very obvious that the Child Abuse Inquiry does not want to speak to Melanie Shaw. We say that this is because of the very detailed information that Melanie Shaw holds and of course Melanie showed very early on that Nottinghamshire police were not investigating the Beechwood case properly."

"Well here is the evidence that Melanie herself was very keen to speak to the inquiry."

"Part of the Facebook posting."

"And it says here: `I`m coming to see you Dame Goddard. My MP the ex shadow chancellor`s Chris Leslie contacted you for me and PCC Paddy Tipping also did on my behalf and request and you can`t be bothered to get back to me?` "

"Same message isn`t it Mike?..."

"So Melanie herself declared it publicly that she needed to speak to the Inquiry but ... the Inquiry simply says `Go away.`"

"Well we have a little bit more but we`ll keep it very short here because this is part of a communication with the Inquiry about missing information."

"And if I go down to the last paragraph here it says:"

"I have been advised that you said you made contact with the Inquiry last year however there is no record in any of our systems of this call. Now I`m summarising that considerably Mike because viewers can freeze that screen but once again we`re into missing data. We don`t know who called. We don`t know what happened to the phone records. I think we`ve seen all this before." 

 

 

 

"And I`m not alone in warning about what is happening with this ...and I just wanted to say `Thank you very much to the person ... who produced this leaflet which was sent to us`. We received it this morning. If you freeze it on screen you can read it. But somebody has taken the time and effort here to try and put together a short concise summary of what`s happened to Melanie Shaw."

"We will continue to report but I think we have to say the evidence is growing that the Independent Child Abuse Inquiry, in England and Wales at least, is disingenuous, a sham. We`re not too sure between those two, but we`re going to continue to expose what`s happening."

Mike Robinson: "And of course while Melanie is stuck in prison it`s very very difficult for her to pursue her rights."

"They`ve got her completely pinned down Mike. So she goes through the abuse. You set up a national inquiry to talk to abuse survivors and then you make sure that Melanie Shaw can`t speak out. And why do we think that is. Because Melanie Shaw`s information, not only includes the abuse of children at Beechwood, but also in a wider capacity, and again brings in the British political establishment."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmBMIKVfVe8

Amnesty International would love to hear from you

"ROBERT GREEN, FORMER NOBEL PEACE PRIZE NOMINEE, TALKS TO AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL:"

"Why will they not support UK whistleblower Melanie Shaw, repeatedly raped and abused while in `care`, then subjected to serial incarceration, including eighteen months in solitary confinement, at the hands of the State ?"

-----------------------------------------------------------------

[Robert Green]

''I have just had a conversation with Amnesty International, which states on its website `We`d love to hear from you`."

"Bearing in mind this promising invitation, I called 0207 033 1500 and after mentioning the name Melanie Shaw, was promptly transferred to a woman who gave her name as Kathy."

"I gave her my name immediately and asked if Amnesty International were taking any action to assist Melanie, given the fact that she has been persecuted by the British government for several years now and that she is currently being prevented from giving crucial eye-witness evidence to the IICSA [child abuse inquiry]"

"It was quite clear that Kathy was well aware of Melanie`s case, but told me that AI had not made any decision as yet over this case. I asked her how many years does it normally take for AI to make a decision when such a clear denial of basic human rights is the issue."

"Kathy proceeded to read out a long list of the criteria required by AI in order for a decision to be made, finally stating that it had a concern about not making a situation worse. I retorted that I did not think it possible for anyone to currently make matters worse for Melanie."

"I then asked if the British government had been granted immunity from investigation by AI. Kathy gave me a categorical assurance that this was not the case and that all countries were treated the same."

"I thanked her for such a clear statement and asked for her surname. She refused to reveal it. I then asked if she was Kathy with a 'C' or a 'K'."

"It seemed that AI didn`t really love to hear from me."

This is the website contact email of Amnesty International UK: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/contact-us

from facebook page Justice for Melanie Shaw

Campaigner to end sexual violence plans child rape

"A co-founder of a sexual violence awareness group, who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015, has been arrested on charges of child pornography and attempting to sexually exploit children as young as two years old. "

"Joel Davis, who helped found Youth to End Sexual Violence and was chairman of the International Campaign to Stop Rape and Gender Violence in Conflict, was arrested Tuesday in Manhattan on charges of enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity, attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, and possession, receipt and distribution of child pornography."

"Davis reportedly exchanged text messages with undercover law enforcement officers for several weeks in June, in which he stated that he was sexually interested in children of all ages (`0+`) and sent the officers sexually explicit photographs of infants and toddlers, including photographs in which they were engaged in sexual activity with adults. He also discussed his intention to engage in sexual activity with the nine-year-old daughter of the undercover officer and with the purported two-year-old daughter of the undercover officer’s girlfriend."

https://www.rt.com/usa/431131-child-porn-activist-arrest/

Child Abuse, data and wellbeing concerns

Brian Gerrish, Mike Robinson and David Scott are in conversation on UK Column News, 29 June 2018, about the Edward Heath article on the BBC website. "Several people emailed to say: This is clearly a case of `thou doth protest too much.` So all of a sudden we`ve got the BBC and other outlets saying that Edward Health could not have been on the island - channel islands - therefore he could not have been involved in any abuse. And when you look for any substance to this story, this is simply claims from Ted Heath supporters and they say: `Never mind what the police did, we had a look at his diaries. It doesn`t show him there; he wasn`t there; so therefore he`s not guilty of any crimes`. So I`m going to label that with a question mark. BBC seems to be back on its old routine of protecting child abusers."

