In 2025, a town in the UK will become the first ever Childrens Capital of Culture. Many people will be more than a little shocked to learn that, of all the towns in Britain, the government has chosen Rotherham for the role the south Yorkshire town at the centre of Britains decades-long grooming-gangs scandal. Between 1997 and 2013, an estimated 1,400 girls in Rotherham were sexually abused by gangs of predominantly Pakistani men. All while the local authorities turned a blind eye.
The aim of the Childrens Capital of Culture initiative is to give every young person and child a chance to help shape their towns future. Throughout the year, the town will be packed with music, magic, dance, drama, films and food. There will also be exhibitions and events taking place with the hope that young people in Rotherham will gain access to training and new skills. All of this is set to be paid for with 1.8million from central government, though, as of this weekend, Levelling Up secretary Greg Clark has said he will look again at the funding.
While the young people of Rotherham are certainly more than deserving of the opportunities the festival might bring, there is a danger here. And it was spelled out inadvertently by a local councillor. Back in February, councillor Dave Sheppard reportedly said that Were making improvements that will help change the perception of Rotherham. In other words, it seems the local authority hopes the festival will encourage us to move on from the towns catastrophic failings.
A 2014 report by Alexis Jay into child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Rotherham laid out these failings. As is now well known, sexual abuse on an industrial scale went on unchecked in the town for decades.
Largely, this was because the local authority was paralysed by political correctness. Local council employees were nervous to intervene, fearing accusations of racism. Some were afraid to even state the ethnic origins of the perpetrators, despite victims testimony making it clear that the majority were of Asian or Pakistani heritage. Indeed, this fear was compounded by senior managers, who in some cases gave clear direction to junior members of staff not to discuss anyones ethnicity.
Equally, the council made no efforts to engage with the local Pakistani-heritage community to discuss how the grooming-gangs problem could be addressed jointly. The councils only real contact with the Pakistani community was via self-proclaimed community leaders. This left women within the Pakistani community feeling disenfranchised not least as many girls from the Pakistani community had faced similar abuse. In other words, the councils tiptoeing around the grooming-gangs problem also harmed the very community it was hoping to shield from offence.
Failure upon failure by those charged with protecting the most vulnerable allowed the sexual abuse of children to carry on under everyones noses. This will forever be a stain on the local authority. Council leaders put political correctness ahead of protecting children from rape. This moral failure should not be forgotten or erased. This would only do a disservice to victims.
Clearly, if we are ever to tackle the scourge of grooming gangs a problem still ravaging the UK then we need a serious cultural shift. For a start, local authorities need to stop putting political correctness ahead of child protection. They need to stop fearing that they will be accused of racism for wanting to put a stop to an abhorrent crime. They need to listen to the victims of the crime. And they should listen more to the women within Britains Pakistani community, whose own concerns were initially ignored.
Most of all, we should certainly not be rewarding the very local authorities that failed so many children with a multimillion-pound opportunity to cleanse their reputations.
Wasiq Wasiq is an academic specialising in law and terrorism. Follow him on Twitter: @WasiqUK
To enquire about republishing spikeds content, a right to reply or to request a correction, please contact the managing editor, Viv Regan.
