All round failings...

... make me fucking angry. Just sitting in a local café attempting to do some last-minute local government revision, but have been distracted by a social-services case study revolving around Doncaster Children's Services. Now, given that I have been studying journalism for a while, and have always been interested in newspapers and the media etc., I am fairly desensitised to most heinous crimes... this, however, has really hit me as truly despicable. I was genuinely moved by how atrocious the two kids behaved, and how the two victims were treated. It really does raise questions about our social services processes in this country. So the Local Safeguarding Children's Board says that there were multiple agency failings, and a lack of "leadership". Well, it is the LSCB's duty to act as superintendent, liaison and overseer of these agencies. That was their job as of 2003: they were charged with the responsibility of coordinating the police, health bodies, and Local Authority Children's services. What the hell kind of failures can there be?

This is the main story, but if you'd prefer my 'tl;dr/hugely biased' version then I will happily give it.

--2 brothers belong to a family which has been known by 9 agencies over 14 years.

--2 brothers taken into foster care.

--2 brothers moved to Edlington a month before the attack.

--2 brothers lure two children aged 9 and 11 out to an isolated wood and then assault them for a prolonged period of 90 or so minutes. During the attack - which they have plead guilty to (as grievous bodily harm with intent and robbery) - they burnt the children, made one of them strip naked and perform a "sexual act", threw bricks at them, and dropped a sink on one of the victim's head.

--The older brother films part of the attack on his mobile phone.

--They leave the children to die.

--The brothers have a history of assault: killing ducks, attacking teaching staff with baseball bats, arson on a café which had a person in it etc..

The worst bit of the story was the emotional-hook, however: the older victim said to the younger "I can't see and I can't move my body [...] You go and I'll just die here." Oh come the fuck on -- how the hell are you meant to be able to read that without feeling a pang of guilt and pain? You'd have to be heartless to overlook this as an agency mistake. What we have here is multiple, systematic, and entirely disgraceful failings of a multitude of governmental and departmental agencies whose sole responsibility is to promote and protect the welfare of children. The Labour Government even assumed full control of Doncaster Children's Services in March 2009.

The full report of this case will not be published for the public, under the defence of:

1) Protection of confidentiality and anonymity.

The opposition (the Conservatives/Tories) have asked for full transparency and are promising that in any further cases of this nature that the full report will be issued into the public domain.

So, this is where I'm going with this. Would that benefit us? Would full transparency reduce the likelihood of these things happen? Does hiding the failings from the public decrease the accountability? Does the fact that the 'executive summary' is entirely different from the full report mean that we're not being told everything? Does it make it, as the Baby P atrocity, "not worth the paper it is written on"? How can so many things have gone wrong? How can I stand to live in this country for another 3 years? How can anyone bear to live in Doncaster when 7 children have died because of agency failings since 2004?

Fuck this country.

The Labour Government is going to have to pull a miracle out of the back to prevent their losing the next General Election. I have always been a stalwart hater of the Conservatives, but even I am tempted to vote for them. Well, if I wasn't a Liberal. Which is pointless in and of itself. This kind of thing just reminds me why I want to move. I know these things happen in other countries, but when your Government claims that full details of these atrocities need not be published because they don't want Britain to be "defined by the appalling violence and irresponsbility that's been shown to the youngsters by two other youngsters". Well, too fucking late -- we're known as the defender of rapists and scum.

And if you're wondering why I'm so fucking angry today, it's because I feel like my life is spiralling out of control and I'm so fucking pissed off at my own failings that I don't want to even look at myself, let alone address that which is causing me all this self-induced agony. That's why I'm projecting my self-loathing onto this cretinous organisation staffed solely by an incompetent board of neanderthal, knuckle-dragging, failing-to-communicate, borderline-mental disabled rejects who spend too much time wiping up each other's drool and not enough time caring about the sanctifying of our children's safety. PLEASE WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN. Damn right, Helen. So, yeah, so fucking bitter because I'm so fucking pissed off generally. One of these days I'm going to snap and put my head through a wall, or someone else's. When that day comes, I will let you know whether it was my own or not. That'll be a fun day. Also I'm fucked off because these people are such CUNTS.

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So I think we're gonna get the house.