Sunday, November 16, 2008

I never again want to hear that 'lessons will be learned',


YOU WOULD think that there would be so many levels of Turkey Army bureaucracy infesting our public services that mistakes would almost be impossible to make; that somewhere in the warren-like system, someone, somewhere would inevitably say “Hang on a minute – this isn’t right”.

After this week’s events involving Haringey Council at the Old Bailey, the answer has to be clearly not - although I suspect, with its £100 million a year budget, it’s through utter ineptitude rather than any laughable notion of under-staffing.

The case of 17-month-old Baby P, who despite being on the council’s at risk register, despite being seen 60 times by social workers in just eight months (that’s once every three days), and despite being the subject of two police investigations, was left to die in agony in a blood-stained cot with a broken back and multiple injuries after being tortured for months by his parents almost beggars belief. It has made me very sad and very, very angry. I actually couldn’t bring myself to read the long list of injuries published in the newspapers. The detail of how they were inflicted – “he was punched so hard in the mouth he swallowed a bottom tooth” – makes me feel faint.

And that’s where the anger overcomes the terrible sorrow, because Haringey Council has previous for this sort of thing, being the same social services department that was to blame for the death of little Victoria Climbie eight years ago. You would think that if any public authority had learned how to protect its children, it would be this one. But no.

We have the social worker who visited repeatedly and yet failed to spot the injuries caused by months of torture and, just four days before his death, was fooled by the boy’s mother smearing chocolate and nappy cream over his wounds.

We have the team leader who agreed that the baby should continually be returned to his home, despite two police investigations and the warnings of hospital staff.

We have the ‘chair’ of something called the Haringey Local Safeguarding Children Board who has shifted the blame quicker than an incontinent puppy, claiming that “The council didn’t kill Baby P; his parents did.”

And we have the doctor, the paediatrician who examined Baby P two days before his death and failed to spot that he was paralysed with a broken spine and also had several broken ribs and multiple other injuries. (Read that sentence back again and consider what it means. I bet you’re shaking your head, aren’t you?) She blamed this gross negligence on being unable to carry out a full examination because Baby P was “miserable and cranky”. Yes, I bet he was.

Still, heads will roll, won’t they? The people who allowed this horrific abuse to continue unabated will be sacked, won’t they?

Err ... no. At the time of writing, three written warnings have been issued and it has been made very clear that no-one will lose their job and no-one will be resigning. (I suspect that may have changed by the time you read this.)

And then, to top it off, we have that aforementioned ‘chair’ turning up on the TV news telling us, in that patronising tone the Guardian-reading classes use when they’re talking down to the rest of us, that “Lessons will be learned”.

I tell you what. I never want to hear a public servant using the phrase “Lessons will be learned” ever again. Because they’re clearly not, are they?

DODGY VICARS have been a staple of the Sunday tabloids for years, but they’re usually male. Now, since the ordination of women, we’re getting dodgy female vicars coming unstuck – and, I would suggest, in proportionately higher numbers.

The latest example is a motorbiking mother from Daventry, Northants, who has been banned from the clergy for 12 years by a Church of England disciplinary hearing after turning up drunk for services and also boasting to fellow clergy that she and her husband went on swinger’s holidays and that she was a keen contributor to some dodgy websites. Hardly the Vicar of Dibley, is it?

The best bit about the newspaper story I read was right down the bottom: “It is thought she has now trained as a teacher.” Well, that’s all right then.

DID YOU see that TV programme on Prince Charles the other night? The one celebrating his 60th birthday today? What do you reckon?

Spoilt and tetchy? Of course – it goes with the territory. If I was a multi-millionaire heir to the throne, I’d be a right pain in the backside as well. I wouldn’t have porky male valets squeezing my toothpaste from the tube. It would be half-naked 23-year-old pole dancers. Or even half-naked 23-year-old Pole dancers. I’m not fussy.

But honest and well-meaning? I think so. Whatever the baggage he drags with him, and whatever the peculiar characteristics his upbringing has instilled, I think he’s definitely a good man who recognises his public duties and tries to carry them out to the benefit of us all. If only he was in charge of Haringey’s Local Safeguarding Children Board. There’d be fewer tortured babies out there, that’s for sure.

TOP TIP this week comes not from Viz, but from the front page of the Daily Telegraph (yes, the front page).

If you’re feeding the birds this winter and your bird table keeps getting mugged by squirrels, just sprinkle a bit of chilli powder on your nuts. Apparently the birds don’t mind it, but the squirrels hate it. Probably keeps you warm as well. Pip pip!

