No cover up here!
The BBC Radio Sheffield interview on Wednesday 27 September 2012 will come back to haunt Deputy Leader Cllr Jahangir Akhtar.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00xztws
Two years ago Toby Foster interviewed the girl referred to as Amy in the Times article, she described horrific acts of abuse and the impact on her life, Toby Foster was very much aware of the issues before the Times ran with this weekās stories.
No cover up, please explain this Cllr Akhtar, why did Cllr Emma Hoddinott go running to the Leader Cllr Roger Stone to stop you and Cllr Ahmed from speaking out; is that not a cover up?
The matter of community sensitivities was raised, this was an interesting point in the interview, clearly Cllr Stone or Cllr Lakin should have been giving the interview as they would have possibly known that RMBC is hardwired into the issue of political correctness, examples are:
A report published 2010
Revealing the fears over the racial element to the abuse, a 2010 reportĀ from the Rotherham Safeguarding Children Board said the crimes had āCultural characteristics … which are locally sensitive in terms of diversityā, but warned of āsensitivities of ethnicity with potential to endanger the harmony of community relationshipsā.
Reason stated for not publishing serious case review from December 2011 Safeguarding minutes:
Community cohesion impact.
From the same December 2011 minutes:
Phil Morris and Zafar Saleem are to meet with Inspector Aziz next Tuesday to address any community tensions likely to arise.
Phil Morris & Zafar Saleem March 2012 Safeguarding minutes.
Phil Morris and Zafar Saleem had met with Inspector Aziz from South Yorkshire Police and this meeting did not flag up any concerns that the release of the Overview Report would cause any community tension.
And you are telling me that community cohesion is never considered by Officers from RMBC
The Times published extracts from information they had collated, it included a case on 3rd October 2008 involving a 13 year old girl found in a semi-derelict property with a large group of adult males, she was drunk and the article states that her clothing had been disrupted.
There seems to be a move afoot to discredit the files obtained by the Times, I find it hard to disbelieve the Times on this one as in interview with the Star Chief Insp Harwin confirmed that the 13 year old girl had been arrested for assaulting a police officer.
Two burly police officers in body armour and Magnum boots arrest this 13 year old strapping dangerous villain, I wonder did they take her to hospital to be checked by a Paediatrician or was it straight down to Main Street?
Cllr Akhtar lost the plot when he started to refer to the Murdoch press as a way of defending the indefensible, sadly a number of the usual suspects have jumped to their Twitter accounts to reinforce the Murdoch angle.
From what I see RMBC are in total denial, no contrition, no public awareness campaign, Cllr Akhtar did his best; however the ones in the public spotlight should be Stone, Kimber, Wright, Lakin and Hoddinott.
Cerberus
Rotherham Politics 
Leaders who won’t Lead!
Roger Stone Council Leader, Martin Kimber Town Clerk, Shaun Wright Cabinet member responsible at the time, Paul Lakin Cabinet member now and Emma Hoddinott Rotherham Labour Press officer have disappeared, like scotch mist, as soon as this story was broken.
Political cowardice, is never attractive! If leaders won’t lead, then it is time to go!
Words don’t often fail me, but this story has left me shocked, ashamed, angry and dismayed in equal measure, I am sure it has affected others, in a similar manner.
We must speak up against this attempted cover up, and the outrageously complacent attitude from the authorities.
These poor children do not have anyone to speak for them, so we must!
LikeLike
Cerberus,
You raise some very uncomfortable, yet entirely valid points, with regard to the obvious lack of RMBC political and strategic corporate leadership from Town Hall Towers when the difficult questions begin to arise.
I too heard Cllr Akhtar’s BBC Radio Sheffield broadcast and I just couldn’t help but ask myself this question: “Why is it NOT da Leedah that’s twitching his bum cheeks from L to R while on the phone to Toby Foster?”
Da Dodger showed no such camera-shyness or lack of willingness to appear on every media outlet when he stood erect in the limelight with his fat fingers wrapped tight around the waist of Dolly Twin Peaks at the Magna junket-fest of his highly-expensive failed Rovrum Imajinayshunn Liebraree.
Oh no, he was there with his new Steradent set, and his eyes rolling around the back of his nut like racing-dogs’-dangleez, to snake up and grab a handful of Smoky Mountains Warbler and wallow in his 15 minutes of elderly imaginary fame and glory.
Yet roll on the clock, and arguably a fundamentally much more important civic situation relating to our Borough’s young women … and he’s done a runner just like Lord Lucan did, and disappeared from view the same way as Shergar did.
