bowling

bowling

Monday 31 March 2014

Explosive video allegedly of former cabinet minister

From Exaro
 

"Customs officials are trying to silence an ex-colleague who seized video that allegedly shows child sex abuse in the presence of a former cabinet minister."

"Exaro can reveal that the politically-explosive video was seized by a Customs officer, Maganial Solanki, at Dover`s Eastern Car Terminal in 1982."


http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5225/customs-seized-video-of-child-sex-abusgoogle-and-ex-cabinet-minister

12 years for father driven to despair



"A well respected Cornish father of two driven to despair by Britains’ reviled ‘family court’ tried to kill a state psychiatrist and a social worker. Former South Crofty mining engineer Christopher Hines-Randle, who has no previous criminal record, gave up after two years in Truro’s secret ‘family’ courts."

"After 24 months battling to see his children, the 54 year old decided to execute biblical justice. Part of the desperate plan he eventually hatched was political."

"It involved taking revenge on a member of Britain’s hated ‘Social Services’ bureacratic elite – Debbie Tully – by torturing her to death."

"Mr Hines-Randle gave up on a civilised resolution when the social worker and a state psychiatrist targeted him. He snapped after, acting behind closed doors and outside of both common and statutory law, the state officials took his children and dispossesed him of his home."

"Even during the case, despite a range of unethical laws such courts use to criminalise applicants, Hines-Randle remained of good character, and without a criminal record.It took two years of state-sanctioned persecution and abuse, ending in Hines-Randle’s homelessness, for him to give up on the ‘family court’ system, and reject the rule of law."

http://www.cornwallcommunitynews.co.uk/2014/03/28/cornish-dads-bid-to-kill-ss-official/

Emotional cruelty is to be a crime

Parents who starve their children of love and affection face prosecution under a "Cinderella Law", The Telegraph can disclose. Changes to the child neglect laws will make "emotional cruelty" a crime for the first time, alongside physical or sexual abuse.
The Government will introduce the change in the Queen’s Speech in early June to enforce the protection of children’s emotional, social and behavioural well-being. Parents found guilty under the law change could face up to 10 years in prison, the maximum term in child neglect cases.
The change will update existing laws in England and Wales which only allow an adult responsible for a child to be prosecuted if they have deliberately assaulted, abandoned or exposed a child to suffering or injury to their health.  
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/children_shealth/10732982/Parents-who-starve-children-of-love-face-jail.html
Unlike civil cases which need only to be judged on the balance of probabilities, criminal cases have a more stringent test and require guilt to be established `beyond reasonable doubt.` How is this to be achieved for `emotional abuse` cases when social workers find it difficult to provide such evidence?

Having said that it is more than likely that emotional cruelty will be assessed by so-called `experts` with the possibility of getting it wrong because a child`s behaviour has multiple causes and an expert`s testimony is only opinion. Then we have to consider if a child`s life will improve if the parents are sent to prison because the care system itself is emotionally abusive.

None of this has been well thought out. Yet the Government`s will to separate children from their parents grows more apparent.

Sunday 30 March 2014

Brothers removed to remote farm

"Torn away from their siblings, taken to a remote farm in the dead of night and forced to live a life of slavery from the age of four."


"It sounds like a horror story from hundreds of years ago. But it happened in post-war Scotland and the traumatised survivors say they are still trying to piece their lives back together. George, Jimmy and Tommy Clark were taken from their family home in Greenock and put into local authority care after their parents were ruled incapable of looking after them."

"The brothers – then aged four, six and nine - say that for the next four years, they slept in a filthy chicken coop and were forced to steal dog food to survive. Now the family are set to challenge the system to ensure Scotland’s so-called lost children are reunited with their siblings."

"George, 64, said he was four years old when he was regularly chained up for hours in a freezing-cold barn. He had no shoes on his feet and only a bowl of water to sustain him."

"He said: `People were shocked by the film, 12 Years A Slave. But Scotland has its own shameful history of slavery too.`"

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/secret-slaves-scotland-revealed-3300900

The politics of early interventions

In a joint Scottish Government and COSLA policy statement we are told that transformational change will come through a focus on early years and early interventions (GIRFEC) and may take a generation to complete. The joint effort by Government and public services will lead to increasing sustainable economic growth.

In other words, developing a complex economy, fit for the 21st century, is simply a matter of  targeting the very young via public services which are morphing more and more into public/private partnerships.  Unfortunately, some people are not going to live long enough to see the transformational change and sustainable economic growth - whatever that is - and will have to take this unbelievable statement on trust.
 

"We have always known the earliest years of life are crucial to a child`s development. However, it is increasingly evident that it is in the first years of life that inequalities in health, education and employment opportunities are passed from one generation to another. The early years framework signals local and national government`s joint commitment to break this cycle through prevention and early intervention. In short we aim to give every child in Scotland the best start in life."
 It gets even more banal for `all you need is love`: "Research informs us that a child's first attachments are vitally important - he or she needs to feel loved and special. Children whose needs have been met in a sensitive, loving and timely way by their primary carer - described as secure attachment - have a sense of trust and confidence in themselves. Securely attached children do better at school and are likely to be good at making friends. Their early attachments help them to form close relationships later in life. They grow up knowing that when they need something someone will help them."
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/06/5565/8
In order to prop up failing parents who go on to recycle poverty, part of the Scottish government strategy was launched at the end of 2010 with plenty of opportunities for joined up working and data sharing amongst state `carers`. In addition, the national Pre-Birth to Three guidance, referred to improved evidence-based practice: "Informed by the latest developments in neuroscience, this new national guidance recognises the importance of pregnancy and the first years of life in influencing children’s future development and outcomes. This recognition of the importance of brain development pre-birth and in children’s earliest years, supports early years staff in their practice and is a unique approach for Scotland." [Not really. See below]

