Is there a common purpose ?

UK Column News 2 November 2018:

In the studio with Mike Robinson is David Scott from Northern Exposure. 

Mike Robinson begins: "Here is Sarah Thornton and of course over the last couple of days the National Chiefs` Police Council and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners were holding their partnership summit because, as we know, everything is about partnership, and well, she was saying something that did get some media coverage: that incidents of misogyny, claims against dead people, should not be pursued. So this is about police priorities and the amount of money the police have to spend on various things and, of course, the rise, or at least the alleged rise, of violent crime in the country. So let`s see what she actually said. Here we go."

"Neither investigating gender-based hate crime or investigating allegations against those who have died are necessarily bad things - I just argue that they cannot be priorities for a service that is over-stretched."

"Well this is all pretty hypocritical, David, because why would we not  want to investigate people who have been abusing children even in the past?"

David Scott: "You have an institutionalised abuse network; you have people right up to [a] former prime minister who has been abusing children on an industrial scale; you have the cover-up of that industrial scale abuse ... through the police, through the courts, through the entire system. You don`t want to know, Mike; you don`t want to know because the people are dead and it`s time to move on and we need to be looking at far more important things. And it`s just the same as looking at hate incidents and basically gossip on social media; it`s the same sort of level. We`re going to equate these two things so that people get the idea that investigating the core breakdown of our society is not really that important and should not be a priority for the police."

Mike Robinson: "Well let`s just remind everybody that Sarah Thornton does have form here because, of course, one of the subjects that we were trying to cover for quite a number of years was the abuse that was taking place at Oxford & Cherwell Valley College. And Sarah Thornton was Chief Constable at Thames Valley police, therefore was responsible for any investigation, or not, into the abuse that took place at that college. And, of course, she refused consistently to investigate and we were asking on an issue of the UK Column, when we were printing the newspaper, we were asking: `Was there a conspiracy of silence or a common purpose at work here?` Because all the people involved from the local authority, from the school and the Chief Constable herself, were all involved or graduates of common purpose. So I can`t image why she would want to cover things up. But anyway as you mentioned, one of the other things she said, of course, was `We don`t want to be investigating hate incidents any more unless there`s a crime been committed, but if it`s an incident we don`t really want to be highlighting that or investigating that` ..."

"But this is all a bit strange, David, because apparently we`re going to be investigating the labour party over anti-semitic alleged hate."

David Scott. "It appears not all hate is equal..."

Mike Robinson: "Well let`s move on to education and you wanted to highlight the passing of John Taylor Gatto."

 

"Yes, I wanted just to highlight how important John Taylor Gatto has been and to briefly .... record his passing on the 25 October. He has been an inspiration to many of us. He`s spoken with great vigour and great insight about what exactly is wrong with the education system, the very fundamental harm that it does, and the depth of the problem and what can be done about it, and the joy and vigour that can be obtained from education that`s based on different principles. He`s written several books. `The Underground History of American Education` is an absolute goldmine of information on these matters. There`s one called `Dumbing Us Down` - probably about half a dozen books in all .... Anyone who`s interested in education at all, anyone who`s interested in how to think freely, and anyone who`s interested in how the state is modifying society, needs to read John Taylor Gatto. He was a great man and he`ll be sadly missed."

Mike Robinson: "So we have a quote here. Genius is `as common as dirt`. We suppress genius because we haven`t yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. The solution, I think, is simple and glorious. Let them manage themselves`...`"

"Yes, and this is what he put into practice. He won New York state and New York City, `Teacher of the Year`, He was working in a very poor school and ghetto in New York and with very poor and disadvantaged pupils and they were doing magnificently well. They were going to various universities and no-one could figure out how he did it. But what he was doing was he was engaging with the parents, working with them and the children and completely subverting the system. And so when he won the award he had to resign because the attention he got stopped him doing the subversive creative things that were actually working. So this is an extract of his resignation which was published in the.... Washington Post. It was titled `I quit, I think`."

"I`ve

"I just can`t do it anymore. I can`t train children to wait to be told what to do. I can`t train people to drop what they are doing when a bell sounds. I can`t persuade children to feel some justice in their class placement when there isn`t any, and I can`t persuade children to believe teachers have valuable secrets they can acquire by becoming our disciples. That isn`t true..."

GTC Scotland do not have a policy position on reading

 The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) held its second `Excellence in Professional Learning Awards` in September. It looks like they are here congratulating practitioners for `nurturing North Ayrshire`. It`s a pity they pay so much attention to how practitioners `nurture` and yet do not give much attention to how teachers are taught to instruct learners to read.  

Given the focus in Scotland on `adverse childhood experiences` (ACEs) one thing seems to be overlooked: a lifelong inability to read is one of the most devastating experiences a child could possible undergo; and yet, as the Clackmannanshire study has shown, is well within the grasp of primary teachers to do something about. Yet as the GTCS reveals there still remains a cavalier approach to the teaching of reading.
 

Here is an important tweet  from Anne Glennie, Scottish primary teacher and literacy consultant and trainer, who quotes:
 

"GTC Scotland would like to advise its readers that it does not hold a policy position on teaching children to read. We aim to publish a wide range of articles in `Teaching Scotland` offering different viewpoints. This is to inform our readers about current practice in education. Publication of a particular point of view does not mean that we endorse it."
 

There are several comments following the tweet:

___________________

 

 

"What is the point of the GTC in that case?"
___________________

 

 

"GTCS functions include: Setting the Professional standards expected of all teachers."

"Accrediting programmes leading to the award of GTCS Standards, including Initial Teacher Education programmes at Scottish universities."

"How can they hold teachers in Scotland to professional standards but not hold policy positions on the science behind reading?"
___________________

 

 

Debbie Hepplewhite Retweeted Anne Glennie
 

"This is utterly unaccountable - extraordinary - unforgivable. What have 'views' to do with the science of reading instruction? Such irony as the Clackmannanshire research is important - supported a move in England towards official systematic synthetic phonics."

_____________________________

The letter from Alison Taylor that prompted the GTC announcement that they do not have a policy position on teaching reading is here:

"Dear Editor, 

 

I was disturbed to see an article in Teaching Scotland no 75 about Reading Recovery. This `intervention` has been withdrawn in many English speaking countries because it does not tackle the core of the literacy problem, and yet here in Scotland we are promoting it."

"To Raise Attainment for All and Close the Gap, Scotland must improve the teaching of beginner readers, so it is essential to educate all our primary teachers in the science behind reading and evidence based methods to use. We are not taught the complexities of the English Alphabetic Code at university so can end up using a mixture of effective and ineffective approaches."

"About 21 months ago I was introduced by Anne Glennie `The Learning Zoo to teaching decoding through systematic synthetic phonics (SSP)` which is part of the Big Five for teaching literacy. This started my reading journey of the science behind reading. In the schools I work in, we now use evidence based methods to teach literacy, both universally and for PEP interventions. This has had a huge positive impact on developing the literacy skills of our pupils."