Under military law cowardice in the face of the enemy will result in the harshest of reprisals being exacted on those found guilty of this major dereliction of military duty.
The Queen ought to strip him of his Other Bu**ers Efforts gong which he clearly doesn’t deserve, value or merit. Of course that won’t happen, and his grubby corpulent instincts for self-preservation will rise to the fore and he’ll ensure that he’s the last person in Rovrum who will have any John Innes flicked onto him.
LikeLike
Amen to that Rothpol Akhtar will regret it Why is he lying throughout_ just heard it all on iplayer. Ahmed dragged into it as well Does Shaukut Ali come into this anywhere he must have been around
We really have to keep up with this I am beside myself with anger and also a sense of powerlessness against a corrupt bureaucracy, but justice must be done and seen to be done. Then I think – no they won’t get the better of me. I thought about demonstrating at the Labour Party conference, haven’t done a demonstration for over 20 years.
LikeLike
Cass, I too am very angry, particularly about Cllr Akhtar. I confronted him on this website and by email some months ago about this problem when we had the verdict on the murder trial in Rotherham of the young girl who had been groomed for sex and the conviction of the group of Asian men for grooming in Lancashire. He denied it pertained particularly to Asian men and after being confronted with further questions and evidence, his silence said it all. This man, who is very highly paid to do a job, particularly with the ethnic minorities he represents, fails in every quarter. I asked him if he was being silenced by his own community and he failed to answer, which I take to mean, YES HE IS! He in fact tried to infer I was being racist.
He is another RMBC councillor who should be removed from office. As Graldhunter says, cowardice in the face of the enemy will result in the harshest of reprisals.
LikeLike
From Rikileaks inbox:
Dear Roth Politics,
with all the disgraceful publicity surrounding Rotherham children’s
services/rmbc, what should the voters think of a councillor who is
paid 1,000 per year to sit on a the services scrutiny panel at the
height of the worst years of that service (OFSTED and Times report)
and yet could only be bothered to attended 10 meetings spanning
from Apr 2006 to Apr 2011.
This is the period of the expose in the
Times…shocking commitment to the children of Rotherham!!!
Political accountability please Mrs Amy Rushforth!!! Others have an
even worse record if that is believable!! No wonder such a scandal
was allowed to take place since the council’s own scrutiny panel
couldn’t be bothered to turn up!
This is based upon the council’s own minutes
http://moderngov.rotherham.gov.uk/mgMeetingAttendance.aspx?ID=9355
Thanks are due to our informant and Rothpol’s gratitude too.
LikeLike
My understanding is that the attempts to undermine the Times stories by raising the spectre of the bad Murdoch press started in earnest on Tuesday.
The rational being that traditional Labour supporters would swallow the bait hook, line and sinker.
Itās interesting just how many RMBC Elected members have the full Sky package
Then get a few of the more gullible followers to Twitter the message and we can shift the blame from Stone, Wright and Lakin, story goes away and we are out of the woods
Cllr Chris Read gets into the act by Twittering a South Yorkshire Police Q&A with their attempt to rebut the Times allegations, the trouble is the story has moved on and guess who Cllr Chris Read is the partner of, you guessed it Cllr Emma Hoddinott, and another odd fact, this is the first Twitter on his account on the matter of grooming.
I also understand the meeting was heated, not because of the seriousness of the scandal but because they were in the frame.
In place is a media handling strategy to deflect criticism of RMBC, shift the blame and protect the backs of Stone and company.
LikeLike
The police weren’t simply ignoring the abuse for years: they were assisting the criminals to commit the abuse. It’s an utterly sick situation created by people like Dennis MacShane and Jahangir Akhtar, with their dedication to shutting down debate with shrieks of “racism”, “bigotry”, “Islamphobia”, etc. We now have liars and criminals in charge of all our institutions, including the judiciary and CPS. I don’t think I don’t think there will be any trials and whatever enquiriers materialize will lie about the situation and pretend it was about regrettable “mistakes” and “errors” “in terms of” “issues around” the handling of a “sensitive” multi-cultural situation. I.e., mass sexual abuse was going on for years and the police were arresting the victims of it, not the perpetrators.
LikeLike
My, My, haven’t Roger Stone, Jahangir Akhtar, Martin Kimber, Joyce Thacker, Paul Lakin, Emma Hoddinott and the quite awful Shaun Wright learned any new tricks?
If you can’t attack the message, attack the messenger! The strategy of the morally bankrupt!
Andrew Norfolk was on Radio Sheffield this morning, bring it to you as soon as it becomes available, saying as much and pointing out deficiencies that still afflict this terrible scandal!