Supporting the Scottish government’s 10-year vision to improve the lives of children and families, the resource supports the principles and values of key Scottish government policy, such as the Early Years Framework, Equally Well, Achieving our Potential, Getting it right for every child and Curriculum for Excellence.
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/earlyyearsmatters/p/genericcontent_tcm4658413.asp
GIRFEC, Curriculum for Excellence, joined up working and other collaboratives, the eCare framework to facilitate data sharing, and more, are all being built up in Scotland to accommodate an altered view of children and society and their micro-management by the state. But supposing the Scottish Government has got it wrong? `Policy Briefing: The Biologisation of Poverty, Policy and Practice in Early Years Intervention.` (January 06 2014) - a two year research project into these matters - suggests they have done just that. [pdf] Findings from our research into brain science and early years intervention as part of the Faraday Institute’s Uses and Abuses of Biology programme reveal that this biologisation of poverty reinforces social divisions and obscures inequalities...  Poverty is seamlessly conflated with poor parenting through an assumption that disadvantaged mothers are neglectful.

For example, the Government commissioned
Independent Review into Child Poverty and Life Chances, in 2010 concluded ‘the development of a baby’s brain is affected by the attachment to their parents’ and that brain growth is ‘significantly reduced’ in inadequately parented children. Similarly, the Allen Reports on early intervention (2011) called for urgent Government action on the basis that ‘brain architecture’ is set during the first years, inside and outside the womb, with the ‘wrong type’ of parenting profoundly affecting children’s ‘emotional wiring’ through into adulthood.
This deterministic message is softened through an optimistic focus on ‘up-skilling’ parents and thereby enacting biological change. Cycles of deprivation, it is claimed, can be broken simply by teaching poor mothers how to love their babies more effectively. ...

Despite the eugenic resonance of such reasoning, the emphasis on love and its transformational benefits to children constructs a veneer of progressive benevolence. Politicians from every political party, social commentators from across the political spectrum, professionals and practitioners, and children’s charities have all rallied around the cause of early intervention.

Last year MPs published the cross-party manifesto
1001 Critical Days: The Importance of the Conception to Age Two Period which, essentially, called for greater surveillance of pregnant women and mothers of young children. 
.
This misappropriation of brain science extends right across the health, education and social care sectors and has seeped into the family courts system. In 2011 the Director of the Association of Children’s Services attributed a sharp increase in the numbers of children taken into care to ‘a better understanding of the physical damage to brain development associated with poor parenting’.



Saturday 29 March 2014

Global education for sustainability

On its website, UNESCO, the self-styled global education agency, actually boasts of its plans. "The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) seeks to mobilize the educational resources of the world to help create a more sustainable future," the UN outfit explains. "Many paths to sustainability ... exist and are mentioned in the 40 chapters of Agenda 21, the official document of the 1992 Earth Summit. Education is one of these paths. Education alone cannot achieve a more sustainable future; however, without education and learning for sustainable development, we will not be able to reach that goal..."
Before the term "sustainability" was in vogue, the late UN Deputy Secretary General Robert Muller, the architect of UNESCO’s "World Core Curriculum," also offered some insight into the purpose of UN-led, globalized pseudo-education. The goals: "Assisting the child in becoming an integrated individual who can deal with personal experience while seeing himself as a part of ‘the greater whole.’ In other words, promote growth of the group idea, so that group good, group understanding, group interrelations and group goodwill replace all limited, self-centered objectives, leading to group consciousness." Put another way, smash individualism and notions of individual rights, replacing them with collectivism.
Meanwhile, actually educating children in the traditional sense — teaching them reading, writing, critical thinking, math, real history, actual science, and more — is on its way out, as globalists openly admit in official documents and all across UN websites.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/17930-common-core-and-un-agenda-21-mass-producing-green-global-serfs
As the Scottish Government states:

"Developing global citizens can bring together the totality of all that is planned for children and young people in a coherent and meaningful way."

What is the totality of all that is planned other than this UN agenda?

Friday 28 March 2014

Bishop charged with sex offences


"A retired Church of England bishop and friend of Prince Charles has been charged with a series of sex offences. Peter Ball, who once described the Prince of Wales as a loyal friend after being given a place to live by him, is due to appear in court next month over sex offences and misconduct charges. The 82-year-old former Bishop of Gloucester, who was previously Bishop of Lewes in East Sussex, will be prosecuted for alleged historic offences dating back to 1977."

"Ball was enthroned as Bishop of Gloucester in 1992 at a ceremony attended by Prince Charles, and resigned in 1993. Shortly afterwards Charles invited him to live in Manor Lodge in the village of Aller, Somerset, a property owned by the Duchy of Cornwall."

"He was arrested in November 2012, when his Permission to Officiate was suspended, after a three-month investigation into the Chichester Diocese in Sussex.  Ball, of Langport, Somerset, is accused of an indecent assault on a boy, aged 12 or 13, indecent assault on a man aged 19 or 20, and misconduct in a public office."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2590906/Former-Church-England-Bishop-charged-sex-offences-dating-1977.html


Why does Prince Charles befriend so many child abusers ?

 
Famously Savile had the Prince of Wales around for dinner at his Highland cottage in 1999 and hired three waitresses in aprons with HRH sewn into them.

Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2224672/Jimmy-Savile-The-Beast-Graffiti-vandals-target-paedophile-DJs-Highlands-cottage.html#ixzz3NyNw1hVt
 


Thursday 27 March 2014

Campaigner against child abuse, Robert Green, still in prison


Robert Green had his 68th birthday in Perth prison after his request for bail was turned down for the third time in his absence.