"In my experience many pupils are included in intervention groups (such as Reading Recovery) that encourage pupils to `guess` words using multi-cueing (use the picture, first sound or context clues - when what they really need is systematic and explicit teaching of the Alphabetic Code from simple to complex code. They then require practice, little and often, in decoding and encoding using the letters and sounds. Schools need decodable books as a resource to do this. Many schools teach phonics but do not have this vital resource to enable children to practise the letters and sounds they are learning. All beginner readers need to be taught the same skills and knowledge. Some children including those with `dyslexia` need lots of extra practice to retain their learning of sound to print."

"Many poor readers are relying on memorising words for decoding and have no other strategy to use when they come across new words. Teach them to decode using SSP and they have skills and knowledge that will stay with them forever. Get them to practise to mastery and we help all pupils. `Reading` is a life skill and we must not let the children in Scotland down. Let`s get it right from the start."

______________________________

 

Last year`s ceremony:

 

 

Vulnerable children are being tricked by the transgender agenda

"An astonishing 17 pupils at a single British school are in the process of changing gender, The Mail on Sunday can reveal."

"Most of the youngsters undergoing the transformation are autistic, according to a teacher there, who said vulnerable children with mental health problems were being ‘tricked’ into believing they are the wrong sex."

"The whistleblower says few of the transgender children are suffering from gender dysphoria – the medical term for someone who feels they were born in the wrong body – but are just easily influenced, latching on to the mistaken belief they are the wrong sex as a way of coping with the problems caused by autism."

"Earlier this year, The Mail on Sunday revealed that a third of youngsters referred to the NHS’s only gender identity clinic for children showed ‘moderate to severe autistic traits’..."

 

 "She was advised to keep parents and other teachers in the dark if a pupil claimed to be transgender..."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6401593/Whistleblower-teacher-makes-shocking-claim-autistic.html

Judge Belcher arranges more delays for Melanie Shaw

Bad news for Melanie:

Lady Smith and the altered transcript

 [UK Column 19 October 2018]

"Well let`s move on to Robert Green. And of course Robert Green was the man who stayed with the Hollie Greig abuse case where Hollie had been abused and clearly there was no justice coming forward. It took Robert Green to stick with the case to report the facts and ultimately to go to prison for his efforts in trying to protect children from child abuse. This has now reached an interesting stage because although many people probably think everything around Robert has died down, Robert has been campaigning for justice for himself as to what was and was not said in court."

 "And we`ll just pop her up on screen. Briefly, Judge Lady Smith is now north of the border supposedly running the Scottish inquiry into child abuse. What`s the link between this lady and Robert Green ?"

David Scott: "This is very interesting. Lady Smith picked up the reins of the Scottish independent child abuse inquiry... after everyone else led by the chief Susan O`Brien QC resigned, citing government interference and lack of independence. So lady Smith is now the sole director of this inquiry. She replaced the three people formally running it and is there personally directing how it proceeds. Lady Smith is the person who was asked to review Robert`s complaint that the Judge in this case, Sheriff Principal Edward Farquhar Bowen, had made racist comments during the sentencing...[hearing in 2012] These comments were entirely omitted from the transcript provided to Robert of the sentencing and comments. That transcript came from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service... She wouldn`t let Robert listen to the tape but she listened to the tape of the hearing and she assured Robert that there was nothing to be concerned about. It transpires that`s not true."

Brian Gerrish: "Right, so we can show a little bit of the documents here to show people how this trail works. 1`ve got to say up front that of course, at the moment, what was said and what wasn`t said in court is not in front of us as evidence, so what the sheriff did and didn`t say we are trying to track down... The important thing about this is how the system itself seems to be manoeuvring and obfuscating around the information."

"So the first document... is from the Crown Office in Scotland... Tell us about this document."

David Scott: "So this was given to Robert Green on his release from prison. He was complaining that the Sheriff had made racist comments during the sentencing and hearing, and that this showed bias, this being grounds for appeal. [The] document [is] on Crown Office notepaper and it`s as you see quite brief. We`ve actually covered this in detail in the Column many years ago because it`s quite strange as well. But even stranger is that we`ve now, after some considerable negotiation and exchange, found that the original tape is still held. It`s in the archives of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service and after some discussion they agreed to provide initially a written transcript, a new written transcript, of the same comments. So when we see the new written transcript ... we find that it doesn`t match. "

Brian Gerrish: "[The] Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service has now come into it. Have I got the right one?"

David Scott: "That`s correct, yes. Now it doesn`t match. Now indeed it doesn`t match very closely at all. It`s sort of like the first one was a sort of paraphrase. The second one has clearly been transcribed directly from some sort of record, we don`t know exactly what, and lo and behold there`s an additional sentence in the new transcript that was entirely omitted from the original document - and what Robert has been saying for six years."

Brian Gerrish: "So we can bring this new sentence on screen. And what we`re saying here is that this has never been seen before. Suddenly, we`ve got this sentence which has now appeared in a second version of what is claimed to be the transcript."

David Scott: "It`s a very interesting sentence. So this was omitted from the accurate record that was provided by the Crown Office and was confirmed by Lady Smith. And the sentence says: `Let me tell you that we in Scotland are more than capable of identifying our own deficiencies without the assistance of someone with your background`. Now this is interesting on many levels. Not only was it omitted entirely from the initial record but it covers exactly the ground, or subject area, that Robert Green and the six or seven other witnesses in court that day all said was covered by the sentencing comment. It just does it in a way which is neutered. It calms it down; it reads like what the Sheriff maybe wishes he said. It doesn`t comply, tally closely, with what has been reported to me by numerous witnesses ... But it covers the same ground."

Brian Gerrish: "To emphasise this we`re going to show - we`ll bring it up on screen - what members of the public who were present at the hearing allege that the Sheriff said to Robert Green: `You are either stupid or misguided, probably both, to think that you, a Welsh-English man, can come up to Scotland to tell us how to run our justice system. I am telling you that WE run the justice system just fine.` So that`s what members of the public who were present allege was said."

"I`ll just jump back and show again what is now being said the transcript shows. `Let me tell you that we in Scotland are more than capable of identifying our own deficiencies without the assistance of someone with your background`... I was told shortly before we came on live for today`s news that in England it is normal procedure that although somebody is actually there taking down the transcript as the trial takes place, that transcript goes ultimately to the Judge to be - what`s the word - verified."

Mike Robinson: "Sanitised?"

Brian Gerrish. "Sanitised ! Before it is released to the public as the true version of events. I don`t know whether the same system works in Scotland but, of course, if it does this makes life very interesting indeed."

David Scott: "Well it`s an excellent question because we`ve been told by the Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service that this transcript is verbatim, taken from the tape that was recorded in court. Now they`ve offered Robert the chance to listen to the tape. So far they`re refusing to give him a copy of the recording for forensic examination but they have offered to allow him to listen to it. So that`s going to happen..."

Brian Gerish: "OK, now you have written some letters on this subject. You thought that this one that you wrote some time ago to Lord Gill was of particular importance because you were coming back to the significance, the legal significance, of this event. We still don`t know what the true facts are but this is giving a flavour for it by having a look at the dangers of bias in court cases and you found this very powerful case precedent."

