Sharon Shoesmith Makes Fools Of The Sun’s David Cameron And Ed Balls
SHARON Shoesmith was unfairly sacked over the case of Baby P – the child who died at the hand of his mother, Tracey Connelley, her lover Steven Barker and his brother Jason Owen. Former Children’s Secretary Ed Balls sacked her on the telly. She lost her £133,000-a-year post as Balls reacted to Opposition goading and a Sun campaign to force her out.
At last now the news media can stick to the facts, avoid sensationalism and move on? The child, Peter Connelley, suffered enough. his name should be left to rest in peace. Well, not a bit of it.
The Evening Standard says Shoesmith is in line for a “£2.5m payout“.
The Daily Mail announces on its front page: “The £1m Smirk: Shoesmith in line for large payout – but still won’t say sorry for Baby P”
Or as the Express’s David Pilchard puts it:
FORMER social services boss Sharon Shoesmith finally apologised for the tragedy of Baby P yesterday as she prepared to land taxpayers with a £1million bill.
The Guardian adds:
Baby P ‘scapegoat’ in line for £500,000 payout as judges criticise former minister
Scapegoat is right. Let’s here from her:
“I was never in it for the money. People will want to put noughts on it and all the rest of it but I was never in it for the money. I never discussed money. I wanted to win the case, I wanted the truth to be told.”
And:
“I am relieved to have won my appeal and for the recognition that I was treated unfairly and unlawfully. Having spent a lifetime protecting, caring and educating children, my sorrow about the death of Peter Connelly in Haringey when I was director is something which will stay with me for the rest of my life. But as the judges have said, making a ‘public sacrifice’ of an individual will not prevent further tragedies.”
The truth is that she might get compensation and back pay (she was sacked in 2008) and £1.5 in pension rights.
Balls says he would do it again. But, then, an fool who ignored process and the law to woo Sun voters would. And what of David Cameron, who also made the case into politcal matter?
David Cameron said the government would take the Shoesmith case to the supreme court because ministers want to uphold the principle that they – and not the courts, through judicial review – should be responsible for their decisions. “It does seem to me important that governments are able to manage their organisations and provide accountability when things go wrong,” the prime minister said at the G8 summit in Deauville.
Poor old , Dave. He can’t slaughter Balls because when Baby P was the Sun’s campaign-du-jour, he wrote an open letter in the paper. As we wrote at the time:
David Cameron, who is so desperate to get the Rupert Murdoch’s Sun to support his Conservative Party at the next election, engages in a spot of ineffectual, meaningless, emotive pap Balls would be proud to call his own. The piece is equipped with a shot of Cameron pursing his lips like he means it.
In “And now full truth must be revealed” Cameron writes:
His face seems so familiar now, but it is still incredibly moving.
More than 1.3million signed The Sun Baby P petition, each name a cry for justice. Yesterday, those cries were answered. The sackings, suspensions, resignations were long overdue.
Thank God the Government answered our call for the independent inquiry that was needed.
Each name is a cry for vengeance. The Sun’s petition calls for four social workers to be sacked. And what is an independent enquiry but a sop to decisiveness, deferring any decisions to an anomalous body?
Cameron has read the report:
It reveals serious mistakes that led to Baby P’s death. It is vital that other professionals learn from these mistakes.
Mistakes, eh? Indeed. And what can you do, Cameron?
What have they got to hide? Why can’t the public read the facts in full? What kind of culture puts safeguarding the system before children, protecting bureaucrats before our babies?
Dunno. Dunno. Dunno. Can we join the debate and find out?
The army of Sun readers who signed their names to that petition want answers to these questions, and so do I.
Such are the facts…
7900334
Posted: 28th, May 2011 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