Excerpt from:
Naming Rotherham the Childrens Capital of Culture is a sick joke - Spiked
- Politically incorrect - - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Dileep critiques impact of political correctness on comedy films; says Movies will become dry - TOI Etimes - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Keeping Up With Spongy Political Correctness; Turbines Make a Sudden Move Offshore - The SandPaper - February 1st, 2024 [February 1st, 2024]
- Disney's Snow White Live-Action Remake Ignites Controversy - BNN Breaking - February 1st, 2024 [February 1st, 2024]
- Political correctness is strangling comedy and with it our British sense of humour - The Telegraph - January 29th, 2024 [January 29th, 2024]
- The absurdity of political correctness - Fiji Times - January 29th, 2024 [January 29th, 2024]
- Claudine Gay, Jimmy Lai, and the truth of things - Catholic World Report - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Rochdale has exposed the horrors of political correctness - Spiked - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Michel Valentin: Political correctness and swastikas - Missoulian - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- Letters to the Editor | Nov. 12, 2023 - The Philadelphia Inquirer - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- How the free world can prevail - Geopolitical Intelligence Services AG - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- The Die Hard Survival Guide To This Year's Office Holiday Party - Fisher Phillips - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- Who Won The Third Republican Debate? - FiveThirtyEight - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- Although Many Have Tried To Change Name Of Devils Tower ... - Cowboy State Daily - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- North American Birds Named After Bad People Will Get a New ... - WTTW News - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- "Imagining the Indian documentary combats Indigenous mascoting - The Michigan Daily - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- Disney's downfall attributed to cancel culture The Tide - The Tide - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- The Kremlin fuelled antisemitism at home. Then it blew up - Euronews - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- The Vibes Are Off at the 2023 Venice Film Festival - Vulture - September 3rd, 2023 [September 3rd, 2023]
- Democracy and the Crisis of Authority - Asharq Al-awsat - English - September 3rd, 2023 [September 3rd, 2023]
- 10 Best Workplace Movies of the 2010s - MovieWeb - September 3rd, 2023 [September 3rd, 2023]
- The Social Contract Between Human Rights and International ... - Harvard Political Review - September 3rd, 2023 [September 3rd, 2023]
- A Requiem for Manners - The Imaginative Conservative - September 3rd, 2023 [September 3rd, 2023]
- Letter to the editor: Understanding God | TribLIVE.com - TribLIVE - September 3rd, 2023 [September 3rd, 2023]
- Karin Klossek: No More Home Office Freedom? Then I Quit! - finews.com - September 3rd, 2023 [September 3rd, 2023]
- Republican Attacks on Woke Ideology Falling Flat With G.O.P. Voters - The New York Times - August 6th, 2023 [August 6th, 2023]
- Discussions on unions, politics mark librarians' conference The ... - The Militant - August 6th, 2023 [August 6th, 2023]
- Serving the Sovereign - Magnolia Tribune - August 6th, 2023 [August 6th, 2023]
- A Philosophers Role in the Texas A&M Debacle (updated) - Daily Nous - August 6th, 2023 [August 6th, 2023]
- High school football: Walsh confident South is making progress ... - Salisbury Post - August 6th, 2023 [August 6th, 2023]
- War On Niger Republic Will Be War On Northern Nigeria, By Prof ... - SaharaReporters.com - August 6th, 2023 [August 6th, 2023]
- Introducing the Reason Crossword, a Weekly Puzzle for Libertarians - Reason - August 6th, 2023 [August 6th, 2023]
- From Relativism to Wokism: A Path of Confusion, Fallacy and Self ... - C2C Journal - August 6th, 2023 [August 6th, 2023]
- John Krull: Try this in a small town - Pendleton Times-Post - August 6th, 2023 [August 6th, 2023]
- Book Review: "Rodney Kills At Night" -- Engaging Company - artsfuse.org - August 6th, 2023 [August 6th, 2023]
- US stokes divisions on BRI, but will Italy fall into trap? - China Daily - August 6th, 2023 [August 6th, 2023]
- Whoopi Goldberg blows up over political correctness: 'We don't know everything you're not supposed to do!' - Fox News - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- 'They mad over a forehead kiss?': Fans Cry Hypocrisy as Disney - Bastion of Political Correctness - Edits Out Ayo-Aneka Kiss Scene in Black Panther:... - November 16th, 2022 [November 16th, 2022]
- The silliness of political correctness THE FIRST STREET JOURNAL. - November 8th, 2022 [November 8th, 2022]
- Why Women Are So Susceptible To Political Correctness - November 8th, 2022 [November 8th, 2022]
- Cancel Culture: Its Causes and Its Consequences - November 5th, 2022 [November 5th, 2022]
