Listening to the “grooming gangs” debate. So wildly disheartening hearing a politician talk about an issue they clearly don’t know - or care to know - the basics about.

Oh Jesus, he’s just pulled out the “our girls” line to refer to white girls. Straight out of far right playbook

Do we not care about “our” kids who aren’t girls or aren’t white? Why does the rhetoric of far right & talking of girls and women as territory need to be adopted here?

He’s just said we could just count the http://offenders.How  exactly? Bias much? Says he cares about CSE yet doesn’t bother to read the basics in Home Office’s or academic research:There is no “grooming gang” definition or clear, systematic, reliable way of identifying at scale

That was MP for Ipswich Thomas Patrick Hunt starting with all this misinformed & inflammatory stuff

Followed by a pretty sensible contribution by female MP - emphasising that abuse occurs across all communities and groups. Thank you. Finally some sense.

Another one stressing that shouldn’t need a parliamentary debate to pay proper attention to child sexual abuse victims struggling to get support they need. Agreed. We shouldn’t need racism & scaremongering to care about child abuse either.

Oh this third MP now saying apparently today we are just “talking about white working class women and girls”. Er... is that now an explicit component of grooming gangs? Lots of prejudice & the implicit connotations of grooming gangs showing here.

Sarah Champion - a key proponent of racialising CSE- is being thanked for giving voice to the voiceless. Reminded of that great quote.

This bit is really important. Stephanie Peacock talking about why survivors of abuse shouldn’t be criminalised & proposed measures to deal with addressing criminal records people got in relation to exploitation. Cc @telford_gurl

Barrow MP @simonfell talking about the way “vested interests” involved in grooming gangs - misinformation and conjecture spread by far right

Excellent @simonfell - and what about the way the government itself is ignoring own evidence & spinning CSA strategy to bring focus back to ethnicity? Is that not vested interests too? https://bylinetimes.com/2021/02/02/continuing-to-racialise-child-sexual-abuse/

Good to see @TracyBrabin emphasise bravery of victims coming forward, massive issues around underfunding of responses & challenge somewhat the focus on race.

Woop. Thank you. Finally someone coming strong. Idea that child sexual abusers are just from one group described as “fake news”

This guy warns against dangers of adopting language and approach of hate groups.

This is @TanDhesi . Highlighting the institutional failings & need to stop racist scapegoating. A really strong and important intervention. Thank you.

Oh ffs. @timloughton follows up by bringing this straight back to “white working class girls (“and boys”- added hastily as afterthought) and Pakistani offenders

This guy was children’s minister. Did he learn nothing? Is calling the phenomenon of organised British Pakistani gangs (abusing white kids) a specific crime (I paraphrase). Again for him this is all that “grooming gangs” seems to be.

Another MP highlighting the impacts of ten years of austerity - way it undermines government’s stated aims of giving kids best start in life & responses to CSE.

She’s also the first person to mention online abuse.

“Let’s call this problem out for what it is: predominantly a small majority of Muslim men”. @_RobbieMoore . Again another politician who wants to talk on the topic without having bothered to read the evidence it seems

Don’t get me wrong. Child sexual exploitation/abuse is HORRIFIC. But if you can’t be bothered to understand the area & read the evidence then why are you making these bold claims that have been debunked by actual research?

Loools. And now he’s complaining about British National Party targeting his constituency of Keighley. As if the misinformed claims he’s propagating are any less about co-opting child abuse for political gains.

Another MP discussing issues around services being underfunded and overstretched. IMO these are exactly the kind of issues the Government seem to be trying to detract from by bringing the focus straight back to race.

Nickie Aiken talking about being grateful investment being made into services. I wonder if she realises just how incredibly overstretched they are, especially grassroots ones... the sums here are really just a drop in the ocean.

Does make a good point though about the grey area 16 & 17 year olds fall into for sexual exploitation related victimisation - over age of consent but under age of majority (ie still children) and various key offences don’t apply.

