UNITED KINGDOM
The Conservative Woman
By Andrew Tettenborn
May 7, 2018
Politician in need of a headline or two? Easy: demand an inquiry into something. The wider-ranging and less focused the terms of reference, the better the publicity. Unfortunately the more vaguely the remit of any inquiry is drawn, and the more politically charged its subject, the less likely it is to do much good. If you want proof, the saga of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, whose interim report appeared a couple of weeks ago, provides it in spades.
It was set up by then Home Secretary Theresa May in 2014 amid swirling and often self-serving claims of pederasty against what seemed almost anybody connected with the establishment. Things have not gone well. It is now on its fourth chair, ex-chief social work inspector Alexis Jay, assisted by human rights law professor Sir Malcolm Evans, radical barrister Ivor Frank, and former CPS luminary and HM Inspector of Constabulary Drusilla Sharpling. The first two chairs, a judge and a corporate lawyer, were eased out as being too patrician: the third, a New Zealand judge, resigned in murky circumstances after alleged incautious remarks about race and what seems to have been open warfare between her and the other members.
The inquiry’s terms of reference are a curious combination of matters clearly drawn up to placate particular pressure groups. On one side there is a vague injunction to find out all about child sexual abuse in the past, who was to blame, and what to do about it. To this are subjoined instructions to consider the experience of survivors, providing opportunities for them to ‘bear witness’.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.