UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
Editorial
The Guardian, Monday 14 July 2014
The decision by Lady Butler-Sloss to stand down from the inquiry into historical child sex abuse was too slow coming. It is welcome, but by derailing the inquiry before it started the government has lurched from seeming at sea in the face of a possible establishment cover-up to appearing both at sea and incompetent. And when the process does finally get going at some yet-to-be-determined point in the future, persuading the survivors of abuse to place their faith in it will be the harder. For a home secretary more sure-footed than most in her perilous office, this has been an uncharacteristic lapse. To get this important inquiry back on track, she must act with less haste this time round.
The Home Office response to the swirl of allegations of abuse going back as much as 50 years has been damagingly uncertain, betraying an ingrained reluctance to take seriously such notoriously difficult questions even under pressure from politicians of all parties. Having repeatedly said an investigation was unnecessary, right up until the moment when it became necessary after all, there was then a rush to appoint someone distinguished to chair it. In the complex context of offences under laws that no longer exist, or did not exist then but do now, and the analysis of failures to protect children that had to be considered, Lady Butler-Sloss was an obvious choice. She has a universal reputation for integrity, long legal experience and a distinguished record conducting child abuse inquires. Equally, because of her personal circumstances – not what she knew, but who she knew – she should just as obviously have been rejected. That neither she nor Theresa May seem to have been aware of the impossibility of her appointment is evidence of a worrying insensitivity.
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