The following link gives a good summary of the background and his previous incarceration.

http://www.indymediascotland.org/node/26645

While the Scottish Government mouths absurdities such as Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) they prove they will go to extraordinary lengths to silence anybody who actually wants to have an investigation into child abuse.

Read more HERE

and  Paul Malpas

Investigations relating to Jimmy Savile

Savile HDLG
Many children’s homes but not Haut de la Garenne ?

Written statement to Parliament, Department for Education, delivered on 27 March 2014 by Michael Gove
 
Education Secretary’s statement regarding investigations relating to Jimmy Savile and a number of children’s homes and schools in England. 
"I wish to inform the House that the Department for Education has received information about Jimmy Savile relating to several children’s homes and schools in England, dating back to the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. This information was uncovered as part of the document review process undertaken by the Metropolitan Police Service on behalf of the Department of Health."
"Having reviewed the information, I have decided that the Department for Education should pass the information to the appropriate organisations for further investigation. In most cases the work will be conducted by the relevant local authority; in others the relevant institution or a legacy organisation will take the lead."
"In order to ensure consistency of approach with the NHS Savile investigations, I am replicating the arrangements adopted by the Department of Health to quality assure the work. I have appointed Lucy Scott-Moncrieff to provide independent oversight and quality assurance of the process, undertaking a similar role to that of Kate Lampard in the NHS trust investigations. I have asked Lucy Scott-Moncrieff to ensure that investigating organisations take all practicable steps to establish what happened and why at the time of the incidents, and any lessons there might be to inform current safeguarding practice in our schools and children’s homes."
Read more: Needleblog 
As pointed out under the photograph, it is true that Haut de la Garenne is not on the list but perhaps that is because there is going to be a Committee of Inquiry within the next month or so into historical child abuse, in Jersey.  But I doubt that is the real reason. It`s more like a can of worms I would think.

Wednesday 26 March 2014

Christian Institute opposes GIRFEC

"Last month, MSPs approved laws assigning children up to 18 a "named person", such as a teacher or health visitor, to look out for their welfare. The Christian Institute has accused Holyrood of interfering with family life, and say the plans could flout human rights laws."

"The Scottish government called the proposal "fair and proportionate". It said parents would not be required to accept help or advice from the named person."

"Even before it was passed, the named guardian element of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill attracted controversy. Charity Children 1st supported the plan but religious groups, including the Church of Scotland, raised concerns around diminishing the role of parents."

"Scottish Conservatives MSP Liz Smith, whose bid to amend the bill failed, said the plan would "tip the balance of family responsibility away from parents towards the state".

"The Christian Institute, a campaign group which promotes family life and a literal interpretation of the bible, also strongly opposed the plan and lawyers for the group have written to the Scottish government saying they would seek a judicial review."

"The group, which said it had raised £30,000 to pay for the action, accused MSPs of interfering with rights to a private and family life and said the plans could be in contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-26748830

Police cover-ups


A biographical blog has recently appeared from an ex police officer alleging cover ups by the police of paedophile activity by councillors.
When I first joined the Merseyside Police I could never have imagined in my worst nightmare that I would hear and experience something I am going to relate to you now. It was so disturbing I feared making it Public due to the fear of being labelled a Crank. That does not mean that I was not continually working through and ultimately battling against the system to try and get it resolved. The evil truth, and that is the only way I can put it, "Evil" is that the system is purposely designed to allow it to continue.
Following my training I was pulled aside by an Inspector who had an unusual talent for summing individuals characters up. He apparently saw in me someone who would be totally unprepared for some of the Cultures that can be found inside Merseyside Police. He was concerned I would be all too eager to challenge anything that I perceived to be unjust. In short he gave me a warning.
I witnessed the bullying of officers who dared to complain of anything. I saw many things, then when I deployed to Speke Police Station in South Liverpool I witnessed something that made it impossible for me to ignore what was going on. On lates, about midnight. I was in the Front Office updating logs when two colleagues came in and one looked like he going to start crying. He was not going to start crying, he was raging. "I’m f**king fed up covering-up paedophile councillors!"
http://sindonax.wordprloggeress.com/
Police corruption and cover ups have also been highlighted in the following Independent article:
Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe suggested the decision to destroy a "lorry-load" of intelligence from an investigation into criminality inside the Met was wrong and said such a decision would now only be taken at a very senior level, throwing the spotlight back on his predecessors Lord Stevens and Lord Blair.
During a fractious appearance in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee, Britain’s most senior police officer professed ignorance across a wide range of embarrassing issues for the Met – including which of his current top team wrongly gave Scotland Yard a clean bill of health regarding corruption in the Stephen Lawrence murder inquiry two years ago.
With his force facing allegations of a cover-up since a damning review into the Lawrence murder was published earlier this month, Sir Bernard also revealed the force was attempting to open a new investigation into the notorious unsolved murder of Daniel Morgan, a private investigator who is said to have been killed just as he was about to blow the whistle on police corruption back in 1987.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/something-rotten-in-the-metropolitan-police-corrupt-officers-may-escape-justice-thanks-to-mass-shredding-of-evidence-9215433.html

Tuesday 25 March 2014

Creationism costs taxpayers $1 billion

"An investigative report published Monday by Politico reveals that taxpayers in the United States will give nearly $1 billion this year to private schools that teach children creationism and discredit the theory of evolution."

"Journalist Stephanie Simon of the Washington, DC-based publication wrote that hundreds of pages of course descriptions, textbooks and school websites were scoured to see what type of curriculum was being offered by private institutions that receive public subsidies."