"Back in the 1980s, a Sheriff whilst relaxing at Ayr curling club, pronounced that the coal miners, then on strike, would not receive legal aid if they came into this court on breach of the peace charges. Some of the miners later appealed his decision, on quite different grounds, to refuse legal aid. The matter went to the Court of Session. The Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Ross, concluded that the Sheriff had not brought his prejudice into the court and that his decisions had been correct in law but that this was not enough. `There must not be even the appearance of bias,` Lord Ross said. `There is nothing to suggest that at the trials the Sheriff acted unfairly. What the Sheriff failed to note was that the interests of justice required not merely that he should not display bias but that the circumstances should not be such as to create in the mind of a reasonable man the suspicion of the Sheriff`s partiality.` Lord Ross found for one of those appealing."

"The inescapable conclusion is that the statements by Sheriff Principal Bowen concerning Mr Green`s nationality failed to live up to the standard required by Scots Law and defined in the statement by Lord Ross. The logical implication is therefore that the court records were altered not for public relations reasons, or to save the Sheriff the embarrassment of an unguarded remark, but to avoid Mr Green having grounds for appeal; an appeal Mr Green could well have won given the previous stand made by the Court of Session on this subject."

David Scott: "Yes, this is a 2014 letter from me to the head of the judiciary in Scotland, the Lord President of the Court of Session. I write here pointing out that - now as I`ve said we`ve got six or seven separate witnesses, all of them reasonable men and women, who came away from that court convinced there were grounds to doubt the Sheriff`s impartiality. These people are on the record... Their records incidentally were offered to Lady Smith who refused to receive them."

Brian Gerrish: "OK we`ve got a slide here, effectively your summary of this, which I can read out...."

Brian Gerrish: "Really David, you are saying that if the public are not entitled to know what really took place in the court hearing and who said what, there is no justice north of the border and there is certainly no justice for Robert Green."

David Scott: "It must been seen to be done; it must be ... as the quote there from Lord Ross made absolutely clear; there must be not even a hint or suggestion in the mind of a reasonable observer the system is less than scrupulously fair. It seems that in Robert`s case we`re failing that by a country mile."　

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WEjDNBhPjs&t=1169s

Gagging clause for company hired to test cladding

"The company hired to test flammable cladding on government-built buildings – in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire – have been ‘gagged’ from criticizing Prime Minister Theresa May."

"Engineering firm WSP signed a UK government contract worth more than £100,000... carry out testing of cladding on buildings, 12 days after the Grenfell Tower fire in which 72 people died. A prerequisite of the deal was WSP having to sign a gagging clause preventing the company from being able to create `adverse publicity` for or `embarrass` PM May and her Cabinet Office, the Times reports..."

"Former Housing Minister Barwell was accused of `sitting on` ... a review into building regulations at tower blocks after a deadly fire in south London in 2009 killed six people."

"The revelations have been met with a mixture of disbelief and outrage on social media from across the political spectrum. Labour MP David Lammy, whose friend Khadija Saye died in the fire, said the gagging clause demonstrated `unforgivable cowardice` on the part of May. The Sun’s deputy political editor, Steve Hawkes, claimed it was an `awful look` for the UK government."

https://www.rt.com/uk/443326-grenfell-cladding-gagging-may/  

`Parent Next` for risky parents

"Chia is one of 68,000 parents who have been placed on a new government program, Parents Next, after receiving a call from Centrelink assessing whether they are at risk of `long-term welfare dependency`..."

"Parents say they have been forced by their providers to attend activities such as `story time`, swimming lessons or playgroup, or told to sign up to education courses at their own expense, even if they already hold qualifications..."

"The government announced the expansion of the $263m program in the May budget following a two-year trial, during which 3,510 participants had their payments suspended."

"`It’s offensive that the government believes that … women aren’t trying to do what they can to increase the welfare of themselves and their child,` Terese Edwards, the chief executive of the National Council of Single Mothers, told Guardian Australia."

"Now that it was compulsory and women faced penalties for not complying, Edwards said it had gone `from a soft touch … to almost blaming women for undertaking unpaid care`."

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/06/single-parents-forced-to-attend-story-time-or-lose-centrelink-payments?fbclid=IwAR0DAdl9EziHR-NZ265rDezgH0pZK9lvwi4Sp1Z8DnCymi5r4y2wdrzLUkc

The Green Fields of France

Sixth year pupils from Naas CBS Music Department are singing a version of `The Green Fields of France` to commemorate 100 years since the end of World War 1.

The neglect of the learning disabled

 

Nothing changes.

Here`s Paul Kelso, health correspondent, Sky News:

"At least 40 people with a profound learning disability or autism have died while admitted to `barbaric` secure hospitals the government has promised to close since 2015, a Sky News investigation has found."

"The deceased, nine of whom were under-35 when they died, were being held as in-patients in assessment and treatment units (ATUs), controversial hospitals considered inappropriate for some of the most vulnerable people in society..."

"Figures show the total fell by 80 people in three years, from 2,395 in March 2015 to 2,315 in September this year, while the number of children has increased, from 110 in March 2015 to 230 in September."

"Latest figures show 60% of patients in ATUs have been admitted for more than two years and 16% for more than a decade."

"Figures released to Sky News under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that reported uses of restraint, categorised as including the use of medication, seclusion of patients, and physical restraint including face-down `prone restraint`, have soared in the last two years..."

"Sir Stephen Bubb says money should move from the NHS to the social care pot."

"`There are deaths of people in these institutions, some of them unexplained. We know there are significant problems and there will be at some stage another scandal, and yet we know what we need to do`."

"`The idea that in the 21st century you lock people up, you restrain them, you use prone restraint, you hold them down, I think is disgusting, it is barbaric and it is unacceptable, and it needs to be made unlawful`."

https://news.sky.com/story/40-people-died-in-barbaric-secure-hospitals-the-government-pledged-would-close-11540038

Contracts have gagging clauses

"The company hired to test flammable cladding on government-built buildings – in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire – have been ‘gagged’ from criticizing Prime Minister Theresa May."

"Engineering firm WSP signed a UK government contract worth more than £100,000 (US$131,500) to carry out testing of cladding on buildings, 12 days after the Grenfell Tower fire in which 72 people died. A prerequisite of the deal was WSP having to sign a gagging clause preventing the company from being able to create `adverse publicity` for or `embarrass` PM May and her Cabinet Office, the Times reports... "

"Former Housing Minister Barwell was accused of `sitting on` ... a review into building regulations at tower blocks after a deadly fire in south London in 2009 killed six people."

"The revelations have been met with a mixture of disbelief and outrage on social media from across the political spectrum. Labour MP David Lammy, whose friend Khadija Saye died in the fire, said the gagging clause demonstrated `unforgivable cowardice`on the part of May. The Sun’s deputy political editor, Steve Hawkes, claimed it was an `awful look` for the UK government."

https://www.rt.com/uk/443326-grenfell-cladding-gagging-may/ 

 

Cover-ups in action

Brian Gerrish from UK Column News 19 October 2018: "Well the big issue that is under the surface of UK government is dynamite. We hear about Brexit at the moment and little else but something far nastier and deeper is at work." 