11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

''And we have the doctor, the paediatrician who examined Baby P two days before his death and failed to spot that he was paralysed with a broken spine and also had several broken ribs and multiple other injuries. (Read that sentence back again and consider what it means. I bet you’re shaking your head, aren’t you?)''

Only in utter disbelief Baz. A 'qualified' paediatrician cannot spot bruises, broken ribs or the fact that the poor kid had the tip of his finger missing. The mind truly boggles.

Then we were 'treated' (unlike poor baby P) to the sickening spectacle of his 'father's lawyer (I use the term father loosely of course) trotting out pious platitudes on behalf of said 'father' that he loved his child ... FUCKING SPARE ME FFS!

Was it up to me I'd wire the cunt up by his knackers and leave him to swing for a fortnight, then turn him loose amongst the general prison populace. Scum they may be, but they know real evil bastards when they see them and are not afraid (unlike our lunatic judiciary) to mete out there own form of swift, and occasionally lethal, summary justice.

11:06 AM  
Blogger blackfive said...

Yes how many times have we heard that lessons have been learned ? Countless but they never are.That bunch of enept members of Brown`s turkey army should be sacked.That woman Shoesmith or whatever daft name she`s called should be emptied with no pension for the audarcity to come out and say our graphs are good.I`d stick her graph right up her arse.As for that pair of low life scrotes who perpetrated this crime...they should be hanged.I put my name down to do it if I can get past the large queue forming to do it. A national disgrace caused by years of leftie do gooders.

3:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Three written warnings, eh? What do you have to do to get fired in Haringey Council? Make a slightly risque remark about race?

3:34 PM  
Blogger Hacked Off said...

It emerges that one of the Haringey SS tried to do the right thing but was over ruled. Sylvia Henry can keep her job, the rest should be sacked, no compensation, just a P45.If their pensions can be cancelled, even better. All the way up the food chain to the councillors with oversight. Include in this the legal team at Haringey, and the legal teams for the defence of indefencible scum who got them off murder charges (at our expense, thanks cunts!)

Also include the gummint ministers who paid pass the parcel with the warning that could have caused someone in authority to take a good hard look at failings at Haringey, and their senior civil servants, and the useless wankers at the CSCI / Ofsted who gave Haringey a 3 star whitewash EVAN AFTER knowing of the death of Peter Connolly.

The Penguin
Penguinus Furiousandwantingvengeance

5:02 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There are some crimes such as this one that are so cruel that only the death penalty will do.

I hope the prison inmates find out the identities of those convicted of this crime and 'take care' of them. Perhaps they might like to start with 6 months of physical abuse.

Sadly I think the prison system will protect them better than Haringey protected baby P.

5:12 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

''Sadly I think the prison system will protect them better than Haringey protected baby P.''

Oh it will indeed. Look how they bend over backwards to make the life of 'Mr'Huntley as pleasant as possible. Another candidate for the short drop if ever......

8:29 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm amazed to read this morning that MPs are questioning BBC bosses about the whole Manuel phone call thing. It seems that letting an old man know that his stripper granddaughter is a bit of a tart is a more serious offense than systematically beating a baby to death over a period of months. Truly, the whole Baby P thing has sickened me, but when BBC employees are suspended and resigning over a bad joke, and Haringey employees have to live with the pain of a written warning, it's adding insult to injury.

8:03 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Is it me..what is the relevance of the photograph of the lady with a bad attack of builders chest?
Hardly in keeping with the tone of the article Bazmondus
Get a grip man.

10:30 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The lady in question is the dodgy vicar, so very relevant. Come on read the papers if you're going to comment.

2:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, though it is easy to blame a lawyer but under our judicial system then everyone is entitled to counsel and it is that counsel's job to offer the very best defence to their client, regardless of obvious guilt or the lawyer's own personal view.

I'm no legal beagle, but I'm pretty sure that is much the case.

I just hope a screw or two let slip to Big Barry (no offence) and his posse that Baby P's "father" is currently taking a shower, or maybe the staff in the clink-canteen drop a tab of arsenic into the mother's dinner one day...

No-one will care and quite frankly the situation will be all hushed up faster than the £100bn in the Vatican's vaults.

12:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I know exactly what you mean Baz, I had to force myself the read the catalogue of abuse inflicted on this poor child - and even then I still couldn't finish the article. Like most people I've seen and heard about some pretty grim stuff in life, but what these low-life scumbags did to Baby P had me reduced to uncontrollable weeping - and then I was murderously, fucking angry. If the term "What goes around, comes around" is as true as life suggests, these verminous filth will get their comeuppance and then some. Hanging, drawing and quartering should be re-introduced for despicable crimes like this.

3:48 AM  

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