"According to Simon’s research, "many of these faith-based schools go beyond teaching the biblical story of the six days of creation as literal fact." Instead, she wrote, "Their course materials nurture disdain of the secular world, distrust of momentous discoveries and hostility toward mainstream scientists."

"They often distort basic facts about the scientific method — teaching, for instance, that theories such as evolution are by definition highly speculative because they haven’t been elevated to the status of ‘scientific law,’" she added."

http://rt.com/usa/politico-study-private-schools-957/

Education for global citizenship



Why should global citizenship be taught in schools?
Global citizenship brings together education for citizenship, international education and sustainable development education and recognises the common outcomes and principles of these three areas.
Making connections between them better equips learners with skills, knowledge, values and attitudes required to understand and address complex global issues which often transcend individual disciplines.
Many would disagree. For instance, in what way is global citizenship embedded in mathematics given that mathematics is the most abstract of disciplines - or should be - and context free? Yet science and technology cannot be mastered without mathematics whilst the energy problem cannot be addressed without science and technology. Forming opinions and group discussions about decision making across the curriculum just will not do.

And why is there no emphasis on history? Are children not to learn the mistakes of the past or how society arrived at this point?

"Developing global citizens can bring together the totality of all that is planned for children and young people in a coherent and meaningful way."

The totality of all that is planned for children has a sinister ring to it, especially when part of the plan is to have a state agent appointed to oversee the wellbeing of every child in Scotland, monitoring and sharing their personal information from brith to eighteen years - and this is to be combined with an education designed to deliberately confuse and manipulate children into a United Nations` one world view. Children are citizens now, not in waiting, we are told. `Let us hear their views.`

But what about children`s democratic right to an education that of necessity must unfold over time and requires a teacher for instruction? Insisting that we must listen to ignorant children now, is an absurdity. Apart from learning that hard work to master a subject is not necessary to form an opinion, what else will children learn that could possibly be useful?

Nothing but group-think. But that seems to be the plan.

Developing global citizens with curriculum for excellence

Curriculum for excellence introduced into schools by the Scottish Government aims to provide children with the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes required to live and work in a global society. They claim that this involves a different approach to education. This approach turns out to be less about subject matter and more about generating emotions of caring for and perceiving an interconnected world.
The 21st century has presented us with new opportunities and challenges and requires a different approach to education. In our fast-changing world, it is necessary for children and young people to acquire the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to adapt and to thrive. Their education should prepare them for living and working in a global society. The big issues affecting our planet, such as climate change and global poverty, require an innovative generation that knows how to find solutions. Our democratic societies need creative people who recognise the importance and value of participation and making their voices heard. The injustice and inequalities in society require people who care about human rights and who recognise that our lives are linked together in our increasingly interdependent and globalised world. 
 http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/DevelopingGlobalCitizens_tcm4-628187.pdf
Our global leaders have left the next generation with an awful mess then, have they not? So much for their advice !

Julie Andrzejewski and John Alessio presented some of their ideas about the problems facing education for global citizenship in 1999: (before global warming was debunked)
It is widely acknowledged that education rarely challenges the prevailing paradigms and interests of national governments, wealthy elites, or dominant groups, whatever the economic or political system.
There is no indication in the Scottish Government document that national governments, wealthy elites, or dominant groups and their role in world affairs will be covered in Curriculum for Excellence. Meanwhile pupils are encouraged to be concerned about an impending global catastrophe, participate in group discussions and make their voices heard - and this is democracy. Well no ! Not if their education withholds the knowledge base with which to come to an understanding of global affairs that must include the role of the elites.

Julie Andrzejewski and John Alessio cover some of the major catastrophes in their article:
As the millennium nears, people all over the world are struggling with problems of a magnitude no other generation has faced. Even in the most affluent nations, millions of people suffer from hunger, homelessness, and unattended health problems. Wars, civil conflicts and invasions take the lives of millions more. .. Human projects continue to despoil the land, water and air. For example, millions of tons of hazardous waste generated by industrial countries are exported to non-industrialized areas of the world (Sachs, 1995, p.7). Over three billion pounds of pesticides a year are used globally causing "human poisonings, harm to fish and wildlife, livestock losses, groundwater contamination, destruction of natural vegetation, and more pests resistant to pesticides" (Jacobson et al, 1991, p. 45). Deforestation, soil erosion, destruction of habitat, extinction of species, depletion of aquifers are but a few of the many attacks on our planet. 
While natural resources are stripped from the earth, new "species" are genetically engineered by corporations for profitability and monopolized through complex international patent laws with few constraints for releasing them into the environment. Ancient knowledge of plants and animals, and even human genetic material, are stolen from indigenous peoples and used to generate wealth for a few while the cultures which generated the knowledge are decimated (Shiva, 1997). As these examples demonstrate, human rights and environmental issues are clearly intertwined. 
http://www.uvm.edu/~dewey/monographs/glomono.html#Education 
It should be noted that the ordinary citizen played no part in the decisions that have infected the globe. The range of problems are so diverse that they must require different specialisms in order to investigate them if there are to be solutions - not a mindless concern across the curriculum that will leave children vulnerable to manipulation by authorities. It is clear where the thrust for global citizenship comes from:
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)  This is a final, advanced version of a chapter of Agenda 21, as adopted by the Plenary in Rio de Janeiro, on June 14, 1992. 
In order to meet the challenges of environment and development, States decided to establish a new global partnership. .. It is recognized that, for the success of this new partnership, it is important to overcome confrontation and to foster a climate of genuine cooperation and solidarity. It is equally important to strengthen national and international policies and multinational cooperation to adapt to the new realities. 
We are told that sustainable development should become a priority item on the agenda which is why children of the world are being indoctrinated in schools as Education for all, another United Nations` document reveals.  How are they to achieve the transformational change in global attitudes they are looking for? They believe that education for global citizenship and a worldwide concern about the planet is a way forward. UN partners include world banks and multi-national corporations, the very organisations which caused the world`s problems.