- Why Did British Police Ignore Pakistani Gangs Abusing 1,400 ... - Forbes - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Where are the liberal defenders of Kanye West's freedom to speak? - New York Daily News - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Perfecting the "art of polarization": How these '90s conservatives created today's radicalized right - Salon - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Anna May Wong is now the first Asian American on US currency - The Black Wall Street Times - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Best of times, worst of times - The Spectator Australia - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- When Rekha's beauty advice for young women was to be 'physically fit and definitely not fat': 'Fat is ugly' - The Indian Express - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Theatre Review: You should see The Doctor now - The New European - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- The Utopian Horizon of Memory Art: A Conversation with Andreas Huyssen - lareviewofbooks - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- I should be allowed to play any person, or any tree, or any animal: Marvel Star Scarlett Johansson Was Furious After Losing Trans Role Due to Insane... - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Videogames: the latest weapon in the culture wars - Spiked - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Jes Tom on Why They Love Chris Onstad's 'Achewood' Webcomic - Vulture - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Why Hungarys Jews Are the Safest in Europe - The American Conservative - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Why you should change your voter registration to Pennsylvania, Part 1: the insanity of Doug Mastriano - CMU The Tartan Online - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- TIFF 2022 Review: Stephanie Johnes' "Maya and the Wave" Hits a High Watermark - The Moveable Fest - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Longing After the Fleshpots | Luke Burgis - First Things - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Where to Watch and Stream Jimmy Carr: Telling Jokes Free Online - EpicStream - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Opinion | Leicester Violence Has Exposed the Multicultural Claims of Left-Liberals - News18 - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- America's Misguided Fascination With Royalty - The Atlantic - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- The pending collapse of the United States of Political Correctness - The Hill - September 3rd, 2022 [September 3rd, 2022]
- Laurence Fox finds a role equal to his talents: the Breitbart biopic of Hunter Biden - The Guardian US - September 3rd, 2022 [September 3rd, 2022]
- Moving ahead as a party of one Times News Online - tnonline.com - September 3rd, 2022 [September 3rd, 2022]
- Google Bars Truth Social From App Store Over Lack of Content Moderation - Reason - September 3rd, 2022 [September 3rd, 2022]
- She idolised Thatcher, now Liz Truss is on the cusp of becoming Britain's next PM - WAtoday - September 3rd, 2022 [September 3rd, 2022]
- OPINION: Andrew Tate sparks a culture war: The perspective of a young man and woman The New Political - The New Political - September 3rd, 2022 [September 3rd, 2022]
- "I Know What It Means To Grow Up Without Much" Pro Golfer Harold Varner III Keeps It Real About Going To LIV Golf | It's All About The Bag!... - September 3rd, 2022 [September 3rd, 2022]
- The Lady Is Not For (A Populist) Turning: Thatcherian Ambiguities In Cas Mudde's Theory Analysis - Eurasia Review - September 3rd, 2022 [September 3rd, 2022]
- Dear Friends and Readers, The Brooklyn Rail - Brooklyn Rail - September 3rd, 2022 [September 3rd, 2022]
- 9/2 Flashback: On abortion | Fred Clark - Patheos - September 3rd, 2022 [September 3rd, 2022]
- The Kingdom Exodus Review: Lars von Trier Goes Full Meta With the Return of His Creepy Hospital Drama - Yahoo Entertainment - September 3rd, 2022 [September 3rd, 2022]
- Film Review: 'Explorer': The Amazing Life Story of Author and Renowned Overachiever Ranulph Fiennes - The Epoch Times - September 3rd, 2022 [September 3rd, 2022]
- Bill Maher Asks A Question Even A Meathead Cant Answer On Real Time - Deadline - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Exclusive | Pa Ranjith on 10 years in cinema, pan-Indian films, Natchathiram Nagargiradhu: 'I am waiting to see the ripples it creates' - The Indian... - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Opinion: In Alberta, children's early years of education are being used in a game of political football - The Globe and Mail - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Marvel Comics Removes Masters Of Kung Fu Mentions From Its Website - Bleeding Cool News - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Jimmy Carr's 'Terribly Funny' tour to be the biggest comedy tour to ever hit Australia - Beat Magazine - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Police need to be more focused on crimes that matter to voters, say Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss - iNews - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Hulu's Reboot Debuts First Trailer And Brings Paul Reiser Back To The Sitcom - GameSpot - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- JMM claims 16 BJP MLAs in touch with party - Daily Pioneer - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- France keeps blocking MidCat gas interconnection with Spain - EURACTIV - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]