It is not often that a political cartoon hits the spot so precisely, but this does encapsulate the current situation where the transatlantic news has driven virtually everything else off the media agenda or starkly reduced the coverage.
One of those things, which almost escaped attention, was what is regarded as a “sneak” statement to the Commons yesterday by safeguarding minister Jess Phillips under the generic heading of “tackling child abuse”.
Delivered in the early afternoon of Tuesday, in a sparsely attended chamber on the last day before the House rose for the Easter break, this appeared on the face of it a classic attempt by the government to bury bad news – which is exactly how the Telegraph saw it when it reported on the statement the same day, under the headline: “Labour drops plans for rape gang inquiries”.
This relates back to last January after Elon Musk had put grooming gangs on the media agenda, leading to attempts by home secretary Yvette Cooper to put the issue back in the box with the promise to fund five locally-led inquiries on the activities of the gangs.
Tom Crowther KC, the chair of the Telford inquiry, was to work with the Government “to develop a new framework for victim-centred, locally led inquiries”, backed by £5 million of additional funding to get further local work off the ground because, said Cooper, “at every level, getting justice for victims and protecting children is a responsibility we all share”.
After three months of inactivity, though, which had Crowther complaining that no details had been forthcoming on the nature of his role, only then for him to find that he had been sidelined, and the much-vaunted “framework” was to be devised by ministers and advisers, Phillips had come to the House with an “update” which essentially confirmed that the January plan had been dropped....<<<Read More>>>...