Monday 24 March 2014

The Children and Families Act

"The Children and Families Act, which received royal assent last week, is a far-reaching piece of child legislation that involves a significant shift in the role of the state in family life.
For example, section 2 (fostering for adoption) enables a local authority to place a child with a prospective adopter, without there even having been court proceedings, to consider whether the child should be removed permanently from their parents – and without the parents having had legal advice about their options."

"Reflect on that for a moment and you’ll start to realise the potential injustices that are likely to arise as a result. But despite lobbying from us, the British Association of Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), The College of Social Work and many other organisations of good repute, the government pressed ahead with applying foster for adoption not only to children on a care order, but also those in care with the voluntary agreement of their parents."

"These include vulnerable parents, including care leavers, who may without advice, consent for their baby to be looked after, for what they may assume will be just a short time. Currently, family members do not always come forward as potential carers for a child until care proceedings are underway. They may not be aware about the child’s circumstances or they may feel reluctant to jeopardise the parents’ case."

"The acceleration of care proceedings arising from the now-statutory 26 week timeframe is therefore likely to result in many otherwise suitable placements with relatives being ruled out, due to the speed of the process rather than an assessment of their suitability. To address this, we lobbied for there to be a duty on local authorities to identify and explore suitable family options before proceedings are issued, for example through family group conferences. Unfortunately, the government didn’t accept this amendment."

"I am somewhat baffled as to why there has been such little fuss over such potentially far-reaching reforms. I fear that families involved in the child welfare system have been ‘othered’ to such an extent, that they are deemed undeserving of the rights that families like ‘ours’ assume. But many families contacting Family Rights Group for advice never thought it would happen to them, never thought their daughter would get mixed up in a violent relationship, never thought it would be them having a breakdown and struggling to cope."

"It is somewhat ironic that at the same time as politicians were passing legislation that undermines the child’s chances of being raised safely by their families, Supreme Court judges were upholding the importance of the human rights of all children and their families. This included the principle that to sever such a relationship through adoption is a draconian step, which should only be pursued if all other options have been considered and ruled out."

The positive parts of the Act

"
It would be wrong to portray these significant concerns as indicating opposition to the entirety of the Act. Parts of it are extremely welcome, including the right of children in care to remain with their foster carers beyond 18, improved provisions for adopters and a new framework of support for children with a statement of special educational needs."


"Yet at the heart of it is a grave injustice: whereas the Act rightly secures improved support for adopters, including paid leave from work akin to maternity leave, similar help for family and friends carers is missing. There are around 30,0000 children who cannot live with their parents who are being raised by family and friends carers, most commonly grandparents or older siblings."

"Research shows these children have suffered the same adversities as those who are in the care system or adopted, yet the vast majority of these children and their carers, including special guardians, are left to fend for themselves."

http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2014/03/19/potential-injustices-likely-arise-children-families-act/

Saturday 22 March 2014

Petitioning the European Parliament

 Here is Christopher Booker:
Last June, under the heading "Dutch social workers catch the English disease", I reported the extraordinary case of the 11-year-old Antonovs twins: a Russian-Latvian brother and sister forcibly snatched by Dutch social workers from their mother and older brother Ilja, primarily on the grounds that at home they spoke Russian, not Dutch. A chilling video of the twins being carried kicking and screaming to a police van is on YouTube ("Kidnap of children from their mother by Dutch social services"), recording a scene not dissimilar to ones that unfold here in Britain, many times every week.
Last Wednesday in Brussels, this video, shown to a roomful of visibly shocked MEPs and officials, was the highlight of a day-long hearing by the European Parliament’s committee of petitions into the way thousands of children in EU countries are each year being removed from their families for absurd reasons. Ilja Antonovs told the story of how his brother and sister are being kept miserably in a "living facility" run by a private company, Jeugdzorg, at a cost to Dutch taxpayers of £65,000 a year for each child. Twice the Dutch appeal court has ordered the return of the twins to their family, but each time this has been overruled by a lower "children’s court".
Among the witnesses in Brussels, for 23 petitioners from eight countries, was the Association of McKenzie Friends, led by Sabine McNeill, congratulated by the committee for her "flawless" presentation.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/10715806/MEPs-must-investigate-this-child-snatching-scandal.html

Here is Sabine McNeill one of the petitioners who presented the case on behalf of the UK Association of McKenzie friends to the European Committee.

VIDEO HERE

Now we have an indication of how out of touch social workers have become about the social realities and the part they play in devastating lives as they look forward to celebrating Social Work Day.
Like millions of others worldwide I am proud to be a social worker. Proud to be a part of a profession that acts decisively on its deep understanding of human behaviour. We assist people in difficulty and support them and their families to regain confidence, to fulfil their sense of responsibility as parents, community members and citizens – and at the same time we influence social policy and political outcomes. I am proud to be a member of a profession that makes contributions of consequence.
http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2014/mar/18/world-social-work-day-inequalities-poverty

Friday 21 March 2014

2014 is children`s rights year in Bulgaria


 
State Agency for Child Protection declared 2014 the children's rights year in Bulgaria. Following the example of the United Nations, the State Agency chair Eva Zhecheva launched the initiative which dedicates each month to the protection of two specific children's rights, Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) informs. The initiative includes information campaigns, children's competitions, conferences, discussions and meetings between the responsible institutions in different cities in Bulgaria. It will include refugee children in the country, as well. "We are one of the first countries to introduce the definition of children's best interests in our national legislation. Progress has been made in the coordination of the Law on Child Protection with the UN Convention," Zhecheva told BNR. The campaign will be held under the patronage of Deputy Prime Minister Daniela Bobeva and is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
http://www.novinite.com/articles/159045/Bulgaria's+Child+Protection+Agency+Devotes+2014+to+Children's+Rights


What is clear is that the United Nations through its Convention is involved in the child protection system which is burgeoning out of control, particularly in the UK. A Bulgarian child has recently been placed for forced adoption in the UK because the mother was judged as incapable of protecting the child from the father, as was the grandmother, because she was too nice.

