Silence Of The Damned

There is no occupation more beloved of the obedient hackery of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre than that of social worker. This has been an opportunity for the Vagina Monologue and his shock troops to play both sides of the field, beating up on local authorities, law enforcement agencies, judges and “do-gooders” in order to keep their readers frightened and buying their copy.

Thus ranting Robert Lefever can use one case to conclude “The Welfare State is a sham”, Dominique Jackson can accuse social workers of “hating adoption” (while just happening to mention the Baby Peter case), the death of a baby girl can be dumped on social workers, and the profession can be smeared as predatory child snatchers bent on breaking up families.

But so far the Mail has been silent on last night’s BBC2 documentary Damned If They Do, Damned If They Don’t, the first in a short series following social workers in the city of Bristol. Here, rather than the Dacre method of dispensing lashings of 20/20 hindsight, we saw the reality of a family unable to cope with their 3-year old son, and the dilemma facing their social worker.

The child’s father was hostile. His mother, though, could think through what was happening and see that there was a problem. Their flat was filthy: the dog defecated on the carpet, the child didn’t have a bed until the social services brought one for him, and most worryingly at the age of three and a half could not yet speak, and seemed frustrated at his inability to communicate.

Moreover, the child had suffered unexplained bruising and was still in nappies. Into all of this, a newly qualified social worker tried to work with the parents to turn things around. Things did not turn around. Matters came to a head when the mother, now pregnant, was taken into hospital and the child was taken into temporary care. Viewers saw the case conference and the decision making process at work.

Then the mother had to have an emergency caesarean: her new daughter was also, ultimately, taken into care. In the meantime the parents had gone their separate ways following a violent confrontation. But the most moving moment came when the mother admitted that she was unable to give her children the care they needed, and gave them up for adoption. Voluntarily.

But you will see no sign of the programme at the Mail right now. After all, understanding the tasks that social workers face on a daily basis is not for Dacre’s finest. Rather, they merely wait for one of them to take the wrong decision, and then initiate a campaign of demonisation. I commend that programme to anyone with an open mind, which by definition excludes the filth at the Daily Mail.

It’s another example of where Mail attack hackery just isn’t good enough.

Del Boy And The Guff Inflation

Inevitably, following David Rose’s latest piece of highly selective climate change “analysis” – which, as I pointed out yesterday, was not endorsed by “NASA Scientists”, or indeed anyone from the scientific mainstream – this has been lauded by James “saviour of Western civilisation” Delingpole at the bear pit that is Telegraph blogs, who has commended Rose’s guff as “great”.

This endorsement, although it falls some way short of the ultimate Del Boy accolade of “magisterial”, shows clear approval of Rose’s determination to select only facts that are convenient to him, while discarding the rest, or where necessary, bending them to fit the narrative. And Delingpole has even more supposed “evidence” from a letter to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

This, he asserts, is signed by “16 distinguished scientists”, and not just any old scientists, but “proper ones”, which means they have met with the approval of Del Boy: this should put anyone of independent thought on their guard. The letter tells how wonderful more CO2 is, plays down its contribution to climate change, and kicks the IPCC (three boxes duly checked). So who are the 16?

They are, in order of signature, Claude Allegre (climate change denier), J Scott Armstrong (tried + failed to rubbish IPCC), Jan Breslow (physician), Roger Cohen (with Fred Singer + others, saying CO2 no cause for alarm), Edward David (electrical engineer), William Happer (see Roger Cohen, above), Michael Kelly (electronics professor), William Kininmonth (AGW opponent, colleague of Ian Plimer), Richard Lindzen (climate sceptic), James McGrath (polymer and adhesive specialist), Rodney Nichols (no climate science publications), Burt Rutan (AGW denier), Harrison H Schmitt (“CO2 scare is a red herring”), Nir Shaviv (global warming sceptic), Henk Tennekes (climate change sceptic), Antonio Zichichi (global warming sceptic).

So the WSJ letter proves that it’s possible to assemble sixteen contrarians in signature of a Letter To Rupe. But this does not detain Del Boy, who gets out his smearing stick to deliver the unfunny redefinition of the University of East Anglia as the “University of Easy Access” (Del Boy can look down on the UEA, of course, as he went to Christ Church – that’s part of Oxford University).

This is followed by the usual ranting about climate change, which in reality is Del Boy throwing a mardy strop because he isn’t getting as many column inches for his team as the other side are for theirs. All in all, it’s a superb example of the climate change denial lobby talking loudly and angrily to one another, while the more impressionable commenters look on admiringly. But it will change nothing, as the world has moved on.

No change there, then.

Deception Of The Young TURCs

Less than a week after the so-called Trade Union Reform Campaign (TURC) launched to a less than packed room in the Palace of Westminster, the wheels are starting to come off the wagon: their star guest turns out not to have been intending to endorse their campaign, and just happened to be passing and partial to a free beer. And we now know who really runs the TURC operation.

The TURC Twitter feed proudly announced on the afternoon of January 25 that former Yorkshire and England cricketer Darren Gough “joined us for the launch”. The website even had a photo showing Goughie with his visitor’s pass in mid-beer. But the leering expression on the face of Aidan Burley suggests he is just a little too happy at this particular photo opportunity.

Nevertheless, the flannelled fool Henry Cole showed his approval by re-Tweeting the news. In fact, he managed to pick out the Tweet, add a comment and send it on its way within one minute. And that tells us one thing: Cole is not only the TURC beer monitor, he’s also in charge of the Twitter feed. So, far from being a “Parliamentary Liaison Officer”, he’s running the campaign.

No doubt there will be a suitable riposte from another of those anonymous commenters who are not Cole, yet use his style, to rubbish my analysis. When they don’t get a 100% agreement with their proposition, there will then follow an immediate stream of abuse and accusations, but it will not be Cole doing it. I know this because he has told me so (cue hollow laughter).

But what of Goughie? As can be seen, he had turned up to meet a friend and “didn’t even know what was going on”. He then emphasised that he was “visiting a friend as it finished”. In the meantime, he had been informed that TURC was using his presence as part of its publicity, and had confirmed that he would be in touch with them. There has (predictably) been no comment from TURC.

And this should come as no surprise to anyone, given Cole’s track record: TURC’s own photos show around 35 at the meeting, despite all the bluster claiming that there were at one stage 80 or more. There was, as I noted at the time, only one article about the launch published after the event. And now it’s becoming clear that their claim that Darren Gough “joined us for the launch” is sheer deception.

But at least the flannelled fool Henry Cole has let slip just who is running the show. It can’t be a comfortable life to keep opening your mouth and putting your foot in it, but it’s the kind of job that someone has to do. Well volunteered, Hen.