 

Mike Robinson: "Well yesterday Penny Mordaunt was speaking at the Sexual Exploitation Conference 2018 and, of course, this is following the issues around Oxfam and abuse in the NGO sector, particularly in international development and she said: `Thank you all for your recognition that after the Oxfam scandal we had to grip this issue`. So I thought we`d have a look and see exactly how they`re gripping this issue. They`ve produced a nice little video with quotes from people who have been affected by this" ...

"Penny Mordaunt announced that they were going to prevent abuses happening in the first place. They`re going to listen... when abuses happen; they`re going to respond decisively and sensitively and they`re going to learn from each case that they`re dealing with. So, for example, `DFID and Interpol are launching a pilot of a new system to improve background checks on aid staff. UK NGOs, with support from DFID, are going to test a passport for aid workers to prove their identity, to provide background information on previous employment and confirm their vetting status. They`re going to introduce a disclosure of misconduct scheme across the NGO sector and prevent known perpetrators from moving around undetected.` And a whole host of other things announced which - well what are they doing, putting lip service to this? I don`t think they`re going to do very much and certainly people from the NGO sector agree with that."

"She said ...`If something happens you should report it. But in addition to this there must be action taken. The organisation should dismiss the person so that other men will learn that you cannot go around abusing children in this way... Often no action is taken and that is the problem`."

Mike Robinson continues with the list of proposals: "`The development of a statement of victims rights.` So this is all fantastic stuff. But as I say not everyone was terribly impressed by that, including a former Save the Children employee Alexia Pepper de Caires who intervened during Penny Mordaunt`s speech."

"So let`s just have a quick look at that..."

"So what did Penny Mordaunt have to say? She went on to say `I am very sorry some people feel excluded from this event...`"

"So Brian, quite an important intervention there, and we see this time and again. The key point ... she was making is that Save the Children, who she used to work for, have been given a role within this ... new globalised system of criminal records checks for aid workers; and she made the point they`re still under investigation by the Charity Commission themselves. That alone must demonstrate Penny Mordaunt`s Department of International Development aren`t taking this seriously."

Brian Gerrish: "There`s so much to say on this, Mike. And the pause there is really my brain trying to take this in, because it`s the first time I`ve seen this clip. But what comes into my head is `participatory democracy` where these large charities, NGOs, are no longer acting in that capacity. They`re acting on behalf of the British government. They are considered part of the government and I think the key part of the problem is that we talk about Save the Children as if it was a big international charity. No it`s not. It`s there helping to carry out foreign policy for the British government, so the British government ultimately is going to defend it to the hilt, even if there are people who are going to carry out sex crimes or abuse within that organisation. So an extraordinary intervention but can we expect any more from Penny Mordaunt? No, I don`t think we can."

"Let`s bring David Scott into the programme at this point. Welcome to the programme David. What are your thoughts on what happened there?"

"I thank you. Yes, three quick points. I have seen this last night. I followed a link that described it as an outrageous and concerning security breech. That was the headline and of course I looked at it and it was nothing of the sort. There was no threat. There was someone making a point extremely effectively. The second point here is that Penny Mordaunt clearly had no answer and also we`re seeing a pattern once again of the most inappropriate person or inappropriate organisation being put in charge of investigating wrongdoing. We see this over and over."

Mike Robinson: "Absolutely. Well let me introduce you to Rishi Sunak who is the Local Government Minister... Well, the Local Government Minister has decided that something has to be done about government sexual exploitation at local government level. So the government is going to toughen the rules which ban sex offenders from being elected as councillors at the local council level. [These are] new disqualification rules to prevent people found guilty of serious crimes from serving as counsellors or mayors and so, for example, anybody in receipt of an antisocial behaviour injunction, a criminal behaviour order, a sexual risk order or who is on the sex offenders register will no longer be able to stand for elected office in a community. He says that current conditions make clear that anyone convicted of an offence carrying a prison sentence of more than 3 months is banned from serving as a local councillor but the new measures are going to strengthen this further by bringing disqualification rules aligning with modern sentencing to include the alternatives to a prison sentence..."

"The question in my mind then is when are they going to do something about stopping people with similar problems from standing as MPs Brian?"

"Well, who knows? At the moment the so-called inquiry into Keith Vaz has just gone into the long grass. I think we`re two years into that inquiry. So Mr Vaz was videoed there with rent boys; there was discussion of drugs; that`s being investigated by Westminster, but all of that is now under secrecy rules. So we`re not allowed to know what is happening. And, of course, we`ve had MP after MP - many of them dead, yes, that`s true - but we`ve never got to the bottom of abuses in and around Westminster. And we`re going to mention the so-called child abuse inquiry in just a moment. So there is no delving into child abuse when it comes to MPs."

"Fascinating to see though they are targeting local councillors because we`ve already got the interesting situation where we have officers ... paid to do the job of I believe it`s called Monitoring Officer where they vet the standards of the elected members. So you have essentially a government place man in each council watching the councillors. But who is actually watching the council staff themselves? And the chief executives under vast salaries, of course, are going to do all they can to protect their own organisations. So I think this is starting to dismantle local democracy. I think this is what it`s about."

David Scott: "Well I wonder here if this is just an example of locking the stable door after the horse has bolted? Because we`re talking about excluding people who have been guilty of trafficking for sex: women and girls and boys into the UK; that does rather accept that these people were in the system first off. There doesn`t seem to be any attempt to exclude people who might be sex offenders sort of at source. And I understand that via polygraph and other psychological assessments this is actually really quite achievable but it`s not done. So there`s no real attempt to protect the public here. There`s simply an attempt to prevent the appearance of wrongdoing where you have someone entirely inappropriate getting elected. However, I thought that was something that the democratic process itself should be able to sort out and not where the problem lies."

Mike Robinson: "Indeed."

Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse
 
Brian Gerrish. "Well let`s have a look at IICSA and let`s remember what the government`s child abuse inquiry says: `I will be heard.` The inference there is very clear that any victim or survivor of child abuse will get the opportunity to come forward and to give their testimony at the inquiry. Well, we can tell our audience today - I hope it is a worldwide audience, because this directly impacts on the British government and the values of the present conservatives - that the `I will be heard` motto is simply not true because we now know that victims and survivors of child abuse will not be heard. And I`d like to thank this gentleman, Martin Noakes, who has shared the communication that he`s had from the IICSA inquiry. Let me read it to our audience:"

`Dear Mr Noakes,`

`Thank you for contacting the inquiry via email on 10 October.`

`The Chair is aware of Melanie Shaw`s evidence and the representations made about the relevance of her evidence to the inquiry. In light of the evidence already available to the inquiry both in documents and from other witnesses attending the hearing, the Chair does not consider it necessary to hear from her at the hearing.`

`The Chair does however recognise the importance of the experiences and perspectives of all those who make an allegation of sexual abuse during their time in care and the inquiry is preparing summary tables setting out details of the allegation of abuse and the complainant`s perspective of the response to it. Where someone has made an allegation to the police and/or the Council in relation to Beechwood this is included in the summary tables. All complainants, victims and survivors of child sexual abuse are entitled to anonymity in the inquiry`s proceedings unless they expressly choose to waive it and so will be anonymised in the summary tables,`

`Yours sincerely,

Correspondence & Engagement Team, Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.`

"David, I`m going to throw this one at you. I do not think I have ever seen such a clear document showing the absolute intent that this inquiry will produce the best cover-up the British government has ever done to date because we are not going to allow the survivors to speak. If they do speak they`re going to be anonymised which of course dilutes their evidence and we`re going to produce tables which set out rough numbers of complaints and where they were. This is a cover-up which is just breathtaking."

David Scott: "It`s an astonishing response. The Chair is aware of everything regarding Melanie Shaw. The Chair does nothing. The Chair does not consider it necessary to do anything; to act. Melanie Shaw, solitary confinement, driven away from sanity it seems to be the objective, a series of questionable procedures at every stage, but we don`t need to hear from Melanie Shaw... It`s just ... there`s been so much child abuse, what we`ll do is summarise it in tables because that means that any one piece of evidence isn`t that critical, because there`s so much of it that all we need to do is give a general flavour of what is happening. Any one piece of evidence that might be concerning, say, a senior serving politician for example, that one piece of evidence is only a small amount of the total. So we`ll lose that because we`re looking at the bigger picture. This is what`s happening. This is cover-up in action. I`m astonished it`s so blatant."

Brian Gerrish: "Somebody in our chat box has said I thought anonymity was optional. That`s technically correct. People can decide whether they want to be anonymous or not. However, it now seems that the report is going to be based on anonymity. But of course the other thing we`ve got to remember is that where the local councils... have made compensation payments that has automatically come with a gagging order."

"I`m going to come back on to that but we`ll put this up on screen. It is clear that the conservative government now is running this massive cover-up of child abuse and as we said a few days ago... we were receiving very good information that they`re so panicked by the amount of information coming which is leading back to abuses in Westminster, around Westminster by MPs, that the bet is that IICSA will actually close down the Westminster part of its so-called inquiry."

"I tried to summarise just some of the key points here: but basically we invite survivors forward on the basis that they`ll be heard; we then refuse to hear them. And to be absolutely clear on this, IICSA has not received any of the testimony from Melanie Shaw. That is an absolute fact. The bulk of her testimony has not actually been revealed publicly in any case. So you refuse to hear those people. You deny them access to the panel. You refuse to hear professionals such as the police who have evidence of abuse and cover-up. We know that`s true because of John Wedger, former MET police officer, has been denied access to the panel. He was promised he could go on one of the panels and IICSA has now said they`re only going to deal with chief constables. We`ve got a government that`s approved gagging orders that come with the compensation payments and that directly stifles criminal evidence. If these people can no longer speak out about criminal abuse being acted on them then we have got a complete ... stifling of law in this country."

"And then what are we going to do? We`re going to produce anonymised statistical tables as findings which will essentially assure that no individuals are ever found guilty of the crimes. It is mind boggling but to be expected because as the UK Column and indeed many other alternative media outlets have said time and again child abuse is the fuel by which blackmail works within the British government and to keep that blackmail working you`ve got to keep the child abuse happening..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WEjDNBhPjs&t=1169s

Limiting the children of the poor

Is this eugenics for the working poor and those out of work? 

"Tory MSP Michelle Ballantyne suggests other parties attempts to paint the Conservatives as unreasonable means they fail to consider the real drivers of poverty and inequality." 

"She criticises the previous tax credit system introduced by Labour, saying it `allowed debt to spiral both for the individual and the government`. " 

"Responding to an intervention on the two child limit, Ms Ballantyne says this policy is about fairness." 

"She insists it is fair that people on benefits cannot have as many children as they like while families who don't claim benefits have to make decisions about the number of children they can have."
[BBC]

While driving more to poverty ? 

"SNP Christine Grahame MSP has tabled a motion in the Scottish Parliament condemning those comments. She also claimed Mrs Ballantyne`s position as patron of a Borders foodbank `where she will have come face-to-face with people driven into hardship by Tory welfare cuts` as the `height of hypocrisy`."

https://www.thesouthernreporter.co.uk/news/michelle-ballantyne-msp-bites-back-at-calls-for-her-resignation-1-4822587

And hypocrisy is coming from all directions ?

"The Scottish Government is totally to blame for this scandal as they were warned repeatedly, from August 2011, that Westminster planned to devolve the DWP Social Fund to councils in England and the government in Scotland, with a recommendation dump the poor on councils to spread the DWP social fund (and all responsibility) across councils and just send people for food parcels at your own discretion instead."

"MP's and MSP's from every single political party in Scotland knew full well this would mean millions being sent for food parcels across the UK if they did not give small interest free crisis loans in their replacement system, as the DWP did, once the DWP Social Fund was devolved."

Read more https://melkelly60.wixsite.com/whatthepapersdontsay/single-post/2018/07/13/1365-million-Scots-26-ate-from-food-parcels-in-20178?fbclid=IwAR32N6Ibq9D2MbKWWxM0iFeesVlaM3xc4EFhI422XBkEbTNkB2SMlApTXkk

Innocent young people imprisoned in institutions

by Ian Birrell

"Imagine that it was your son, your daughter, your sister, your brother. Taken away by the state against their will to be locked in an institution hours from home. Forced to take drugs they do not need, turning them catatonic, unable to stop dribbling – and if they resist, held down by six guards, stripped and injected with strong sedatives. Stuffed in a tiny cell with just a mattress on the floor, fed through a hatch like a wild animal. Sometimes with no shower, no sink, no toilet paper – and always with no dignity."

"Your relative, of course, has rights as a citizen. Even if they carry out evil crimes, they are protected by rigorous laws. Yet such actions are being inflicted on innocent young people with autism and learning disabilities. They are being handcuffed, bruised, restrained face down by teams of adults, even having their spectacles removed. They must obey orders to access books, television, even fresh air. Some slump into depression and shed weight, others swell up through over-eating. Yet if families protest, they can be legally removed as protectors and publicly silenced with court orders that threaten to seize all assets." 

"These stories sound Dickensian. They remind us of pitiful footage from foreign orphanages or places where people with mental illness are chained to trees. Yet this is happening right here in our country. It is happening right now in secretive psychiatric institutions – both private and state-owned. These practices are a flagrant denial of the most basic human rights for British citizens – but they are permitted by politicians, sanctioned by doctors and funded at huge expense by taxpayers."

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/opinion/the-care-system-remains-twisted-incarcerating-people-with-learning-disabilities-is-inhumane/?__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR0kyNxq22Evn4bU2XCV82gwDZ1FK-xU0Vu9VM2qGLQnlmcjhCV0MIFDmUI

The inhumane treatment of a child abuse survivor and whistleblower

[UK Col 5 October 2018]

"What better place to go than IICSA, ... Theresa May`s child abuse inquiry because it`s just been talking about its findings in Nottingham and [it has] mentioned Beechwood children`s home, of course where Melanie Shaw was abused; and then Melanie became the lead whistleblower. So Sky news here says, `One of the most notorious children`s homes in Nottingham, known as Beechwood, has been singled out by the inquiry for special investigation. There were 136 allegations of sexual abuse from children there between the 1960s and the 1990s,` and, of course, this is a special investigation of Beechwood because the lead whistleblower Melanie Shaw has never been called to give evidence to that inquiry. On the contrary, the inquiry has done everything it possibly can to make sure that Melanie has not appeared at the inquiry. They`re not interested in speaking to Melanie and as their media lady said to me in a slightly agitated state, `What do you expect us to do? Break into the prison, Styal, in order to get Melanie`."

"Well what`s going on here I think is becoming pretty clear. It`s John Mann MP.  He said. `It is a total betrayal; the system didn`t work for them, the institutions didn`t even co-operate and hardly talked to each other. It is quite astonishing how they were let down... This is institutional failure but we need to learn for the present and the future`."

"I thought I`d just slap a label across this. No, no, no Mr Mann, it is not `institutional failure.` This is criminal activity;  and the evidence is easy to see, that institutions fully co-operated in the abuse and subsequent cover-up. So I`m not sure what Mr Mann`s plan is here. He is apparently representing three of the abuse victims. I called his office before we became live today in order to see what he had to say about the fact that the lead whistleblower Melanie Shaw hadn`t been called but there was nobody to answer the telephone. We`ll try him again this afternoon."

"BBC is on the bandwagon. Now remember of course that this is the same BBC that has removed all of their earlier articles about Beechwood and the abuses and those that featured Melanie Shaw; but they are telling us that `three witnesses who gave evidence on Tuesday had all been through branches of Beechwood community home in Mapperley`."

"`The facility is one of three case studies for the Nottinghamshire branch of the inquiry, which opened at Trent Bridge on Monday. A woman in her 50s, identified only as D7, said she grew up in Mansfield and went into care in the 1970s. She recalled being attacked `on several occasions` by John Dent, a social worker who lived on site`."

Brian Gerrish refers to a picture of Melanie Shaw: "So there, remarkably, this particular victim of Beechwood she said that children were not only abused but murdered on that site and has been completely blocked so far from this inquiry."

"David, I predicted a very long time ago that IICSA would be a cover-up. I believe...that even more. This is a very carefully crafted government cover-up, as to the scale of the abuse, and the links through to high level abusers in the establishment and the political system in Westminster. And the fact that [they] are now reporting on Beechwood without even interviewing the lead whistleblower says to me that I`ve been correct. Sorry to be a little bit arrogant there. What do you feel about IICSA?"

David Scott: "Well look what it`s doing? It`s now been running for how many years? Exactly how many shocking headlines have we seen ? How many ... politically connected people [have] been charged? How many have resigned in disgrace? How many changes have been made? There`s been nothing. What it is is a nice quiet gentle ease out from where we were three or four years ago where we had daily headlines about people like Leon Brittan, what he was up to with small boys, and a general view that the people who rule over us have shown themselves to be utterly corrupt. And now this is just easing the public down gently. So there`ll be some lessons to be learned. There might be a few low level people thrown to the wolves but what`s going to change? I don`t see any momentum here for change."

Brian Gerrish: "But of course you need the abused children because as you`ve demonstrated if you have the abused children who go through life damaged and suffering, the state can then use that to bring in controls over parents who do look after their children."

"But this little part of the story gets worse because it was kindly pointed out to us that the Independent Monitoring Board had recently produced a report on HM prison Styal where Melanie has of course been held. This is the Board; it`s independent; it`s always important to tell people that; it`s an independent Board `appointed by the Secretary of State from members of the community in which the prison or centre is situated`. Now I spoke to a very nice lady at this organisation this morning and I questioned her about this report. I`ve been invited to email the Board although I`m not to know who`s on the Board at the moment. But why did I have questions? Well I had questions because the report that they wrote has concluded that prisoners are overall treated fairly in the prison although a small number with poor English are at a disadvantage. `Are prisoners treated humanely? The view of the Board is that prisoners are treated humanely by staff in the prison. However conditions are adversely affected by the poor state of the buildings.`"

"So overall this is a good review for this prison. But when we get into the report there`s some interesting things there. `Five women have spent between 31 and 42 days on the... segregation unit under Rule 45 or Rule 49. A sixth woman arrived on the Unit under this provision on 7 November and, despite several unsuccessful efforts to begin a return to normal location, remains there at the time of writing, with appropriate authorisation. The unit is not ideal for anyone to spend more than a few days`."

"Now some people suggest that this particular person that they are referring to is Melanie Shaw. I believe that could well be true. But I simply asked the question of the Board: If people were spending a long time in a unit where you should only be for a few days, how is this humane? And they seemed to get rather confused by my question. Hence the invitation to email them."

"I`ll just add in this from the report, because if you go into the depths of this report they`ve got a massive increase in self-harm and mental health issues that`s occurred over the last few months. And it`s interesting that the prison governor has recently had to step down, although the Ministry of Justice at the moment will not tell anyone the reasons she`s been removed from the prison; so HMP Styal ... is effectively out of control; it doesn`t have a proper governor. The government who appoints people who do the inspection isn`t saying why this lady has been removed but we seem to have another report smoothing the waters, although conditions in that prison are pretty unpleasant."

"And I`ll just put this image up which I did tweet out yesterday."

"But as I watched Theresa May cavorting on stage in front of her adoring conservative audience, I thought: `Yes, this is the dancing queen that was of course responsible for putting Melanie Shaw in prison and Melanie has finished her jail term but is still - I think it is 3 months later - is still in prison, still not receiving the [care for her] mental health needs that she deserves.` So well done Theresa May."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4SRjkdEBUY

Foster care agency to be sold for more than £100 million

"One of Britain’s largest foster care agencies could be about to change hands for more than £100 million."

"Partnerships in Children’s Services is expected to be sold after its private equity owner, Sovereign Capital, hired advisers from Clearwater to find a buyer."

"Partnerships in Children’s Services brands include Clifford House, Orange Grove and Fosterplus Partnerships in Children’s Services."

"Sovereign Capital invested in 2012 in Fosterplus which was set up in 1996 by two former social workers, Deborah Ferguson and Paul Snell, who are still directors."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-6247843/Foster-care-agency-Childrens-Services-expected-change-hands-100-million.html?ito=amp_twitter_share-related

Scottish child abuse inquiry investigates Quarriers

"The [Scottish child abuse] inquiry will hear allegations of abuse at Quarriers’ Bridge of Weir home, which was set up by Victorian philanthropist William Quarrier."

"The former children’s institution has the most abuse convictions out of any Scottish home."

"Seven people, including Porteous, have been convicted of abusing 23 children at the home."

"David, born in Glasgow, ended up in care along with his sister Irene when his mother suffered a breakdown. He said: `Despite Quarriers having the highest number of convicted carers, the charity has done everything in its power to ensure victims have been denied justice and reparation for what we endured, using time-bar to refuse claims`." 

"`To this day, some won’t realise what evil went on at Quarriers`."

"Porteous refused to accept responsibility for what he did but so have others."

"He used a change in the law to have his sentence shortened, but has never appealed his conviction or taken part in paedophile programmes in prison."

"A BBC Scotland programme, Secrets Or Lies, which questioned the guilt of Porteous, was later criticised by the corporation’s standards watchdogs."

"They said the programme makers had made `serious errors of judgment`, adding that it was unbalanced and so-called new evidence had not been properly researched`..."

"It is hard to understand why the inquiry sought to give convicted paedophiles a voice..."

"Porteous is not the first convicted sex offender to be asked to appear at the SCAI."

