Wednesday 23 November 2011

Plan to tackle something or other

From the BBC:

Something or other takes place "in far greater numbers than was ever imagined", the government warns.

Ministers say gifts such as money, food, drugs or alcohol are often used as a means of coercion. They say robust strategies are needed to ensure that something or other does not happen. Minister Tim Loughton is launching a plan to make sure agencies work together to tackle the problem.

The Action Plan will bring together the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and support organisations like Crisis. The plan will also look at improving education in schools and helping parents know what tell-tale signs to watch out for. In October, the deputy children's commissioner, Sue Berelowitz, launched a two-year inquiry into the scale and scope of something or other. Ms Berelowitz said thousands of children could be affected and the issue reached across race and class.

Launching the action plan on Wednesday, Mr Loughton said: "This country has to wake up to the fact that something or other is happening in far greater numbers than was ever imagined. It could be going on in every type of community and in every part of the country. Too many local areas have failed to uncover the true extent of it in their communities and failed to properly support victims and their families. It is not good enough that some local areas don't recognise it as an issue. Something or other is an extremely serious crime and must be treated as such, with the perpetrators pursued more vigorously."

Mr Loughton said it must be made easier for victims and their families to go to court. "It is worrying that many incidents go unreported because victims are unwilling to come forward," he said, "The action plan is a big step forward and looks at something or other from the perspective of the young person, analysing what can go wrong and what should happen at every stage."

8 comments:

James Higham said...

Daily Mash has moved in?

Mark Wadsworth said...

JH, there's no soundbite from Tom Logan or from Henry Brubaker of the Insitute for Studies, so no.

formertory said...

Nice one. I googled a quote from the article (because I hadn't a clue what the something-or-other was)and got 175 hits. The first two were for your blog.

Bayard said...

Yeah, it doesn't matter what something-or-other is, just be afraid, be very afraid.

Tim Almond said...

The problem of under-18s in England being groomed for sexual activity takes place "in far greater numbers than was ever imagined", the government warns.

Look, sexually speaking, 18 is mostly irrelevant (except for porn). 16 is the age. It's called the "age of consent" because that's when someone is considered responsible enough to make their own choices, to say yes or no. You might as well talk about under-25s or under-60s.

I suspect the real reason is that some teenage slappers are easily led by a bloke with a fast car and booze. They put out for them anyway.

Anonymous said...

Sue Berelowitz (salary at least £95k according to the Office of the Children's Commissioner annual report) when launching her two-year enquiry in October said:

Ms Berelowitz said that although there was a lot of anecdotal research, there was a serious lack of reliable data.

But hey, don't let that stop them having a strategy to deal with this unknown issue.

Bayard said...

Thanks, AC. I just knew that there was a bureaucrat trying to justify their fat salary behind this somewhere.

Mark Wadsworth said...

JT, good point re 16/18.

AC, excellent digging, ta.