One of the comments reads:
I think I will be writing a long letter to the Deputy Prime Minister and the nonsense of the UNCRC, which doesn't protect a single child in the world. In the world today you have child poverty, slavery, marriage, hunger, death and other crimes against children, all happening in countries that have ratified the UNCRC.
Also, could someone please give me a legal, scientific and moral value of "Best Interests"? In reality the Best Interest Principle (BIP) is nothing more than a slogan, it's defined as "an empty vessel into which adult prejudices and beliefs are poured". If the DPM was serious about protecting children he would immediately change the BIP to; "To the demonstrable and measurable benefit of the child", anything less is child abuse. 

Children should know why they are separated



"Children separated from their parents in secret family court judgments must be able to find out the reasons for the court's decisions when they grow up, the most senior family judge has said. Sir James Munby, the President of the Family Division, said it was "great concern" that the judgments of all family court judges were not routinely transcribed and published."

"This is a "major issue" for the children affected by judgments, he said, who are then unable to find out at a later date why a judge came to a decision that may have affected the course of the rest of their life. He said that there was a "pressing need" for a "definitive record" for concerned parties to refer to if future contentions over the judgment occur."

"Sir James added: "More importantly, in future years: five years, ten years, twenty years, thirty years or fifty years into the future, a child who may, for example, be subject of adoption proceedings, is able to see what the judge actually said."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10705913/Children-separated-from-their-families-by-courts-must-know-why.html

Thursday 20 March 2014

Paedophile MPs are mocking British law


From the Express:
"We now know that MI5 actively covered up MP Cyril Smith’s abuse of children and it appears far from an isolated case."
"I recently interviewed Andrea Davison, a former intelligence officer now on the run in South America following her whistleblowing on the arms-to-Iraq scandal of Tony Blair’s Cabinet."
"Ms Davison was adamant that paedophiles are a staple of parliamentary life and have been for some decades. She claimed that MPs have been filmed abusing children and this footage is used to blackmail parliamentarians into acquiescing on issues of global importance."
"If this is true, we must ask just how ingrained in political life is a paedophile agenda?"
"Despite reporting to the relevant child abuse investigations all the MPs who have been named to me, I’ve heard nothing more and neither have there been any arrests."
http://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/462601/Paedophile-MPs-are-mocking-British-law

Wednesday 19 March 2014

A joined up approach with the named person

How the public sector plans and delivers its responsibilities is now embodied in the new Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill passed by the Scottish Parliament on the 19 February 2014. The Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector explains the Joined up Approach.
This requires those delivering children's services to work together using a common framework to improve the wellbeing of children, identify any concerns and plan together to meet needs. A key aspect of GIRFEC requires this to be delivered through a named person role located with identified staff from statutory organisations at various times during a child’s and young adult’s life.
All of Scotland’s children will have named persons to support their development. It is recognised that most will not require any formal assistance beyond what their parents and wider family will provide. Most of the professional named person support will therefore be concentrated in helping those facing more serious problems in their lives and early intervention will seek to address these quickly and prevent those becoming worse.
Increasingly, the third sector supports vulnerable families alongside statutory organisations in provision of services and specialist support to parents and young people in many of the city’s most vulnerable communities
http://www.gcvs.org.uk/engagement/everyones_children/getting_it_right_for_every_child 
One health visitor who has been practising for 12 years believes that the Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) approach means that her role is more widely recognised by other professionals. As a named person she can work more closely together with them, and she is more aware of what is happening with families. Local police now tell her if there has been a domestic violence incident and hospitals inform her about visits to accident and emergency.

There is another way of looking at this: If the health visitor is learning more about families because of the imposition of GIRFEC does this not indicate that some families never saw her as a trusted person to begin with; only now it is a relationship which is forced on them? Can that really be for the best?
 
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0043/00435539.pdf

The net closing around families is truly suffocating and includes voluntary workers who have contact with the child as well as an army of different professionals. Ever ready to intervene at the earliest possible moment, they must consider what information to keep in confidence and what information to share; and be alert to the needs and risks of each child in the context of their relationships and wider world . But without information about their relationships and wider world how is a person to judge? This has got to involve the sharing of a whole lot of information - just incase.  Is this the true purpose of GIRFEC and the eCare framework which supports information sharing?  It would be naive to think not.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/06/5565/5

Forced adoption of newborns

More than 900 newborn babies are now being taken from their mothers each year, a 300 per cent increase in little more than a decade. The number of children aged between a week and a month removed from their parents has risen to 1,300 annually, a rise of 141 per cent in the same time.
In the past two weeks alone, eight newborn babies have been taken from their mothers at hospitals in Newcastle and North Tyneside. The number is so high there are not enough foster parents in the area. One baby - thought to be the ninth taken from its parents - is being cared for in a special hospital unit because there is no foster home available.
Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming has demanded an explanation.
He said: "We are seeing a massive increase in the forced removal of newborns. Babies are being taken before they can even be breastfed. Social workers are seizing very young children on the flimsiest of excuses and giving them to other families.
"This smacks of social engineering on a grand scale. The offer of monetary rewards for meeting the targets has created a frenzy among social workers. There are council targets for recycling rubbish and now targets for recycling children."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-465563/Councils-making-millions-incentives-snatching-record-numbers-babies-adoption.html#ixzz2wJY6Lodh

"The Adoption and Children Act 2002 has been amended to give the Secretary of State the power to remove certain functions of the adoption agency from all Local Authorities and will take effect in March 2015. It had been expected that this might happen only for those Local Authorities who were not meeting their adoption targets."

