Of course ISA is right – but we are still not doing enough to protect kids

There’s been much wailing and gnashing of teeth about parents or other adults who give kids lifts to sporting events having to have criminal record checks.

And so they should. The Independent Safeguarding Authority is right, because you just don’t know if that apparently nice dad who gives your kid a life has a nasty past.

The problem is also that the government isn’t doing enough to protect kids. Ban paedophile parents from contact with their own children, by locking pervert dads (or, occasionally, mums) up for a very long time. That will protect kids.

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++ Child abuse lobbying: Disturbing allegations about Harman’s past ++

First, may I ask, why isn’t this a front page story and why isn’t it leading the BBC News 24 and Sky News?

According to p8 of the Telegraph, a despicable and unforgivable episode from Harman’s past was that she allegedly advocated certain types of child pornography and the reduction of the age of consent to FOURTEEN (14- or 15-year-old boys or girls are kids, are in no way capable of consenting, and should be protected from sexual exploitation). I find the passage below highly disturbing and also I am amazed that Harman is an MP at all and has risen so far in her Party:

The Leader of the House of Commons and Minister for Women and Equality, who is now being touted as a possible successor to Gordon Brown, sits on a Cabinet committee on young people’s welfare.

But her political judgement and ambitions are now in question after The Daily Telegraph obtained documents showing that she called on ministers to make sexually explicit photographs or films of children legal unless there was evidence that the subject had been harmed.

At the time she made the official submission, she was a senior figure in a civil liberties organisation that wanted the age of consent to be lowered to 14 and incest decriminalised. It also defended self-confessed paedophiles in the press and allowed them to attend its meetings.

….

Miss Harman, 58, was a newly qualified solicitor when she became legal officer for the National Council for Civil Liberties, now known as Liberty, in 1978. At the time its general secretary was Patricia Hewitt, who went on to become health secretary under Tony Blair.

Among the groups affiliated to NCCL were the Paedophile Information Exchange and Paedophile Action for Liberation, whose members argued openly for the abolition of the age of consent. NCCL complained to the press watchdog about their treatment by tabloid newspapers and said in one article: “We support any organisation that seeks to campaign for anything it wants within the law. They have that right.”

In NCCL’s official response to the Government’s plans to reform sex laws, dubbed a “Lolita’s Charter”, it suggested reducing the age of consent and argued that “childhood sexual experiences, willingly engaged in, with an adult result in no identifiable damage”. It claimed that children can suffer more from having to retell their experiences in court or the press.

Amid growing public concern about adults preying on children, the Protection of Children Bill was put before Parliament in order to tighten the laws on child pornography by banning indecent images of under-16s.

I was not aware Harman’s alleged past connections with various paedophile lobbying groups but this is all very disturbing, considering the nature of these pro-child-abuse campaigns. The BMLCTA [Battered Moms Lose Children To Abusers] site has commented that:

All citizens need to be aware of what the politicians are promoting. It seems all too common that people get into positions of power and authority in deliberate efforts to undermine the group they are supposed to be advocating for, such as defending women or children’s rights. In this case, there appears to be a serious conflict over the fact that Harriet Harmen appeared to be promoting de-criminalization of child sexual abuse (CSA), pedophilia, incest, and child pornography, and she is the Leader of the House of Commons and Minister for Women and Equality and holds a position on a Cabinet committee on young people’s welfare.

Now that she is a mother, what does she think of her past work for such a campaign and such extreme libertarians that advocated child abuse?

Today, in the UK, child abuse of all kinds is at an epidemic scale  and we do need a new Crimes Against Children Act – and to give child abusers (and those who fuel the demand by viewing abominable web images) life sentences without parole. 

We should support the human rights and liberty of ‘at risk’ and vulnerable kids – and not take the ultra-libertarian view of letting their abusers loose to destroy more kids’ lives – after all, the victims’ genuine human rights are more important than the imagined human rights of paedophiles.

As for Harman, there should be a public inquiry and if these allegations are proven, she should never be forgiven for her alleged collusion with such evil child abusers.

Of course school lotteries are unfair, Ed

Labour hates kids – see the link in the bar above – but at least Ed Balls, one of the more likeable cabinet members, has a very different attitude to children.

The future Labour leader, and his sweet wife Yvette, whilst both public school educated, have sent their delightful kids to state schools.

Balls was the minister who, as a dad of young kids, reacted emotionally to Baby P’s murder and the Haringey shambles. He got it right then, though he didn’t on the economy, which he advised Brown on.

And now Ed Balls says school lotteries, as introduced by idiotic upper class councillors in gritty Brighton, are not fair. Spot on.

Empathy is a good thing in politics. If a little Balls kid lost out in the lottery, Ed and Yvette would be gutted. Wouldn’t we all?

Brown’s protege is likely – if not Alan Johnson – to be the Labour leader facing PM Cameron in the 2015 general election (unless Brown goes before then to be replaced by Balls or Johnson).

After the pain of the economic depression and some dreadful Iranian war inspired by the recently defeated President Obama (which President Jindal has got to sort out), a fresh-faced Ed Balls and his lovely Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer wife and those photogenic state-school-going kiddies would be tough to beat.

If Balls calls it right on the many other issues of education and especially society and the economy, he could make this reality.

Whatever happens, the Tories need to raise their game – and not be a toady to Obama (as Bliar was to Bush), given that the Yanks have caused much of the economic and foreign policy mess that we will face for years to come.

Maybe Pres Jindal will invite PM Balls, or PM Davis, to speak at congress too?