LISTEN: on Rochdale grooming & rape gangs, this was a v testy interview the then Chief Constable of Gtr Manchester Police gave me @bbc5live 2013

It reveals a lot abt a police chief’s mindset - & on the day a scathing Serious Case Review was published

bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0… Here’s a non-exhaustive list of inquiries that have been carried where vulnerable girls were subjected to horrific abuse by ‘predominantly Asian men’ acc to Jan 2020 Gtr Manc report 👇

ROCHDALE Dec 2013
Serious case review by Rochdale Safeguarding Children Board highlighted failures by 17 agencies who were meant to protect kids

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…

GTR MANCHESTER Jan 2020 - Gtr Manc-wide Independent Review commissioned by Mayor @AndyBurnhamGM
Part 1
greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/news/child-sex…
 
OLDHAM June 2022 – Burnham-commissioned review Part 2
greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/media/6198/fin…

ROCHDALE Jan 2024 - Burnham-commissioned review Part 3
greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/media/9148/ope…

EXCLUSIVE: the ex-BBC junior employee who told me on #Newsnight a year ago they’d received inappropriate messages from Huw Edwards says hearing that the TV presenter had child sexual abuse images on WhatsApp ‘made them feel sick’ 

Thread 🧵 👇 The former BBC staffer tells me their ‘concern lies first and foremost with the children who are victims of the images Edwards had’

Says senior BBC leaders ‘clearly have questions  to answer about how they handled the situation in November, like why they continued to pay Edwards an increased salary after knowing the allegations, although I appreciate the legal/HR complications of the whole thing’

‘Richard Sharp’s undergoing 2 investigations, but he’s not suspended….whereas Gary Lineker’s suspended while work goes on to decide what guidelines shld cover his tweets. That doesn’t seem fair does it?’

Ex-Ed of Sun Telegraph, crossbench peer Baroness Wheatcroft on @BBCr4today Richard Sharp is Chairman of BBC. When applying for the job, he didn’t disclose his role in introducing a wealthy cousin who wanted to help then PM Boris Johnson with his finances, to cabinet secretary Simon Case. He’s being investigated by BBC & office of public appointments.

Meet Sophie Weaver. She’s 53, lives in Mersea Island nr Colchester, Essex & uses a wheelchair all the time (she has Stills disease which is a kind of arthritis - diagnosed aged 6). She tells me she lives a full life: she’s a town councillor & a member of the local drama group 🧵 As she lives on her own, she has 24 hr care & has done for years. Carers - called personal assistant (PAs) - who’s she known for ages & who she trusts, help her do - well, pretty much everything….

Linda Evangelista breaks her silence about the ‘fat-freezing’ procedure she says has left her "permanently deformed" & brutally disfigured." She’s suing the company behind it for $50 million alleging she's been unable to work since undergoing seven sessions of ‘CoolSculpting’ She says after treatment, her chin, thighs & bra area started to bulge. The areas she'd wanted to shrink were growing, before turning numb. She began dieting & exercising more. "I got to where I wasn't eating at all. I thought I was losing my mind."

Tonight on ⁦@BBCPanorama⁩ I talk to people who feel forced into private healthcare because some say they’re being told NHS surgery to treat their condition could be up to TWO years away.

(thread 👇)
bbc.co.uk/news/health-58… These are not wealthy people with cash sitting in bank accounts. They are people who are so desperate and often in such pain, they are taking out bank loans or setting up crowdfunding pages to raise funds to go private.

Judging from @BBCNews viewers today, it’s not quite true *no one* cares about the refurbishment of the Downing St flat & what that says about standards/integrity/transparency when it come to the PM... Sue Hayward wrote: it does matter because I’m a council employee as a carer. Every year I have to make a declaration that I haven’t had any loans or gifts that may have a council interest . And it needs to come from the top.

Here are the texts between Boris Johnson and businessman Sir James Dyson from March 2020. Mr Johnson says he will ‘fix’ the tax system for Dyson’s employees... In response, Sir James Dyson said it was "absurd to suggest that the urgent correspondence was anything other than seeking compliance with rules" and that his company did not receive "any benefit from the project".

The *reality* of domestic abuse during lockdown: exclusive research for tonight’s @BBCPanorama shows someone called police for help about domestic abuse every THIRTY SECONDS

[thread 👇]bbc.co.uk/news/uk-537817… as soon as the PM announced lockdown on that night back in March, one of my first thoughts was - what about those living with a violent partner or parent? They would be trapped at home with their abuser effectively 24/7

9am @BBCOne
The gov suspended the benefit sanctions regime at the start of this crisis. Now those sanctions are coming back. Disability rights campaigners say they’re worried that’s going to put pressure on people w disabilities to find work or go out while they’re shielding Bearing in mind those shocking figures suggesting 22,500 people with disabilities have died from Covid 19 acc to the ONS - that’s almost two thirds of all Covid deaths, one can understand those fears.

One man’s life, Britain, May 2020

Last month on BBC 1 one mid-morning we spoke to Paul Stewart. He’s a carpenter by trade. In April he moved from London to Bradford for a job working on railway stations. He rented a flat sharing with others.

[thread 👇] Unfortunately the firm didn’t start him on the job in the end because of the pandemic

(the campaign for people who were never able to take up new jobs and missed out on being furloughed is newstarterjustice.co.uk #newstarter )

9am @BBCOne

A clinical contact tracer tells me exclusively she’s spent much of her time since the government’s track and trace system went live last week watching Netflix - because she hasn’t been assigned a single case.

[thread 👇] The woman, who’s a nurse, says she feels guilty being paid £17.35 an hour for ‘sitting idle’. She believes it’s ‘an illusion the system is in place to try & control the virus’ giving an ‘illusion of protection’

👇

One woman’s life, Britain, 2020:

a rape survivor is having her housing benefit cut by £16 per week because she has a spare bedroom in her council house, which also happens to be a ‘safe house’.

[thread 👇] The house had been especially adapted for her & her 11 year old son’s safety. It included a panic space, smash-proof glass & a fireproof letter box.