Beyond Contempt

For all the failings that he had, and let us be fair he had some pretty bad ones, Tony Blair had a way of capturing the mood of a country and as such, he was able to eloquently speak on such subjects delicately. The most discussed issue this morning in offices and workplaces across the country is not the unemployment figures; it is how could the savage beating to death of a seventeen-month old baby happen in the same borough as the equally sadistic death of Victoria Climbié.

This afternoon at Prime Minister's questions, Chairman Brown showed how retarded he truly is. He is inept in sensing the popular mood. Asked a straightforward question about the death of Baby P he went into a pitifully prepared response full of bureaucratic bullshit. His tone was truly off key and made shoddier when he made a cheap partisan accusation. Obviously, something is wrong in the Haringey Children's Services department in spite of the Victoria Climbié inquiry.

The thought of Haringey's own Children Director doing her own inquiry is unbelievable. There is only one thing she should be doing.

Resign and it can be argued that she should not be the only one to fall on her sword.

The list of people responsible for this murder could be argued to go to the very top. It is a Labour Authority after all, and Nu Labour has had a reputation of awarding people of failing authorities with comfortable jobs. One such person is Margaret Hodge, who was leader of Islington Council. Whilst at the helm, in 1985, Demetrious Panton complained about abuse that he had suffered while in the council's care in the 70s and 80s. He did not receive an official reply until 1989, in which the council denied responsibility.

In 2003, following Hodge's appointment as Minister for Children, Demetrious Panton went public with his allegation that he was abused in Islington Council care and had repeatedly raised this issue with no effect. He holds Margaret Hodge ultimately responsible for the abuse that he suffered. Following a media campaign conducted by several national newspapers calling for her to resign from her new post, she responded to Panton by letter, in which she referred to him as 'extremely disturbed'.

Panton then passed the letter to the press, which planned to publish it, only to be judicially restrained from doing so at the instruction of Hodge. The letter was eventually published, mainly because the blocking of the letter was seen as disproportionate. Hodge was forced to publicly apologize and offered to contribute to a charity of the man's choosing as recompense.

As the MP for Haringey, Lynne Featherstone has said this evening 'what society allows a BBC presenter to resign for some hoax call, and yet someone in authority is not held to account for the brutal death of someone in their area,'

Exactly, my point in one. On a separate point, it has to be fair that the way that the local MP has dealt with this has been exemplary in these shocking circumstances.

As for the perpetrators, I have thought long and hard on this one, as I have done after Soham and Sarah Payne and the many other shocking and disgusting acts of criminality by this country's lowlife. The hangman's noose is the first thing which comes to mind, when it comes to these sort of cases, however as an advocate for the abolition of the death penalty, I am very wary of going down that dark route for a number of reasons.

Something is for sure, something must happen.

Rob :(