Burn Her! - quite right.
I was shouting at the radio as I drove to work this morning as some Social Worker Union representitive complained about the attention that is being paid to the Margaret Hodge scandal - "It was deflecting her attention away from ensuring that Social Workers were properly rewarded" (Near quote - I haven't found it on line yet.) Looking for it I found this disgusting article by Polly Toynbee Guardian Unlimited Politics | Comment | Burn her!
"This non-story threatens her in the run-up to the comprehensive spending review as she is fighting for money for children, money to pay social workers properly and above all, for universal Sure Start children's centres." I think that is the important bit.
The delight Polly shows in the new State apparatus is frightening "a widely praised system for ensuring every hint of abuse or neglect is flagged up at a central hub, forcing teachers, doctors and social workers to cooperate."
A Gestapo approach to Child protection if ever I heard of one. We can guess at what the hints of abuse might be - anything that doesn't conform with the Guardian reader's approach to life. I stand my belief that it would be safer and better for an abused child to be given to any random couple on the street rather than be put in the care of the council.
For those not up to speed on this story - please read ThisisLondon on the "The Children Minister's" background.
Demands for Hodge's resignation have never really stopped since June, when a Standard investigation published documentary evidence that Hodge conclusively knew about the abuse, yet failed to act. Initially, she had pleaded ignorance until the scandal came to light in October 1992, the last months of her tenure. But a "killer memo", dated April 1990, provided proof that she was told twoanda-half years earlier.
This memo - on the council leader's letterhead - exposed Hodge rebuking Cofie for requesting extra staff to investigate "sexual abuse among eight to 16-year-old children", callously reminding him that the budget was overspent.
The Standard also published a second document, this one by social workers, dated April 1990, which warned Hodge that "14 children" - some as young as nine - were "at risk of sexual exploitation".
Hodge never satisfactorily explained why she tried to deny knowledge of the abuse, and why, when this was exposed, she had rubbished the social workers who reported the abuse, and then failed to act.
Instead, shooting the messenger became Hodge ' s signature response. She responded that way when the Standard first exposed the child abuse scandal back in 1992, calling our reports "gutter journalism". And she was up to the same dirty tricks last week, shamefully smearing Panton when she heard the BBC was investigating his story.