Silence will not make this issue go away, stand up, take responsibility and resign!
LikeLike
Dear RothPol, your list of B-list actors is somewhat incomplete …
there’s another incompetent who was dragging a huge toxic salary from Town Hall Towers throughout the period that this huge criminality was in full swing … none other than the gawjus, head-tilting hand-clasping lithsping sista Dokta dat jumped ship n went over da border ta Sheffuld …
No words from her, unlike when she was splattered all oer t’Tiser n t’Star wi t’Booiks-4-Babbiz loada-bollox š¦
LikeLike
How many more children have to endure this abuse? Many, many more, it would seem if these miserable cowards, stay running things. Time for heads to roll! At the top?
The Labour Party has let us down so badly, time for them to accept their own role and sort it out!
Ed Miliband cannot surely be proud of Rotherham Labour, time for him to show his leadership, methinks?
My Labour Party card and some scissors, will have an appointment soon, if this woeful and inadequate response continues!
LikeLike
Until your comment Labour Loyalist, I thought I was the only Labour member, to be very upset and angry at Rotherham MBC and my own party, for their inaction and their role in covering it up.
Roger Stone, Jahangir Akhtar, Mahroof Hussain, Shaun Wright and others must take this situation seriously and accept their own role in this scandal and resign they are nothing but a disgrace.
I feel outraged that the Labour Party, that asks us to trust them to do the right thing, has let us and the children, yes children, down so badly, that they must pay the political price demanded by accountability and should stand down!
LikeLike
Another Angry Labour Member, thanks for your first comment and welcome to Rotherham Politics.
Note for other Labour members who want to comment on Rothpol, you are most welcome.
LikeLike
I hope you’ve all noticed that Dennis MC shame visited Barnardos in Rotherham today. What’s he up to
LikeLike
Trying to impress Vicky? Trying to deflect from his own inaction? Or perhaps, his targets are simply chosen to embarrass them, for supposed sleights against him during his recent period in the naughty corner?
It is worth noting, that no one in Rotherham Labour, can stand this odious man! So option three, is a distinct possibility?
LikeLike
He’s out I think definitely now, even the top brass can’t cover his latest misdemeanors. He does nothing for Rotherham.
LikeLike
Roger Stone, Jahangir Akhtar, Mahroof Hussain, Denis MacShane, Martin Kimber, Dr Sonia Sharp, Joyce Thacker, Shaun Wright, Paul Lakin, Emma Hoddinott and SY Police have many questions to answer for their part in this disgraceful episode in Rotherham’s history.
Exactly the same phenomenon, this time in Rochdale, is playing out on the television, those responsible, are saying exactly the same things as RMBC has been saying. Is there a Labour press pack for this eventuality?
Why have they all but disappeared? One would like to hope it was shame that is motivating them, but it is most probably cowardice.
Why has it not been mentioned publicly before, that Clifton Park, is one of the major hotspots? Is this, not information, we need to protect our children?
LikeLike
Rothpol, It has been known in Rotherham about Clifton Park for some time now. Back of the bus station was also been known but not mentioned, and a certain off-license in East Herringthorpe where there were problems with kids hanging about and a lot of under age drinking. RMBC sent in detached youth workers. I have no idea what happened after that, this was in 2003 I think. RMBC have denied there was a problem, and that the kids were just bored, but the police must know because they were called out on a number of occasions.
LikeLike
Joan Smith, could be talking about Rotherham?
A child can’t ‘choose’ to be a prostitute.
LikeLike
Mentions it, but again can’t bring herself to say the gangs were Asian and the girls white. The Indy is a watered down version of the Guardian, and if it will employ the likes of Owen Jones and Laurie Penny it deserves to have a falling circulation
LikeLike
“Cllr Akhtar lost the plot when he started to refer to the Murdoch press as a way of defending the indefensible, sadly a number of the usual suspects have jumped to their Twitter accounts to reinforce the Murdoch angle.”
Labour only went all out to get Murdoch after the Times printed the first grooming story.
LikeLike
Dear Bubble,
At least Cllr Akhtar has the size-9 cast-iron ging-gang-gooliz to appear on a radio show, which is much much more than Da Dodger and his coterie of Corn Fed Grunters, Muppets and Clowns can say.
Given the tendency of da Offisuz to rely on dreams, blue-sky thoughts, innuendo, half-truth and rumour when they interact with us the citizens, can we be sure that they don’t inadequately brief Elected Members in a similar shoddy way?
Would you let the Offisuz pack your parachute? Do you trust them that much?
I wouldn’t trust any briefing that came from any Officer of RMBC! Would you?
LikeLike