In the wake of the accusations that Keir Starmer was neglectful in his role as chief prosecutor at the time of the Rotherham Grooming [Mass child rape] Gang scandal, former Labour First Minister, Jack McConnell’s aide, Susan Dalgety, writes in the Scotsman on Saturday 4th January:
Why Scotland needs urgent national investigation into child sex abuse by grooming gangs1
Leaving aside the irony of Scottish Labour calling for an inquiry into a phenomenon barely reported in Scotland at the same time as UK Labour refuses one where the phenomenon is widely reported in England, what evidence of need does Dalgety have?
Just these:
First, the absence of evidence that there is such activity in Scotland suggests, to her, that it is hidden.
Second, in 2023, seven adults were found guilty of raping four children in Glasgow.
Third, in the 1970s and 1980s, a lawyer was accused of passing his daughter around a paedophile circle. Dalgety presents this as factual evidence of a grooming gang though only one man was prosecuted.
Terrible those these events are, they do not represent a phenomenon comparable to events in England. Dalgety herself tells us:
So far, there have been five local inquiries into the prevalence of these evil networks. The first was in Rotherham in 2014, followed by Rochdale, Oxford, Telford and Newcastle.2
There have been no such local inquiries in Scotland.
In Rotherham, with a population of just over 100 000, a sixth of Glasgow, it is estimated that 1,400 girls, primarily from care home backgrounds, were abused by “grooming gangs” between 1997 and 2013.3
A Times investigation in 2003, of court records, showed 17 cases of localised grooming in 13 northern towns since 1997—14 since 2008—in which 56 men were convicted of sexual offences against girls aged 11–16.4
Why does is this happening disproportionally in England? One reason can be found in the report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse October 2022:
There is no system of registration for the approximately 35,000 workers “mainly or solely providing care for children” (that is, in a care role) in England. In Wales (as well as in Scotland and Northern Ireland), children’s social care workers must register with a regulatory body.5
The absence of evidence may not always be the evidence of absence but there is a gap here between England and the rest of the UK which Scottish Labour cannot bridge, desperate though they are to tell Scots – ‘You’re no different!’
Sources:
- https://www.msn.com/en-gb/crime/general/why-scotland-needs-urgent-national-investigation-into-child-sex-abuse-by-grooming-gangs/ar-AA1wWmJV?ocid=BingNewsVerp
- https://www.iicsa.org.uk/reports-recommendations/publications/inquiry/final-report.html
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-61868863
- https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rotherham-child-sex-abuse-how-the-truth-finally-came-out-c2d9wgmwtd6
- https://www.iicsa.org.uk/reports-recommendations/publications/inquiry/final-report.html
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
“Scottish” Labour and the Hootsmon grooming Scots to think the worst of themselves. Bring a tear tae a gless e’e.
Why no inquiry when Wee Jock MaCoalbunker was “doing less” (and returning huge sums of moneys) in pretendy government?
gavinochiltree
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Is it just me who sees this feeding on Musk’s bizarre take over Yaxley-Lennon being a political prisoner, hence the grooming gangs hysteria ?
I strongly suspect the inner city anonymity these gangs once enjoyed is seriously diminished, folks are no longer prepared to rurn a blind eye and policing in England has learned the ‘trust them they better trust you’ lesson with specialist officers constantly spreading awareness within the force and building trust with the public after years of ‘them and us’ policing.
Trust in police by the public and vice versa has never really had such a problem in Scotland, as widely not reported by BBC Scotland when a ‘County Lines’ gang crossed the ‘local line’, a house got burned out, folks got a kicking to the border, but it was only a local flareup….
The likes of Susan Dalgety sees everything through the narrow lens of “Inquiry” which promises to reveals all wrong-doings and deal with it instantly, usually resulting in enormous fees for experts in the same clique.
One of the more extreme examples are those plodding on over a decade later, as is the Scrote Inquiry into whether 78s should continue to be accommodated on modern phonographs… Lord Scrote’s fees still pay for renovations to Scrotum Towers to this day despite the centenary of his untimely death at 107 on seeing the tax bill in 1948 this year. His magnificent balls are still being praised to this day…
Some more recent examples are perhaps Grenfell, Covid, the PO etc, etc., not a single one delivering any justice – So effectively more manificent balls courtesy of Lord Scrote from Susan Dalgety..
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England , according to Labour , do NOT need an inquiry into grooming Gangs – Labour in Scotland believes Scotland needs an inquiry into grooming Gangs !
Hmmm ! I get the ”Scottish cringe ” element of many Labour people but….?
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Except as the article here says, there were NO ‘Scottish grooming gangs’ to hold any inquiry about! The Labour England HQ’s are hoping folks will though believe that Scotland is ‘no different’ to England when it comes to crime, etc. what’s bad in England is ten times ‘worse’ in Scotland is the message they hope to relay. The jobsworths, Eng/UK Labour/Tory/Libdem parcel of rogues in Scotland are an absolute disgrace for their disgusting lies. NO THANKS!
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Ah, but …. the fact that none have been identified does not mean that there are none. So, it is possible there might be at least one. Ergo, pace Ms Dalgety’s logic, there IS at least one, so, SOMETHING MUST BE DONE. Preferably this entails BLAMING the “SNP” Scottish Government. Having blamed some minister the ‘enquiry’ will have fulfilled Ms Dalgety’s petty political aim.
Will any child have been protected? I doubt she gives a monkey’s.
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That’d be Mr.McConnell who took a big fat comfy seat in the house of Lords in England (£300++ a day for life) for totally selling out Scotland when he was First minister, sending £BILLIONS back to his masters in London and plunging Scotland into £billions of ‘debt’ with his PFI scheme (scam) to this damn day! NO THANKS!
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What happened to those children is an abominable crime and focusing on anything other than bring them justice and bringing accountability for the criminals and government officials who covered it up.
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McConnell betrayed his wife.
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