Normalising paedophilia 

 

"This one several people told me as well. Just incredible. Ted hosted a talk where a young lady took the stage and said, amongst other things, `Let me be clear here: Abusing children is wrong without any doubt. But a paedophile who does not abuse children has not done anything wrong.` As a result of the amount of correspondence to Ted, they`ve taken this video down. But really we`ve got a classic case here of promoting the normalisation of child abuse. Probably that gives a nice lead into David Scott."

Fresh Start Foundation

Mike Robinson: "David let`s start off with the Fresh Start Foundation because here`s Robert Green. We were talking about this [on] last Friday`s news programme here: Robert Green, outside the venue of the Fresh Start Foundation talk. That appears to have not happened."

"No, well it was cancelled at the last minute after discussions on Friday last week. We got a call that due to unexpected maintenance ... the meeting was cancelled. Initially there was a flood... So we went along to the hotel .... to try and see what state the room was in, to see if we could - because this was all very last minute - if it was possible to find a way round this.... to host the event there. They were quite hostile I would say. I`m not quite sure why. We`re customers who had payed a deposit and had been badly let down. So we weren`t treated particularly nicely ... There was no sign of a flood. There was no sign of water. There was one room which didn`t seem to have been used for a while with some plaster down the ceiling. It may have been to do with that; we don`t really know. But the line from the hotel was ... the ceiling had come down and they couldn`t let us use the room. That was unfortunate."

"We managed to book a room just across the road in another hotel... and we advertised that in an hour... You know that one was cancelled as well because they had maintenance going on... The aircom system was being worked on. So although the rooms were there and were empty and there was no sign of any workmen - there were workmen on the roof - so they were going to need access to those rooms. We couldn`t get there either. So that was jolly unfortunate. So at least there`s a lot of maintenance going on in the Aberdeen construction industry. So we`ll all be benefiting. So it`s not a zero sum game here."

"But we went off to the gazebo in Union Street and we had a meeting there and a nice meal afterwards and we had actually a very good day ... Under these sort of conditions people get to know each other that bit better. And a little bit of collective response to adversity never hurt anybody. So it was actually a very good day."

Peter Cherbi`s blog

The next topic refers to Peter Cherbi`s blog who is back on the case of Elish Angiolini, former Lord Advocate of Scotland, who was involved in Robert Green`s case. She has recently been appointed in order to investigate and report on how police complaints are dealt with in Scotland. Cherbi gives a number of reasons why her appointment is a very bad idea.

Read more HERE

Data sharing in Scotland

Mike Robinson: "The Public Commissions Committee. What`s going on here?"

"Well, Alison Preuss and Leslie Scott, my wife, representing the home educators and the Tymes Trust ME charity, have put out a petition together and have sent it yesterday to the Commissions Committee and this is to get an investigation, a public inquiry, into the human rights abuses that have happened in Scotland surrounding the GIRFEC legislation, or surrounding the GIRFEC policy; because GIRFEC, which stands for Getting it Right for Every Child, was a policy whereby information was gathered and shared by the state ... and intervention into family life by the state was generated as a result."

"Now there were certain problems with this and the whole thing was eventually ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court. Problems relate to, firstly, the lowering of the threshold for interventions into family life in which welfare is now known as wellbeing, and wellbeing means anything you want it to mean. It is entirely subjective. So what it gives is the power to state officials, based on a subjective whim, there`s no more to it than that, to intervene into family life, to share information, to investigate families, to investigate children and any associated adult."

"So that`s been going on since around 2013 and there`s a lot of harm; there`s a lot of families who have suffered these investigations and they`re traumatic and there needs to be some form of recompense; there needs to be some recognition of what`s actually gone wrong. And of course the policy`s continued to this day. The current data sharing policy from my own local authority is in this flow chart here."

"And what this says is: `Are you worried or concerned about a child or young person`s wellbeing?`... And if the answer`s YES. `Do I need consent to share information?` NO. `Share information.`"

"So all you need is a worry or concern, which is an emotional reaction or a notion about wellbeing which can mean anything. That`s the current policy in my local authority. So basically there is no data protection if you`re a child or a family with a child in Scotland at the moment. And...that then generates things which can escalate into child protection issues and child protection procedures where there`s no welfare issues; there`s just this assembly of wellbeing worries."

"So that`s what they want, an investigation to stop this, to allow those families who have been harmed some form of remedy; but also to actually inform the state about what is in fact lawful because there`s ongoing consideration of some further Acts to try and sort this mess out and these ongoing considerations don`t seem to be based on any understanding of what has already gone wrong."

Mike Robinson: "So this has had some mainstream coverage. I`ve got the National, as an example of this, but actually it`s had quite a bit of other mainstream coverage in Scotland, David?"

"Yes, the idea that human rights abuse has been happening is now getting through on the mainstream media quite solidly...."
 

More here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILoQdRzNUjQ