Preventing dissent

"Prevent is a part of CONTEST the UK Government's counter-terrorism strategy. It is led by the Home Office and supported by the Scottish Government... "

"This Guidance suggests that Health Boards review existing arrangements for protecting vulnerable adults and children as a starting point, and consider adapting them to deliver Prevent objectives so that Prevent is mainstreamed into frontline healthcare services." [And education, of course, since it is all joined up.]

http://www.readyscotland.org/ready-government/nhsscotland-resilience/prevent-guidance-for-health-boards/

The Ferret reported on Prevent at the end of last year in relation to a Glasgow City Council training programme:

"Using Freedom of Information legislation, The Ferret obtained details of an internal Glasgow City Council (GCC) course entitled Protect Against Terrorism, which was produced to advise the council’s 20,000 employees on potential terrorist threats."

"In a section entitled What is Terrorism? GCC cited `animal rights`, `environmental` and `anti-nuclear` under a sub-heading Who Are Our Current Threats?...."

"Richard Haley, of Scotland Against Criminalising Communities (SACC), said: `Animal rights, environmental and anti-nuclear campaigns have somehow found their way onto slides used by Glasgow City Council for online staff training on PREVENT, where they are identified as current terrorist threats`."

"`These are of course legitimate issues for people to campaign about, and Glasgow City Council will no doubt have staff members who are involved in such campaigns. Their inclusion as terrorist threats is alarming and misleading. Regrettably, it is part of a wider pattern`."

https://theferret.scot/peaceful-campaigners-branded-terrorist-threats/

It is part of a much wider pattern as Mel Kelly has pointed out.

Child protection, the children`s hearing system, governance of schools, are all being transformed in Scotland at the moment to accommodate Prevent into GIRFEC and the Named Person scheme.  Everything they are doing is about managing the itsy bitsy detail of personal life.

They intend to run a very tight ship.

The unaccompanied children saga takes a dark turn

Reported in UK Column News [18 October 2016]

 

"Well this has hit the news today," says Mike Robinson. "It`s taken a very dark turn in my opinion.... Of course, we`ve been talking about this extensively over the last several months because of the number of unaccompanied children who have disappeared in this country since they were brought here..."

"The first group of unaccompanied children are arriving from Calais because they`re taking down the Calais camp and this is following, the government says, the Home Secretary`s pledge to transfer as many minors as possible before the camp is cleared. So this group, they say, were aged between 14 and 17. They were taken across the channel this morning and they were screened and processed by the Home Office and, well, they`re saying that more children are due to arrive from France... And so it goes on...and they`re going to be handed over to families that are already here."

"Of course the mainstream press covered this widely. `Now the first Calais children, in inverted commas, arrive in Britain: Migrants who claim to be aged 14 to 17 are reunited with their families in the UK as French prepare to demolish Jungle camp`."

 

"And we started to see images like this: This apparently is a 14 year old dressed in a grey hoodie and jogging bottoms escorted by Home Office officials in Croydon."

 

"This is one doing the rounds of the twittersphere . This is another youngster. Does he look like a youngster Brian?"

"Well the answer to that is `no` although I was going to say he looks older than the politician we had on the other day. But he certainly doesn`t look a youngster."

"So then we go on. UK Borders Force staff escort the first group of unaccompanied minors and this guy is supposed to be 14 to 17 ... And so it goes on."

 

"I mean this guy looks like he`s 40, never mind 14."

"So of course this has had a huge reaction on the twittersphere. People [are] going mad because these photographs are showing these unaccompanied minors and they`re saying that these are terrorists coming into the country and all this kind of thing."

"These photographs are absolutely staged. There`s no question about that. And so people are getting wound up about whether these are young children coming into this country or whether they are older people masquerading as unaccompanied children coming into this country. Just think of the effect that that has. First of all, it starts winding people up , making people fearful about terrorists coming into the country. Second of all, what it absolutely does is completely undermine any kind of pressure on politicians, including Tim Farron and others, about the fate of genuine unaccompanied minors coming into this country. What happens when they get into the care system? They disappear out of the care system into sexual slavery, into other kinds of slavery."

"This of course is a big topic for Theresa May this week. She`s been talking about it extensively. She mentioned it at the Tory party conference. She said that her biggest worry in life was child sexual abuse and slavery. And she`s doing nothing about it. And this is absolutely a staged story which the mainstream media are running right across every newspaper in order to wind people up and divert attention away from the issue of children disappearing through the system into trafficking networks ..."

"We call it what it is Mike. This is more propaganda, however slight the form, this is propaganda. Exactly the same as the propaganda that Russia Today is warning is going on and being used against Russia or Syria itself ... It`s being used against us in the UK."

 

"There was one image in the Daily Mail article which perhaps is a bit more likely. We`ve actually got a girl in it, for example. As well, these two look significantly younger than the other photographs. But I think we`ve got to be pretty careful and pretty discerning about what we see in the mainstream press and start asking questions before we just start pushing stuff out over twitter which is pretty inflammatory."

http://www.ukcolumn.org/ukcolumn-news/uk-column-news-central-banks-lose-plot-eu-foreign-ministers-reject-boris-18th-october

NHS Tayside is to reconsider information governance

More coverage of the NHS Tayside leaflet, and its announced withdrawal, from Michael Blackley in the Daily Mail:

"NHS Tayside`s letters had pointed out that `your own details or those of your child may be disclosed to other professionals, for example, school nurse, health visitor, social work and GP. ` It added: `This follows guidance from the Scottish Government`."

"However, in response to the complaint, NHS Tayside said: `Action has been taken to withdraw the leaflet from distribution and to carefully reconsider NHS Tayside information governance procedures in the area and the Chief Nurse, Children and Families, NHS Tayside is facilitating the changes in practice`."

"When he announced a delay in the roll-out of Named Persons until next August, Mr Swinney was criticised for insisting all councils operating pilot schemes should `continue to develop and deliver a Named Person service in your area`, as long as they meet the `existing legal framework`."

"The Information Commissioner`s Office has insisted that all information sharing elements of current Named Persons schemes are in compliance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act."

"But Mrs Scott [Tymes Trust] said. `Given the NHS Tayside situation, that would appear not to be the case and there are clearly processes in place that could lead to unlawful practice`."

"`John Swinney has stubbornly maintained the Named Person pilot schemes currently operating across the country are unaffected by the ruling from the UK Supreme Court`."

Fife Council failed to retrieve a sensitive document sent to wrong address

"AN under-fire social work team sent sensitive case details about a vulnerable child to the wrong address – and have failed to collect them five months after being told of the blunder."

"Sandra Gallagher was shocked when she received classified details about a five-year-old schoolgirl by mistake."

"But despite raising the alarm with Fife Council chiefs within minutes of opening the mail in May, no one has collected the file..."

"Sandra received a four-page file, known as a `child wellbeing minute`, which provided details of care issues surrounding the girl and her family."

"The girl was considered as being at risk and also subject of an investigation into physical abuse claims. It was alleged she had been attacked by her mother who was described as battling a drink problem."

"According to the paperwork, her parents denied she had been the victim of an assault during a Child Protection Investigation."

"The error emerged after the council’s social work department were heavily criticised over the case of tragic infant Liam Fee, who was murdered by his mum Rachel Trelfa and civil partner Nyomi Fee in 2014."

"Liam’s social worker Lesley Bate was removed from the care register after a hearing into her handling of his case. A Scottish Social Services Council conduct sub-committee struck her off – but said `systemic failures`at Fife Council had also played a part in the `pattern of misconduct that developed`."

"Fife Council are looking for a new £116,000-a-year head of children’s services after the previous head, Craig Munro, resigned earlier this year."

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/scandal-hit-social-work-team-8955222

Mikaeel-Kular

[An] "insider questioned the legitimacy of the Significant Case Review launched following Liam’s murder. Douglas Dunlop, Fife’s head of education and children’s services, announced the probe after the Fees’ guilty verdict was delivered at the High Court in Livingston...."

"But Dunlop was the senior manager for children’s services during the period covering Liam and Mikaeel’s deaths and the vice-chairman of the child protection committee."

"The source said: `Dunlop has announced an investigation into the organisation for whom he was responsible when Liam died, yet he is also the vice-chair of the body who decide who chairs it and who the inquiry reports back to`." 

"Surely there’s a huge conflict of interest`." 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/liam-fee-social-worker-who-8222320

Head teacher is mortified by her behaviour

"Gillian Rew, who was the principal of Arbroath High, told a fitness to teach panel that she drank more than a bottle of wine while on a school trip with sixth year students in Lockerbie."

"She also admitted making `inappropriate comments` and engaging in `improper contact` with S6 pupils during an evening disco at the adventure weekend in September 2014."

"She told at the General Teaching Council for Scotland hearing: `I honestly don’t think they (the pupils) were uncomfortable. I think they saw it as a bit of light-hearted banter`."

"Presented with witness statements from pupils, she accepted some of them may have felt uncomfortable with her behaviour."

One pupil after the incident said they were `all uncomfortable and awkward`. Another said: `I was shocked`."

"`I am mortified,` Mrs Rew told the hearing. `I think the word mortified is actually not quite strong enough to describe my actions`."

"She added: `Throughout my career I have always placed their care and welfare at the heart of my practice, but on this occasion, as child protection officer, I fell short.`"

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/angus-mearns/291106/angus-headteacher-admits-improper-contact-pupils-drunk/

She also said that she had consumed about eight glasses of sauvignon blanc from a box and could not remember what had happened.

If we are to believe her then we must accept that she honestly did not think (the pupils) were uncomfortable with what she could not remember doing.

Yeah right.  Another child protection officer bites the dust.

An inquest is being heard more than six years after youngster`s death

"A 15-year-old boy sent to live in a children's home was found hanged after months of abuse at the hands of his carer, an inquest heard."

"Aaron Leafe is feared to have taken his own life just six weeks after finding the courage to report predator Anwar Ismail."

"Before his death, he gave a recorded interview to police which eventually led to Ismail being jailed for child sex abuse."

"Now, more than six years after the tragedy, an inquest is finally being held into the youngster's death."

"Chesterfield Coroners Court heard Aaron was first taken into care just before his 12th birthday. He had become increasingly difficult for his mother to control and was regularly picked up by police."

"Aaron was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and later with Asperger's Syndrome, which is a form of autism."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3832076/Asperger-s-sufferer-Aaron-Leafe-hanged-sexually-abused-carer.html#ixzz4NIdq2fw9

Doctors should listen to parents

Dr Wakefield outlines some medical cases that show that painful gastrointestinal problems often go untreated for autistic children because doctors want to avoid being seen as controversial.

The intersection between medicine and the law

"As social engineers go to work, more and more everyday problems are going to be medicalised and with disastrous results for those on the receiving end."

"‘I feel like a war reporter chronicling some huge battle,’ says Susan Goldsmith. A veteran investigative journalist based in Portland, US, Goldsmith has spent the last eight years looking into perhaps the most contentious intersection of medicine and law: shaken baby syndrome."

"Susan Goldsmith`s new film The Syndrome, directed by her cousin Meryl Goldsmith, claims to ‘expose the junk science behind an unprecedented criminal justice crisis’."

"It is reckoned that every year there are around 1,500 babies diagnosed in the US with a combination of the three symptoms (known as ‘the triad’) – swelling of the brain, bleeding between the skull and brain, and bleeding in the retina – and which was understood to be exclusively characteristic of shaken baby syndrome."

"‘There are people in prison whose convictions are based on science that has been disavowed,’ the US academic Professor Deborah Tuerkheimer tells Goldsmith in the film."

"In a 2009 paper for the Washington University Law Review, Prof Tuerkheimer said that the symptoms, in their ‘classic formulation’, were as close to ‘a medical diagnosis of murder’ as it was possible to imagine. ‘Prosecutors use it to prove the mechanism of death, the intent to harm and the identity of the killer,’ she wrote."

"But Tuerkheimer went on to argue that the science has since shifted and that the symptoms might well have natural causes. The US courts hadn’t caught up with the science though and, she reckoned, the result was ‘a criminal justice crisis’."

"‘Since I started working on this in 2008, it’s been really picking up steam,’ Goldsmith tells me. ‘There is an estimated 250 prosecutions every year.’ Tuerkheimer, formerly a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, reckons that there could be as many as 1,000 innocent people in US prisons now convicted on the basis..."

"Challenging the mainstream consensus on either side of the Atlantic in the courts is risky business. The Justice Gap recently reported on Dr Waney Squier, the world-renowned neuropathologist struck off by the disciplinary arm of the General Medical Council in March this year (here). Leading human rights lawyers including Michael Mansfield and Clive Stafford Smith accused the GMC’s disciplinary tribunal of conducting itself like a ‘21st-century inquisition’..."

"Susan Goldsmith has won numerous awards for her campaigning journalism. Her reporting at The Oregonian resulted in the state legislature passing laws to protect children in foster care. The new film is self-funded. ‘My newspaper would not let me do the story. They said it was too controversial,’ she says..."

"What does the journalist make of the GMC’s decision to strike off Squier who had appeared in courts on both sides the Atlantic? ‘It’s really scary. The strategy appears to be to take Waney out,’ she says..."

"Goldsmith notes that ‘shaken baby syndrome’ is a US export. The Syndrome includes footage of a US conference for international experts on shaken baby cases six years ago that also featured in a BBC Panorama special from March this year."

"That program shadowed Waney Squier in the months leading up to her being struck off. An American lawyer, Heather Kirkwood told Panorama that the doctor’s problems could be traced back to that conference. According to Kirkwood, ‘a co-ordinated plan’ was hatched to shut down critics of shaken baby syndrome in the courts in the UK. Panorama managed to obtain the conference notes of a detective inspector from the Metropolitan police under the freedom of information, in which he talked about it being ‘inconceivable’ that the defence will be able to deploy Squier and another expert in such cases..."

"According to Goldsmith, shaken baby syndrome had its ‘debut’ before a global press in the trial of Louise Woodward. In 1997, the British au pair was released by the trial judge despite her conviction for the involuntary manslaughter of eight-month-old Matthew Eappen in Massachusetts. She had been charged with murdering him. According to Goldsmith, the case put shaken baby syndrome ‘into the cultural conversation’."

"‘In shaken baby syndrome, they created a much more seemingly robust literature for propping up the syndrome,’ she says. ‘They created a fake science. The hysteria has convinced the courts and juries that it is a legitimate science.’"

"So what’s the motivation for the medical establishment buying into junk science? Follow the money, Goldsmith replies. Her film argues that an entire industry has been spawned around shaken baby syndrome."

"At one point the documentary, Patrick Barnes, chief of pediatric neuroradiology at the Children’s Hospital at Stanford University, tells Goldsmith: ‘We thought we were helping by uncovering these other medical conditions that can look like abuse, but are not. It actually threatens the entire shaken baby syndrome working group and industrial complex.’"

"In the US there is a positive legal duty on doctors to report symptoms to the authorities and that means, according to Goldsmith, a nightmarish experience for those parents who are innocently bringing in poorly kids to hospitals."

http://thejusticegap.com/2016/06/13265/

Shaken baby syndrome can also be used to cover up vaccine damage.

Helping unaccompanied refugee children

From UK Column News [5 October 2016]

Mike Robinson says: "This goes back to the beginning of the year when Tim Farron was demanding that refugee children from Syria are taken into Britain and `helped` in inverted commas. And the point I was making at the time was that Britain can`t even help British children who are in care; and to bring Syrian refugee children into the country is taking them out of the frying pan into the fire."

"Now I`ve labelled this as facilitating child trafficking and I`ll explain that in a second. But basically Tim Farron refused to answer the simple question at the time from me: what he would do to prevent children that are being brought into this country as refugees, being put in care; what he would do to prevent them disappearing into the system, or more importantly, disappearing out of the system into child trafficking rings? Would he be tracking these children until the age of eighteen, personally? And he refused to answer."

Following an appeal to put pressure on Tim Farron , a member of the public wrote to the MP:

"I was very pleased to hear the news you will host an urgent summit to discuss unaccompanied asylum seeking children who have fled conflict, poverty and persecution."

"I feel this is long overdue and perhaps a little late. I am hearing the closing of the stable doors after the horses have bolted."

"In 2015 you raised the motion for leave to bring in a Bill re asylum. Had you not then in 2015 given any thought to what would become of these children once on British soil? Had you not in 2015 given any iota of thought as to how these children will be kept safe from harm?"

"As we have the national disgrace of approximately 140,000 children going missing in Britain every year, how on earth do you imagine you can, through a series of meetings, sub groups, press releases and the usual political bumph, secure the safety of all unaccompanied Syrian children?"

"And so she goes on, " says Mike Robinson of this correspondent but there was no reply from Mr Farron until the woman said: `Mr Farron are you hiding?  Please answer my emails`."

"... According to the Home Office 2010 figures, 140,00 children go missing in the UK each year and most of those children come back. Some of them don`t. And the key point we were making at the time is that nobody knows. Nobody knows how many children disappear, not only from the care system but from society at large...So this report here was from 2012 - the All Party Parliamentary Group for Runaway Missing Children and Adults... And well basically they were saying that there`s a scandal going on in England involving children missing from care..."

"... And until recent cases of child sexual exploitation in Rochdale and other places put the spotlight on this issue, it was going on pretty much unnoticed."

"So let`s just have a look at what Tim Farron had to say. He said: `Like you, I was shocked and appalled to see the figures last month which showed that hundreds of refugee children are currently missing in the UK. These numbers are ... disgraceful. Unaccompanied refugee children are some of the most vulnerable in our society and it`s likely that many of these missing children will now be in the hands of traffickers and gangs."

"That`s quite an acknowledgement from Tim Farron.  He went on to say:  `The government must urgently review its processes to ensure that children can`t simply vanish from care. Once parliament returns from its recess period on Monday, I will formally ask the new Home Secretary to provide details about what concrete measures her department is taking to ensure that unaccompanied refugee children who arrive in the UK are monitored and kept safe by the relevant authorities and locate the hundreds of refugee children who have gone missing in the UK in the last five years."

"Well, the key point here Brian is ... the government must urgently review its processes. But no mention of a police investigation."

=====================

Speaking on UK Column News [11 October] with Mark Anderson and Brian Gerrish, Mike Robinson brought up the topic of unaccompanied refugee children again: "Let`s move on to unaccompanied children because the saga continues. And Amber Rudd now getting in on this. Three hundred children in the Calais refugee camp . She wants to bring them into this county. That would be a good result she says. She says: `We have about 100 [unaccompanied children] in train who we hope to bring over in the next few weeks but on top of that I`ve made it clear that we will take children from the Dubs agreement`."

"So we`ll talk about that in one second. She said that of course the Calais refugee camp is about to be demolished. There are 387 children there. They have a legal right to come to the UK and she wants to bring them. ` If we ended up taking half the lesser number of ... 600, that would be a really good result`. So she`s aiming for 300. `We cannot imagine the UK with its traditions of human rights [yeah right] will refuse to admit unaccompanied minors into the UK. The main objective is to ensure that these minors have a better life in the UK where they find family and friends living in the country. And ... that was a comment from the French side anyway."

"So Ms Rudd being reinforced by the likes of Stella Creasy, Labour MP: `Bringing here every child who has a legal right to be in the United Kingdom would be a really good result`."

"Let`s keep the focus on Tim Farron: Of course he didn`t really say what Ive got up on screen. But if he did something about it his Parliamentary colleagues - of all parties - would have nothing to play with ..."

"That really seems to be the attitude of everybody that I`m coming into contact with. They will not address this issue of what happens to these children when they come into this country. I`m not saying children don`t need help. They absolutely do need help. They end up in the care system in this country and we`ve already seen that several hundred of them have disappeared out of the care system in this country. Disappeared to where?  Nobody really knows. The assumption is that they`ve been trafficked; that they`re ending up in some form of sexual slavery."

"That was a suggestion from Mr Farron himself Mike," says Brian Gerrish. "That`s not just us guessing. That was Mr Farron saying that he`s no doubt that a proportion of them have ended up trafficked and abused."

