Wow! Must watch car crash interview with Nadine Dorries
Nadine Dorries, "I'm a victim of child sexual abuse as well, through the Church of England"
Victoria Derbyshire, "When did you realise you wanted another inquiry?"
ND, "When the call came for one"
VD, "From Elon Musk?"
ND, "I wasn't aware the problem was as widespread as it was... The inquiry was more further reaching than the grooming gangs.. A national inquiry on the grooming gangs and the people who knew"
VD, "So why didn't the Conservatives do that?"
ND, "That's a good question"
VD, "You were in government"
ND, "No, I was Culture Secretary, this didn't go anywhere near my desk"
VD, "You were sat around the cabinet table"
ND, "The entire time I was in cabinet this was never discussed"
VD, "Why?"
ND, "I.. I.."
VD, "Because there are a number of Conservatives who were in government who are calling for it now"
ND, "I can't answer the question.. A good person who can answer the question would be Suella Braverman and Priti Patel"
VD, "There's no record of you speaking in the parliamentary chamber about any of the local inquiries or ever calling for a national inquiry"
ND, "You don't have to stand up in the chamber and speak about something to support something.. I attended meetings in committee rooms"
VD, "Tomorrow the Conservatives are calling for another inquiry.. That's despite the Conservatives setting up that 7 year £200 million independent inquiry on child sexual abuse.. And then the Conservative government didn't implement any of the 20 recommendations.. Isn't calling for another one the very definition of political opportunism?"
ND, "Frequently inquiries take place and none of the recommendations are implemented"
VD, "The same people who didn't implement those recommendations calling for another inquiry, isn't that the definition of political opportunism?"
ND, "Its a definition of what we need to do to fix how government deals with inquiries"
VD, "You had 14 years to do that"
ND, "Dealing with recommendations made from people outside of Westminster, the people who put them in place are civil servants"
VD, "So it's the civil servants fault?"
ND, "No, what I'm saying your dealing with something outside of the normal processes so maybe it can't be delivered by government"
VD, "Well the Conservatives didn't deliver any of the 20 recommendations"
Narrator: Nadine Dorries blames the process for why the Conservatives didn't deliver, while Labour use the process to start delivering, make it make sense
It is easy…tempting indeed…to be distracted by the sound & fury of the battle between two powerful men – the billionaire who owns X and has turned it into a megaphone and the British Prime Minister. However, this story is much more important than a clash between Elon Musk and Keir Starmer. It is about how to protect girls and young women from terrible sexual abuse. For more than 10 years official reports and police investigations have revealed that some have covered up and others have played down the fact that gangs of men - mainly but not exclusively of Pakistani origin - have targeted, groomed, raped and tortured mainly white girls. Musk has attacked and abused the PM and his safeguarding minister Jess Philips for refusing to agree to a new inquiry into what really happened. The Conservatives and Reform UK have echoed his call if not his language (which, the former head of counter terrorism, has warned risks inciting violence). Now the one woman who had not commented when so many others had has broken our silence. Professor Alexis Jay - who chaired the Independent Inquiry into child sexual abuse which reported more than two years ago and who led the investigation into the cover-up of masss rape in Rotherham more than a decade ago - has told me on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme there is no need for a new inquiry. What’s more she argues that it would get in the way of what needs to be done – implementing the findings of her report which was published more than two years ago. Professor Jay refuses to comment on the words used by Musk or, indeed, Farage or the shadow Justice secretary – the Conservative Robert Jenrick who has argued that what is to blame is mass migration of millions of people with what he calls "alien cultures". However, she had a clear message for them all. Those who "politicise child sexual abuse" are ignoring the needs of the victims she says. In another interview on the Today Programme I asked Robert Jenrick whether he accepted the Conservatives in government for 14 years had failed to do enough to tackle a problem that was first highlighted more than a decade ago. Why, I asked him, had Tory ministers failed to implement the recommendations of the inquiry? Why had they refused calls for a second wider national inquiry when they had the power to set one up. I asked him whether he’d ever raise these issues as a minister in the Home Office and pointed out that there was no mention in the parliamentary record Hansard of him ever raising the subject before Elon Musk did. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, I asked Jenrisk whether he now wanted to stop immigration from those "alien cultures" he condemns despite the fact that immigration from, say, Pakistan has recorded since Brexit and that many of Pakistani heritage have and are serving this country proudly - not least the former Home Secretary Sajid Javid and the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. You can hear his answers by listening back to the Today programme on @bbcsounds at 8.10 (that's 2 hours & 10 minutes into the programme) and Professor Jay's at 7.30ish (one hour & 30 minutes into the programme)Jenrick, like Messrs Farage and Musk insists that much more is now known about what happened in the past and much more needs to be known about what might be happening now right across the country. So they argue that there is a case for that second enquiry. Jay argues that that would distract from implementing the protections that are needed now and which the Home Secretary hastily announced last night - making it an offence to know about but not report or to actively cover up child sex abuse and improving the collection of the data on who the offenders really are.Having spent years investigating these crimes - unlike some who read a few tweets before firing off their own ill informed opinions - she is clear about two things. Firstly, the scandals exposed in Rotherham and Oldham - the covering up of mass child abuse - has undoubtedly happened elsewhere any may still be happening now. Secondly, child sexual abuse is not limited to any one group in society as repeated scandals have revealed.
I've written this long post to put into context the clips of the interviews I'm also posting which I know will be taken out of context by some who want to abuse their political opponents more than they want to stop the abuse of young girls
This man was the real star of the evening. If someone can let me know who he is via DM or website I am sure @TheNewEuropean would like to hear more from him.
@BBCRadio4 ... Love the Naked Lunch on R4 just now.. Please tell me that Monopoly Quatar Investment Opportunities is a real thing. Absolutely hilarious- I want one.
Oh god. What a final. A stone classic for the ages. Clare 38pts v Cork 37, aet. Huge congrats to Clare, who have survived the years of Limerick's dominance to triumph. Commissions to Cork, who will, in my non-expert opinion, come again. Tony Kelly (10) just brilliant. #hurling
@bbc5live
Re hit songs in other languages -
Fun Boy Three have an excellent Urdu version of Our Lips are Sealed.
It's the B side of the UK single. Absolutely awesome.
Check out YouTube or Spotify.
Dee Newport Paggers
Chilling to see a great public broadcaster cowering to right wing fanatics.
Our democracy is made of tougher stuff than this.
The BBC should get a grip and put @GaryLineker back on @BBCMOTD where he belongs.
Labour: “The BBC’s cowardly decision to take Gary Lineker off air is an assault on free speech in the face of political pressure. Tory politicians lobbying to get people sacked for disagreeing with Government policies should be laughed at, not pandered to. BBC should rethink.”