"These functions include the recruitment, assessment and approval of adopters and matching of adopters to children. Once the amendments to the Act come into force any of these functions can be given over to private adoption agencies."

Good for the adoption industry perhaps but ominous for vulnerable families.

http://suesspiciousminds.com/2014/03/18/if-you-cant-do-what-youre-told-the-minister-will-take-your-role-away-from-you/

Misdiagnosis of child abuse

Studies have revealed that parents and caregivers worldwide are being falsely accused of child abuse when children develop the autoimmune disease, tissue scurvy, after vaccination. In a recent paper by Dr. Michael Innis, he stated that:

"Some doctors are unaware of the pathophysiological processes of autoimmunity, haemostasis and osteogenesis and are misdiagnosing vaccine induced tissue scurvy, absence of vitamin C within the cell, as non-accidental injury."
His paper, Autoimmune Tissue Scurvy Misdiagnosed as Child Abuse, outlined three cases of children suffering from symptoms mimicking those of shaken baby syndrome (SBS) whose parents were subsequently accused of child abuse.
However, it was later discovered that all three parents were innocent and far from being abused, their children had been suffering from the autoimmune disease known as tissue scurvy.

http://vactruth.com/2014/03/19/tissue-scurvy-not-child-abuse/?utm_source=The+Vaccine+Truth+Newsletter&utm_campaign=577da3e82b-03_18_2014_vis&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ce7860ee83-577da3e82b-408192312

Youth Select Committee launch inquiry into lowering voting age to 16

Youth Select Committee launch inquiry into lowering vote age to 16


19 March 2014

The Youth Select Committee today announces a new inquiry into lowering the voting age to 16, where it will explore the issues and arguments around votes-at-16.

The Youth Select Committee (YSC) - a British Youth Council initiative supported by the House of Commons and now in its third year - will look at the following issues as part of its inquiry:
  • Should the age at which people are allowed to vote be lowered? Why/why not? If yes, to what age?
  • For what reasons is the voting age currently set at 18? What qualities mean that a person is ready to vote? Do 16 and 17-year-olds possess these qualities?
  • Should the age at which people are able to vote vary between types of election? For example, should the voting age be different for local and General elections?
  • What short term and long term effect would lowering the voting age have on voter turnout? Should the likely turnout of 16 and 17-year-old voters affect the decision on whether to lower the voting age?
  • What can be learned from countries where the voting age is lower than 18 or where lowering the voting age has been proposed?
  • What was the motivation for allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in the referendum on independence for Scotland? What can be learned from this example?
  • What would the practical implications of lowering the voting age be?
  • How effectively does citizenship education prepare young people to vote? How could it be used to prepare young people to vote?
  • What is the best way to engage young people with the political process?
In addition, the Committee would like to hear the views of people under 18 on the following questions:
  • Would you vote if the voting age was lowered to 16? Why/why not?
  • Do you feel ready to make an informed decision about who to vote for? What would help you feel prepared to vote?
Michael Hope, aged 17, Chair of the Youth Select Committee, from Dunbartonshire, said:
"With 16-year-olds in Scotland able to vote in this year’s Scottish Independence referendum, the issue of whether the voting age should be lowered in all UK elections has become a live political issue.
"What would be the practical impact of lowering the voting age? Would citizenship education need to be beefed up to prepare young people to vote? It’s important that politics engages with young people and as a Committee we look forward to hearing what people have to say about votes at 16."
The Committee call for evidence closes on 2 May 2014. The YSC will hold oral evidence sessions in the House of Commons in June and July 2014.  HERE

Tuesday 18 March 2014

Common core maths

An article in the NaturalNews website illustrates some of the problems with Common Core mathematics, part of the new curriculum being pushed out in many parts of the USA.
Case in point: See this homework assignment from an elementary school in New York. The "mathematics" exercise instructs children to "Draw the cubes you colored in the number bond" and then "Show the hidden partners on your fingers to an adult."
The final instruction asks students to "Color the fingers you showed."
I do PhD-level work in analytical chemistry and code complex relational databases, yes despite my best efforts to grasp this Common Core exercise, I have no idea what on Earth this lesson is attempting to teach.
Examining these lessons, I feel a genuine sense of alarm for the future of America. If even the people writing mathematics lessons can't communicate clearly, then we are rapidly descending into Idiocracy. The real aim seems to be about making schoolchildren mentally ill so that they cannot possibly understand the federal budget deficit, national debt, or the coming collapse of the U.S. dollar (which will destroy their paychecks and life savings when it ultimately happens).

http://www.naturalnews.com/044338_Common_Core_math_education_Americas_children.html

See Common core: education without representation

Police strip searches



"LONDON (INTELLIHUB) — Information relating to police searches in the UK were recently revealed through a Freedom of Information Act document dump published by the London Guardian."

"The documents show that 4,638 children between the ages of 10 and 16 were strip searched by police between April 2008 and the end of last year. It is important to mention that these figures are likely only scratching the surface because it is possible that thousands of searches were conducted off the record."

