To ignore the sacrificing of children by IS is no longer an option says NICK FERRARI
AS someone who subscribes to the theory that state involvement in almost anything is guaranteed to make the situation worse, it curdled the blood to see the headlines last week about the possible intervention of local authorities in taking children into care against the will of both the child and their parents.
Reminders of the so-called Cleveland child abuse scandal, in which 121 children were seized from their parents, often in the middle of the night, after what turned out to be mostly bungled diagnoses, were chilling.
What possible right did Justice Secretary David Gauke think he had to float such a proposal?
That is, however, until you study just who these children might be. As soon as you do, you realise that to not take this draconian approach is to effectively condemn these children to a death sentence.
Mr Gauke was spelling out the challenges of dealing with the scourge of Islamic radicalisation and the growing evidence that manipulative parents were intentionally grooming their own children to become part of the IS “death cult”.
Security services in this country are faced with the enormous task of monitoring the return of hundreds of homegrown terrorists who decided to swap the safety and freedom of life in the UK for an existence on the killing fields of Raqqa.
It is highly likely that the full scale of British involvement in the murderous and barbaric activities of IS will never be known but the fact that four of the most proficient and ruthless jihadis who specialised in torture and execution were all British, and therefore earned the absurdly jocular nickname of the Beatles, seems a pretty good clue.
Thousands of individuals are “of interest” to the police and security agencies and hundreds (for obvious reasons the actual number is never disclosed but is likely to be 600-plus) are under surveillance, often around the clock.
Here’s the grim truth: they’re the ones we know about.
Former child migrant BREAKS DOWN at child abuse inquiry
Meanwhile the police officer who until earlier this month, was in charge of the nation’s counterterrorism brief, and the Justice Secretary have both voiced fears over the creeping problem of children being radicalised.
Last week, Mr Gauke said: “Society has got the right to say that there are some environments that are not safe for children and take action accordingly.”
He went on to spell out his fears about those parents who are bringing up their children “in pursuit of a radical agenda”.
Those bed-wetting liberals, who would sell this country out in a heartbeat if it appeased the bleating heart of their misplaced consciences, were quick to condemn the idea and ludicrously likened it to Stalinist-style state intervention.
Evidently – and as is nearly always the case – they hadn’t thought this through.
The modus operandi of IS is brutally simple. They used to intimidate and control areas by raping some women and children, and then threatening to rape more if acquiescence was not immediate.
Some captured opponents were locked in cages, doused in petrol and set alight.
Others were forced to kneel in orderly lines on the beach and be crudely beheaded.
Teenagers were allowed to execute “enemies” by shooting them in the head in front of baying crowds.
Artefacts and statues dating back many centuries were bulldozed or simply smashed by lunatics wielding sledgehammers.
The almost unpalatable truth is that parents in this country, probably born in Britain and who grew up watching the shows we all did on TV, following the same football clubs and shopping at the same stores, now see terrorism and the murder of innocents as legitimate actions.
Sacrificing their children is not merely a justified tactic but close to an honour that could result in martyrdom.
To ignore this is no longer an option.
Very occasionally, what appears to be doing the wrong thing, is in truth actually doing precisely the right thing.
This is just such an occasion.
________________________________
That has to be one of the speediest “Treasury reviews” in history.
Even if they’d plotted for months and summoned the best PR agencies in the land, the Conservatives couldn’t have come up with a more muddled, offensive and downright damaging idea.
The suggestion that the days of copper coins could be numbered was absurd. Just because many of the Cabinet are millionaires with super-sized pay packets and superannuated lifestyles, it doesn’t mean we all are.
Families up and down the land look for the bargains that save them a few coppers every week and at every shop.
Those of you who remember decimalisation (admittedly, I was still at school and the only real financial transaction I was involved in was saving my pocket money) can testify to the fact it was one of the greatest scams of all time.
David Jones reveals Treasury is trying to 'water down' Brexit
Retailers up and down the country used it as an excuse to raise prices.
And the same would happen this time.
If you really think they’d cut the price of some crisps currently costing 37p down to 35p, rather than lift it instantly to 40p, you’re one packet short of a six-pack.
Virtually every chocolate bar you can name has already been slimmed down to try to con you into thinking you’re still getting your teeth into the same amount of chocolate.
Normal people, aware of personal budgets, like to save and then spend their pennies and this Government unnecessarily put themselves in the toilet for ever thinking otherwise.
________________________________
It could be the largest child abuse scandal the country has known.
More than 1,000 girls living in and around Telford have been sexually assaulted, raped, trafficked, drugged, beaten, traded and even murdered by a gang of predominantly Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslim men.
The pattern is now well established. For Telford last week, read Oxford, Rotherham and Rochdale in previous years.
A broad calculation shows more than 80 per cent of the offenders are from the same background.
Two questions therefore:
1) What is the “community” doing to address the ghastly truth that some of their number see white girls as fit for trading and, in some cases, murder?
2) Why has the BBC so assiduously ensured coverage of a growing national scandal has been nigh on invisible?
Might it be that it simply doesn’t fit with the agenda set by the right-on news teams as they munch the quinoa and falafel from their Tupperware lunch-boxes at their interactive work stations?
________________________________
One primary school has been brave enough to buck the absurd health and safety trend and instal crates and loose planks in its playground and allow pupils to use scissors.
Top marks then to Richmond Avenue Primary and Nursery School in Shoeburyness, Essex, which says it helps toughen up children.
They are, of course, right.
Who knows where this might end?
Perhaps allowing children to climb a tree?
________________________________
Is it time to review the near-rapturous adoration that has been heaped on the e-cigarette industry, which has culminated with suggestions that it should be endorsed by, and be available on, the NHS?
Research shows that children who use them are 12 times more likely to move on to tobacco.
While they are obviously better than a full strength ciggie, let’s proceed with extreme caution.
________________________________
Why is there even a debate over the comments made last week by former integration chief Dame Louise Casey when she says everyone in the country should be mandated to learn English?
How are you meant to enjoy – and progress in – life in Britain if you don’t speak a word of the Queen’s English?