New dude up. Misrepresenting Jay report - saying it was about young white girls being abused by Pakistani men. As @ApnaHaq1 highlights, many of sexually exploited children identified in Rotherham were from ethnic minorities. Once again boys ignored

He’s very squarely blaming poor responses on fear of political correctness. Very simplistic. Is he not aware of the catalogue of institutional failings identified across the IICSA inquiry across numerous contexts? What explains them?

Another guy calling Home Office report a “study in obfuscation”. Has he tried engaging with the issues at hand? Try reading their literature review for a start - outlines numerous barriers to counting.

Talking of proven links to ethnicity. Proven by what exactly?

Such horrendous amounts of misinformation going on here. Ignorance or wilful disregard for evidence

Stuart McDonald (SNP) warns against dangers of stereotyping victims and offenders.

Finally emphasises that the report concluded that there wasn’t evidence of ethnic over-representation. Challenges what Home Sec is trying to achieve now. Why yet more focus on ethnicity

Also acknowledges important point - not racialising abuse doesn’t mean ignoring contexts in which abuse occurs. This is a false dichotomy pedalled by many. Strong intervention here

McDonald calls for scrutiny of new CSA strategy and actually improving responses - and proper funding.

Jess Phillips talks of progress in attitudes to CSE - children less routinely dismissed as child prostitutes etc.

Shame she’s now talking about CSE as if it just affects girls - we know from research this is simply not true. Why are male victims being ignored by so many today? Important point tho about damage of cuts to social work & how this affects ability to respond.

Also a bit odd she’s raising news story about a “grooming gangs” offender being “encouraged” to access to child born through rape. Don’t get me wrong, this would be horrendous- but @pguk10 & @BrianCathcart exposed that the story was grossly misrepresented by journo Andrew Norfolk

Victoria Atkins - safeguarding minister - discussing new child sexual strategy & the Home Office publications on group based child sexual exploitation in the community (aka “grooming gangs”).

So far, so good. Don’t hold your breath though...

Yeah there we go - now stressing how “disappointing” findings were (Priti Patel’s point in foreword). Arguing the government line about importance of collecting ethnicity data - but not actually explaining why this is supposedly key to tackling child sexual abuse

But she has clearly at least read the report & explains that there is no way of just counting convicted offenders. If only more of the other politicians who came to talk on this topic had bothered to read/accurately represent the docs they are discussing eh?!

States that the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has been investigating child sexual exploitation in organised networks - and that report coming out this autumn.

I’m not surprised but still disappointed that she doesn’t challenge the racialisation of child sexual exploitation or “grooming gangs” - the Home Office itself laid out the dangers & inaccuracies in doing so.

Oh wonderful. The guy who opened up is ending now with another line about “our girls”. Also saying we mustn’t allow political correctness to get in the way of responses. This is misleading again IMO - implies that reasonable people do want political correctness to get in the way.

Or indeed that political correctness was major factor in impeding responses.The research suggests otherwise.Really important to stress that there have been failings ACROSS THE BOARD.Blaming political correctness plays in to culture wars narrative & overlooks major systemic issues

The debate is over. Frustrated that so many speakers showed such ignorance/disregard for the evidence on this issue and opted for encouraging racial stereotypes, overlooking victims who aren’t “our girls” and lazy blaming of “political correctness”.

Am heartened tho by strong contributions from Stuart McDonald & @TanDhesi in particular. And @TracyBrabin . I hope they will be scrutinising new child sexual abuse strategy & holding Government to account. As McDonald said, what exactly is it trying to achieve with focus on race?

If you’re interested, @_WaqasTufail & I wrote this for Guardian when the Home Office report came out. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/19/home-office-report-grooming-gangs-not-muslim I wrote this @BylineTimes about the new child sexual abuse strategy, political spin around it & concerning measures proposed https://bylinetimes.com/2021/02/02/continuing-to-racialise-child-sexual-abuse/

If you want to watch it, video available here (started around 5.30pm) : https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/324d4242-220a-4201-b355-0220d269ebad Transcript available here: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2021-02-03/debates/65D3BAF4-00FF-42B3-8430-AAF2CCD8826E/GroomingGangs