Victoria

👏 MINISTER LEFT SQUIRMING AS SUSANNA REID CALLS OUT THE HYPOCRISY: TOUGH ON BRAND & WALLIAMS, SILENT ON GROOMING GANGS Politicians are falling over themselves to look tough on the Russell Brand and David Walliams scandals, demanding action, talking about abuse of power, insisting things must change. Meanwhile Maggie Oliver is still screaming from the rooftops about the grooming gangs and child sexual exploitation recommendations that remain unimplemented after years of empty promises and lip service. She was on @GMB again yesterday pleading with Andy Burnham and the government to finally do something. Then Susanna Reid put the same question directly to the Victims Minister. The exchange was revealing. Reid said: “There can be no more abhorrent abuse of power than that committed in the grooming gangs scandal when children were abused. Maggie Oliver says that the government is still letting those children down by not implementing all of the recommendations of a multi-million-pound inquiry into grooming gangs. How do you defend the fact that those 20 or so recommendations are not implemented?” The minister totally ignored the question. Instead of addressing the unimplemented recommendations, she repeated the familiar lines, the grooming gangs scandal is one of the biggest stains on our history as a nation, that money has been invested to support victims, and that a national inquiry has been launched. We already know how scandalous it was. That was not what she was asked! Reid kept pressing, asking what the minister would say to Maggie Oliver, who is so critical of the government’s failures, and pointing out the glaring double standard like putting heavy pressure on the media and entertainment industry over Brand and Walliams, while this sits ignored on the government’s own desk. The minister’s response is a disgrace. She said this is on all of us. On society as a whole. Not just the media, not just people in positions of power and influence, on everyone. That is infuriating. No. It is on you and your government to implement what has already been recommended by those who have done the work. Society has been screaming about grooming gangs for decades. You have had the reports, the inquiries, the recommendations. You have not acted. Do not dare pin your deliberate inaction on “society”. Reid didn’t let it go. She came back to the recommendations and asked why they haven’t been implemented. Are they too complicated? Unenforceable? Too expensive? Why not simply demand that they are implemented? The answer: “It’s complicated.” This is shameless. Opportunistic hypocrites who are all over the celebrity scandals, demanding this and that must be done, while still ignoring one of the biggest abuse scandals in this country’s history. Absolute disgrace. Unforgivable.