"Earlier this year we revealed how former priest Bernard Traynor, 65, has been called to give his testimony after allegations about him were made to the inquiry by former residents at Smyllum Park in Lanark."

"The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry said: `It is vital that the inquiry hears evidence from anyone who has important and relevant information, including survivors and those who worked for the institutions under investigation`..."

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/n2110sexabuse/?fbclid=IwAR1baOJh91y8e6WCyJgH-a8Mf-N_xV1SjwaoNgfkBHOB8oUa0IZWOzX_2kM

 

Melanie Shaw and a `trial of facts`

[UK Column News: 17 October 2018]

"We don`t normally start with an apology but I`ll give the apology. We`re going to show you a little bit of what Google has been doing but this is in relation to the court case of Melanie Shaw. So let`s have a look."

"Fascinating that after months and months and months of nothing about Melanie Shaw on Google. When you search her story, you search Nottingham child abuse, you search for Beechwood home, all of the information had gone down, nothing of the original story from the Nottingham Post or the BBC or any of the other so-called mainstream media, including the big named papers, of course, the Telegraph and the Guardian, absolutely nothing. Melanie`s now been through a particularly vile court hearing and suddenly she`s all over the internet. Just a coincidence Mike?"

Mike Robinson: "Yes, so first and second on the front page there. But has Melanie been through a court case ?"

"Well we`re going to have a little bit of a discussion about that. Let`s just look at what`s come out so far and we`ll go to the Nottingham Post because they`ve obviously taken great delight in reporting this. And so here we are; here`s the headline: `Jury decides that Beechwood whistleblower Melanie Shaw set fire to her cell three times. The defence offered no evidence in the case. Shaw was deemed unfit to stand trial so a finding of fact was conducted in her absence. The jury of five men and seven women took less than an hour to find that Shaw did the acts. They were instructed to reach a not guilty verdict on a further count of arson`. So quite interesting reporting here Mike because they do say that she was absent but then the whole style of the article, it`s as if what was said had come out of the mouth of Melanie Shaw."

Mike Robinson: "Well OK. But the first thing you notice here is they`re talking about a `finding of fact`. We`re going to talk about this a little bit later."

"Indeed. So let`s just put some of the key points up on the screen."

"So Melanie was found guilty of the arson charges. Now I understand the sentencing is on the 15th November 2018. I have seen the 12th of November reported in some places but I think it`s the 15th. People are very welcome to correct me if I`m wrong. Melanie was not well enough to attend Leeds Crown Court nor did she testify by video. She was simply not present at her own court hearing which was allegedly called a `trial of facts`and the defence offered no further evidence."

"Now what was actually going on here Mike? A lot of people who attended the court case were totally bemused at how there could be a court case with a jury and no Melanie called. I also believe there was no psychiatric expert in court to explain why Melanie wasn`t present. That may not be correct but I believe that was the case. So what was this trial of facts?"

Mike Robinson: "Right. So the question is what is a trial of facts?Because the last time we heard about a trial of facts was with respect to Lord Janner here in the Guardian. Lord Janner case: what is a trial of the facts?"

"And it says here `The defendant cannot put forward a defence; there can be no verdict of guilty and the court cannot pass sentence. In a trial of the facts the jury is asked to decide on the basis of evidence adduced by the prosecution lawyer and by lawyers who put forward the case for the defence whether or not the accused did the facts that he or she was charged with. Because the defendant cannot put forward a defence there can be no verdict of guilty and the court cannot pass sentence. All the court can do is make a hospital order, a supervision order or an order for the defendant`s absolute discharge, where a finding of guilt is made but no conviction is registered and no order given`..."

"Now this article about Janner is from 2015 but I just wanted to follow that up with the BBC article Fraud MP Margaret Moran given supervision order. And that says that a judge had ruled that an ex-Labour MP was unfit to stand trial for mental health reasons and so could not receive a criminal conviction. The jury heard the case at Southwark Crown Court in November in her absence. She was given the supervision order and the order is to be supervised by Southampton City Council."

"So if we go back to the middle paragraph of the Guardian article it says all a court can do is make a hospital order, a supervision order or an order for the defendant`s absolute discharge."  Referring to the Melanie Shaw case Mike Robinson says: "Discharge is unlikely to be the case, so it`s got to be the other two. If it`s a hospital order then that`s what they get Brian because it puts Melanie into the psychiatric system which is where they`ve wanted her all the while and of course that would be indeterminate in terms of length of incarceration. And if it`s a supervision order then in that case she would be supervised by the very local authority that supervised the abuse that she suffered in the first place. This is pretty obscene."

The discussion continues on UK Column News at 6.02 minutes.

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

Parenting by the state

UK Column News: [5 October 2018]

Indoctrination in schools

Brian Gerrish: "Well, change of subject and an introduction to David Scott, but let`s just have a look very briefly at this. Several people sent this into us. It`s a youtube video clip which shows a teacher at a primary school encouraging, teaching, showing very small children how to write letters to ask a man Thomas to marry them. And the significance of this is that the boys are writing the same letters that the girls are. So the teacher says a couple of clips from the [start] of the video `You`re going to tell Thomas it`s a brilliant idea to marry you`. "

"So this school is teaching children about LGBT relationships from the earliest age ... and of course you rapidly learn what`s going on because the teacher says that the children can be more accepting at this age and if you get the information into the children they accept it now . Then you don`t have a problem trying to convince them of what they should accept and believe in later years."

"I looked at the clip several times; it`s utterly fascinating... because what this teacher is doing is indoctrination and she knows it`s indoctrination but she thinks this is acceptable."

"David, I know this is going on with a vengeance north of the border as well."

David Scott: "It certainly is; and we`re seeing it state funded. One of the odd things is this year there has been LGBT `pride marches` all round Scotland. There was one in Perth. There were two at the weekend; one in Inverness and one in the western isles, if you can believe that. And the western isles one, there was a bit of controversy because the western isles counsellors were refusing to fly the `pride flag`. So these are being state funded, well funded, and then what you find is that in each local authority there are agents pushing the agenda. They are often extremely militant LGBT agency activists but they are in state funded organisations, state funded jobs, and very often teaching the teachers or in similar areas of control over the wider education system."

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

Mike Robinson: "Right David, we`re going to move on to ACEs and we`ll find out what ACEs are in one second when we look at a short video clip." 

"So we`ve got a short video here and then we`ve got some stills..."

Mike Robinson: "So David, ACEs and their consequences can be prevented?"

"Yes, so this is the latest thing to come out of America and it`s all over Britain. It`s all over western Europe. This is the new thing. It`s not that new; it`s ten years - no, it`s twenty year old research; but it`s suddenly become the flavour of the month. There`s been a film called `Resilience` which you can`t get to see. It`s been shown to all of the Scottish government employees - made by James Redford - and this is describing what is termed as the `science of hope` if you can believe that; and the `science of hope` goes to show how we`re going to transform society by government action. You have to be hopeful; you have to be optimistic and you have to - well, what do you have to do?"

"And they then go on to show correlations between adverse childhood experiences, and adverse experiences in early life, and negative outcomes, which on average is true; and we`re aware - you know, people in the Fresh Start foundation, particularly so, we`re aware of people who, for example, take to alcoholism in order to self medicate because of childhood abuse. This is true; this happens."