"It is disturbing that the Met strip search children as young as 10 years old on a routine basis. Strip searching is an inhuman and degrading experience and children should not be subjected to such treatment unless there is no other feasible method to detect crime available to the police," said Sophie Khan, legal director of Police Action Centre, a charity that raises awareness about police abuse."

"However, an unnamed spokeswoman from the police said that the strip search procedures were "proportionate and appropriate".

http://intellihub.com/uk-police-strip-searched-4500-children-five-years/

Monday 17 March 2014

Teenager and baby are found

A baby said to have been taken by her mother during a supervised visit was found safe and well today, as four people were arrested in connection with her alleged kidnap.
Lola Page, 13 months, was found by detectives. The child’s mother Stacey Ball, 18, and a man were arrested. Ball is accused of kidnap, whilst the man is accused of assisting an offender. A short time later, officers visited an address in Walsall Wood where two men were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to kidnap. All four were taken into custody and were being questioned today.
Police launched a major probe on Friday after Lola was put into a car during a supervised family visit at an address on Stroud Avenue, Willenhall. At the time of the disappearance, Lola was being cared for by a foster family in Walsall.
DCI Matt Markham from Force CID, said: "We are pleased to say that Lola is now returned to a place of safety and she is doing well. 
http://www.expressandstar.com/news/crime/2014/03/17/missing-mother-arrested-for-kidnap-as-baby-found-safe/

How did the Express and Star get the right to display the photographs of the child all over the newspapers?

Sunday 16 March 2014

Teenage mother absconds with baby

The family of a teenage mother who snatched her baby daughter from a foster family during a supervised visit have said her actions were an 'act of desperation'.

Police are searching for Stacey Ball, 18, after she bundled 13-month-old Lola Page into a car in Walsall, West Midlands.

But yesterday Miss Ball's father, Ryan Price, 46, said his daughter is simply 'screaming out for help' because she had been informed her daughter would be put up for adoption.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2582026/She-mother-screaming-help-Family-defend-teenager-Stacey-Ball-snatched-toddler-daughter-foster-family-vanished.html

Confidential material sent to the wrong address

"A council has apologised after a couple were mistakenly sent disturbing confidential details about a child welfare case. Cumbria County Council says it has taken action following the blunder in which the man and his partner, from Carlisle, received private minutes from a Children’s Services meeting about a child who was nothing to do with them."

"The man explained how he and his partner were involved with Children’s Services and the first page of the letter referred to their case. But the second page went on to reveal personal and disturbing information about another child, including his name and the history of his case."

"The blunder is believed to be due to the similarity between the name of the man’s partner and the mother of the child referred to in the documents."

"Former Children’s Services boss Julia Morrison, who presided over a period when child protection services in the county were repeatedly criticised by Ofsted inspectors for failing to adequately protect the most vulnerable youngsters, announced last Thursday she was leaving the role due to health reasons."

 
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/cumbria-council-apologises-after-child-welfare-case-blunder-1.1123190#

Sustainable development in the Curriculum for Excellence


The new Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland has the ambition of offering a broad general education with the opportunity for interdisciplinary work. Global topics such as climate change and sustainable development require such treatment:
The goal of sustainable development is to enable all people throughout the world to satisfy their basic needs and improve the quality of their lives without compromising the quality of life for future generations 
Developing our children and young people as global citizens through sustainable development education is a key context for learning within Curriculum for Excellence. Sustainability issues feature prominently in the experiences and outcomes and offer learners an opportunity to engage with complex ethical issues relating to climate change, social justice, interdependence, health and wellbeing and biodiversity.
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningteachingandassessment/learningacrossthecurriculum/themesacrosslearning/globalcitizenship/sustainabledevelopment/introduction.asp

The PhD thesis `An exploratory study of the sustainable development education provided by the Curriculum for Excellence` is a small scale qualitative study based in one school in Stirlingshire. Its main findings were that although pupils received a solid foundation of knowledge on sustainable development issues in order to live more sustainable lives, they were not provided with enough knowledge with which to advance that education.

http://etheses.qmu.ac.uk/1148/

It is possible that there is too much breadth and not enough depth with which to build a sustainable education. It should be noted that since the Climategate scandal the term `global warming` has fallen out of favour to be replaced with `climate change`which illustrates how politicised this topic has become. It refuses to go away no matter what the evidence. Are our schoolchildren being equipped with enough information to be able to reflect on the politics and science as well as the ethics of global citizenship and sustainable development?  I don`t think so.


 
See also the Green agenda

Friday 14 March 2014

Legal age for marriage

Less than a month before the eleventh anniversary of the illegal US-led invasion of Iraq, the near destruction of much of the country, heritage, culture, secularism, education, health services and all State institutions, the country is poised to revert "two thousand years" say campaigners.

On 25th February Iraq’s Cabinet approved a draft law lowering the age of legal marriage for females to nine years old.

Iraq was, prior to the invasion, a fiercely secular country, with a broadly equal male, female workforce and with women benefiting from a National Personal Status Law, introduced in 1959, which remained "one of the most liberal in the Arab world, with respect to women’s rights."

The legal age for marriage was set at eighteen, forced marriages were banned and polygamy restricted. Cohesion between communities was enhanced and fostered by: "eliminating the differential treatment of Sunnis and Shiites under the law (and erasing differentiation) between the various religious communities …" Women’s rights in divorce, child custody and inheritance were an integral part of the Law, with Article 14 stating that all Iraqis are equal under the law.(1)

http://www.globalresearch.ca/war-and-the-rights-of-children-americas-proxy-government-legalizes-pedophilia-in-occupied-iraq/5373303