It's all too easy to just point at the parents and say 'you've failed as a parent'. Nobody knows the story behind how these children ended up in care, how they ended up living with single parents or how their lives have been affected by living in an area of depravation.

The parents shouldn't even be mentioned in this whole episode. What happened to these children was wrong and the blame lies with the perpetrators in the first instance. The council and police if anyone should be the ones who shoulder some of the blame for turning a blind eye.

Listening to a report on Radio 4 today and one case of a 12 year old girl was mentioned. Apparently she was told by a detective that she "obviously consented" to sex with an older man. Given the fact that a 12 year old cannot legally consent to sex, if true, this detective should be tracked down and charged with aiding and abetting child abuse. At the very least he should be summarily dismissed from the force.

You don't simply "worry about immigration" - you're a racist, pure and simple. You've been called out on it in the past and nothing seems to have changed

Yawn. You play this card almost every time, and it is a standard response from anyone of a left-leaning persuasion when losing an argument on immigration. Try and close-down the debate by calling other people racist.

Linking your comments back to the original topic - this is part of the problem with what happened in Rotherham. No-one wanted to intervene, for fear of being called racist.

I've said the blame lies firmly on the shoulders of those who committed the abuse.
I've not "blamed" parents for this.
I've tried to point out what I think are some reasons as to why alarm bells weren't sounded with some of these girls.

I don't know why or how that could be translated into me being "uncomfortable" about the perpetrators or their community.

I sort of assumed that we were all of the opinion that the people who committed the acts are those responsible, I was attempting to discuss another aspect of the situation.

The council, social workers and the police are rightly taking flak over this issue, that doesn't mean they are "to blame" for the girls being abused.

On another note I see lawyers are involved and after £100K per 'victim'.

Based on this figure, the total payout would be around £140 million. And probably bankrupt Rotherham Council and South Yorks Police.

Good post. These girls will not be offered any real opportunity to mix with, or make a contribution to, wider British society.

And this is the problem. Multi-culture often = mono-culture. Where people are brought up with, and stick to, their own kind.

You can't go saying you can't mention parents as it's only the perpetrators to blame and then say the council and police shoulder some of the blame.

If the police and council are "to blame" in some cases for turning a blind eye then in some cases some parents are undoubtedly "to blame" too.
Or the perpetrators are solely to blame.

Personally I place the entirety of the blame on the perpetrators but we must also hold those to account in the council, in social services, in the police, in the Asian community and, in some cases, parents or family members who should be looking after and caring for their child better. Unfortunately some parents don't care that much for their kids and some can't be bothered to parent properly. I don't for one minute think they deserved this to happen or it's their fault but then neither is it the police, the council or social services fault.
It's the fault of those who committed the acts. But there are issues surrounding it that need discussing too.

Such as the responsibility the Asian community has in self policing, the social workers not picking up/not acting on alarm bells that should've been ringing, the council and central government in not funding police/social work properly and for a target culture, parents and families who don't look after their children properly and the police who find it too easy to ignore certain things when it's too difficult, they don't like certain types of people or might affect their crime stats.

Like I said, the people to blame are those who committed the acts but all the issues I mentioned are big problems in society and government which don't work as well as they should.

Not again - why do you need to resort to this? Perhaps you could address how come a number of people in WIncanton appear to have lied on the census or is that you have not posted factual information? - not for the first time.

Excellent. Both institutions appear, based on reports and allegations, to be rotten to the core.

Resort to what? Calling VR a racist?

I called him on it simply because, not for the first time, he's exhibited his racist and xenophobic views.

As for the Wincanton census information, I have no idea why it doesn't seem to reflect the ethnic mix of the town. But if you want to check for yourself, you're welcome to pop down here and get your hair cut at Eddie, the Portuguese barber. We can then go for Portuguese coffee before an Asian meal. If you're really good, I'll introduce you to the Sri Lankan couple and their children who live round the corner from me

Given that the numbers being quoted as "fact" are simply extrapolated from a small sample of case files then any legal actions would then force a complete examination of all of the known (actual) facts and a more accurate number arrived at - as has been pointed out earlier, being "vulnerable" does not necessarily equate to being gang-raped on a nightly basis nor does it constitute conclusive evidence - not that it stops the written media from assuming so.

In what way did he exhibit his racist and xenophobic views?

Perhaps the barber and others choose to do business in Wincanton but on the whole don't live in the town?

I'd like to know why these crimes aren't also regarded as race hate crimes and prosecuted accordingly .

It's obvious they deliberately targeted non Muslims for their vile deeds.

"Muslim" isn't a race, nor are they targeting a specific race for their crimes - see the previous comments regarding any asian girl who would comply to their grooming.