"But there`s something wider happening here because what they`re doing is they`re looking at the statistics of the population as a whole and then they`re taking that and changing it into a decision as to how they`re going to influence the lives of individuals and it becomes government policy and it starts going into some very strange and very totalitarian areas. So that`s what we want to explore here."

"This next slide: this is from the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in the United States; so this is a government organisation in America. They`re pushing this forward and you see here: `Parent Training today`. So this is one of the areas that is going to be pushed. They`re going to have state appointed parent trainers. So this is going to reduce the independence of parents within family life in the family unit very significantly..."

"So having identified - initially there`s ten ACEs: emotional abuse, emotional neglect, physical abuse etc etc,  although those numbers are growing now. There`s never any limit... The CDC have identified five things they`re going to stop ... happening. So the first one here is `Strengthening economic supports for families`. Now this means strengthening government subsidies for single parents, essentially."

David Scott then puts forward the view: "Economic support means state economic support, wealth transfer and, of course, it`s welfarism that has been the biggest corrosive effect on the family and has caused most of the society wide decay for those who are most vulnerable. "Scott further suggests: "So essentially what we`re doing is we`re going to double down with everything we`ve been doing - we don`t know what else to do - and we`re going to do more of it."

"Next we`re looking at `changing social norms`... So the bedrock of society is the family with traditionally one parent, usually the man providing; and one parent, usually the mother in the more nurturing role. Well, we`re not having that; we`re going to change that; because the state has now stood in the role of the father for providing for the children.  We don`t need fathers quite as much; there are a lot of single mothers and we`re going to make that the norm. We`re not going to think anything ill of that; we`re going to destroy any social propulsion towards a more stable society basis of the family..."

"Then we`ve got `quality child care and education early in life.` Odd diagram that. This is a little girl playing chess with a wheelchair bound old lady. It may be her grandmother; we`re not sure. So that might be an excellent thing to do. We`re not quite sure who`s looking after who there. Then after that, we`ve got `Enhancing parenting skills.` "

"There`s two nice lesbian mothers here, very slim. They`re outside `24-HOUR URGENT CARE parenting class`. `This way.` So we`re going to teach people how to parent. The state`s getting involved in this as well. And then most creepy of all, we`ve got `Intervening to lessen harms and prevent future risk.` So the state - actually it`s not very good at making the trains run on time and repair holes in the road - is going to prevent future risk. It`s going to look into the vibrant dynamic complex world of - you`re a family - and it`s going to decide if you provide a future risk to your children. And if you do ... then they will act to prevent that and there`s no use arguing..."

Named person scheme

"This is where it`s going. It`s very similar to the Named Person scheme It`s very similar to all of the huge lists of `parenting outcomes` and `risk indicators` we have in the Named Person scheme. It`s a slight re-branding of it. It`s based on similar American-based pseudo-science and it`s everywhere."

Mike Robinson: "Sorry David, it strikes me that in some way it`s related to `social credit` which is something that Dr Graham Downing was talking about to Ian Crane on Humanity versus Insanity last night. We`re going to play that programme after this, if you`re watching the UK Column live stream. But, you know, what you`re saying is there`s some kind of measurement made of whether you are a capable parent or not; and if you`re not, the state is going to intervene, potentially up to the point of removing the children."

"... Of course, we know that the state is the worst parent of all. So this is the bizarre thing. The last defence for children is the family unit and this is assaulting the family unit. So it seems superficially plausible but when you actually analyse what it`s doing it`s all acting against children."

"Now the next slide here is: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). This is from the Scottish government website. The initial ones were from America... It`s been parroted in Scotland. Now they`ve put a saltire on it and they`re going to say this is really important. Scotland to lead the world. No, no no no. Scotland`s just doing as it`s told as it always seems to do these days."

"Now some of the other things that are coming out - it`s called the `theory of everything` OK, so the idea here is this explains everything. This explains everything about your life; this explains everything about your future. And there`s always a pyramid. We don`t seem to be able to do these without using pyramids to explain things diagramatically."

"So here`s the pyramid for ACEs. Now this, as you see, goes from conception to death. Right, so this is the `theory of everything`. So you see that down at the bottom you`ve got adverse childhood experiences ... and that allegedly causes disrupted neurodevelopment which allegedly causes social, emotional and cognitive impairment which allegedly gives rise to the adoption of behaviours which then allegedly cause disease and social problems and an early death. So there you go..."

"Now I was having a quick look at some of the Scottish government support for this. Nicola Sturgeon was at a conference in March this year. She was reflecting on the powerful impact the `Resilience` documentary had on her and emphasised the importance of considering tackling ACEs, as ACEs were one of the most important ...[?] currently taking place across Scotland. So it is being pushed by her own government. And her old friend professor Sir Harry Burns*, the man with all the slides in the World Bank... He told the audience of the original study and the accidental realisation that many of them attending who had been to the clinic had been sexually abused in childhood and he says here - there is a core truth to this, right, that you`ve got a lot of abuse; you`ve got a lot of, particularly sexual abuse, but rather than tackling that what we`re doing is we`re using it as an excuse to build the state into an every more powerful vehicle for controlling society. That`s what`s happening here."

"Now the next little bit is just a shocker. This is from the Journal of Applied Philosophy and it is awful, and it is Licensing Parents Revisited. Now this is one of the most disturbing and in many ways ignorant articles I think I`ve ever read. .. He first of all makes the case for licensing professionals and it`s all positive. You know people in the professions may harm those they serve either directly or by failing to fulfil their fiduciary duties and the harm can be significant so we need the state to get in there and regulate. Now we don`t because there are contraindications here but what he ignores is that licensing is very often used by professions to limit access, to ring fence money and to drive up fees. It is not what he`s claiming but he skirts over any real negative effects and then goes on to make the case, well now parenting is ... important, and then we should license parents because we need ... to ensure parents are competent; and then he briefly looks at the fact that we don`t really know how to do that. It`ll be OK."

"And then he looks at the right to have children which he`s not very impressed with. He says ... `she may think she has a right to her children whereas people do not have a right to be professionals` and the conclusion is: `Does a parent have a right to rear the child under her control without interference from the state?` And there`s a false choice here between a parent who might be abusive and one with no state involvement at all; or complete control and the case for independence of family life is broken down and the conclusion is `yes` we have a good case for licensing parenting. This sort of thing which seems crazy I think is on the way in..."

Brian Gerrish: "David, I`ve got to say that as you went through that this is clearly coming in. It`s coming in as policy; that policy coming in through the civil service, but very often we can see that a lot of it originates with the United Nations. But this is very very dark and sinister stuff.  One of the points you`ve just made is that `we allow the abuse of the children to take place` because ultimately this form of control over parents and families can be brought in as an excuse over the top of it." 

 

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(The abuse that is allowed to take place is then covered up. As an example, towards the end of the programme there is a discussion about the Melanie Shaw court case)

HERE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4SRjkdEBUY

* Sir Harry Burns speaking at a conference below:  http://alicemooreuk.blogspot.com/2015/12/scotlands-wellbeing-will-be-envy-of.html