"It`s not just MPs of course. This is Help Refugees charity, set up by some celebrities I believe. They are calling for unaccompanied children to be brought to the UK. They say: `Today we`re asking you to take action by writing to your local MP and then following up with a phone call to apply pressure to encourage the government to act quickly to meet their commitment to protect the unaccompanied children who are currently living in the Calais camp that have a legal right to safety in the UK`. "

"They have a legal right to safety in the UK but there is no safety guaranteed in the UK and that`s our point."

"Then this organisation asks why do these kids have a legal right to be in the UK? They`re talking about Dublin III which entitles them to be reunited with nuclear family members living in the UK and they`re also talking about the Alf Dubs' amendment. The Dubs amendment which was passed in May 2016 is supposed to bring an unspecified number of the most vulnerable unaccompanied children in Europe to safety in the UK much like the Kindertransport  during the second world war."

"Again, they come to the UK; they are not safe. So I wrote to this organisation this morning and asked them for comment on this campaign that they`re running. I asked them pretty much the same questions that I asked Tim Farron. Now it took us nine months if you remember to get a comment out of Tim Farron about this and when he gave us the comment he did not explain how these children would be protected once they came into this country. This organisation hasn`t responded and I don`t think they`re going to."

Addressing the audience Mike Robinson says: "So perhaps you might like to write to them. We need to keep the pressure on Tim Farron. We now need to put some pressure on Amber Rudd and perhaps one or two of the other MPs that are calling for this. Not to say that these children should not be given help; they absolutely should be given help, but simply to ask the question what are these MPs; what is this charity; what are they personally going to do to make sure that when children end up in the care system in this country, that they`re protected within the care system? They`re not abused within the care system when we`ve got such evidence for historical abuse within the care system; that they won`t disappear back out the other side of the care system into some kind of trafficking infrastructure that we have no idea where they end up or what`s happening to them. These people who are calling for these children to be coming to this country need to answer those questions."

Brian Gerrish addresses Mark Anderson from American Free Press: "Mark, obviously this is a very UK focused subject with respect to Syrian children and also children in Calais. What`s your picture on it?  How do you see it from America there? Obviously there`s been these tales of similar problems in the states and some people argue that up to 300,000 children a year simply disappear in America."

"I don`t know those numbers exactly Brian. Certainly you guys are justified in being sceptical of these charities. There have been a number of cases where ... legitimate charities ranging from the Disabled Veterans who don`t really help disabled veterans to all sorts of other charities that have used these sorts of crises simply to raise money and pad their coffers. And that`s just the first level of wrongdoing. And if child trafficking is involved, and it very well could be, then really we have to get to the basis of this; and that of course comes back to NATO and the US and the UK and this permanent war footing and this constant sabre rattling towards Russia and all the conflicts going on; turning a blind eye to Saudi Arabia killing children there in Yemen; and the whole war machine that is creating the whole refugee problem and all these dislocated children and all these orphans . These things are an outcome of Western foreign policy. and if these MPs would get that in their head and they would see that connection then we wouldn`t have to have so many charities, many of which could be fraudulent or abusive. We wouldn`t need them in the first place because these children wouldn`t be driven out of their own land. And I think that that`s the fundamental point that we always have to keep in mind and keep drilling into the minds of US and British legislatures. That`s the key."

http://www.ukcolumn.org/ukcolumn-news/uk-column-news-brexit-fraud-threatening-russia-market-children-11th-october-2016

NHS Tayside forced to remove leaflet

"A HEALTH board has been forced to withdraw a leaflet for parents over fears it could lead to breaches in data protection rules, following a recent supreme court ruling on the Named Person scheme."

"NHS Tayside had been handing the leaflet to parents attending Accident and Emergency departments warning that information about a child might be shared with health visitors, school nurses or social workers. Crucially, the leaflet said this would be done when it was in `the best interests" of the young person`."

"However, campaigners against the Government’s Named Person policy argue this is unjustified, especially following a Supreme Court ruling that judged sharing confidential information on vague child welfare* grounds without informing the child or parents was `disproportionate`."

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14798215.Health_board_scraps_leaflet_after_Named_Persons_ruling/

See also Parent gets NHS leaflet removed after ruling

* Note the persistent confusion between welfare and wellbeing.