This Thursday 4 September at The Big Green Bookshop - a few tickets left for Ray Jones' talk about: "The Story of Baby P"

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Permalink Reply by Liz on September 1, 2014 at 20:52

Thank you for reminding me about this Alan. I think it will be a very interesting evening. See Patrick Butler's review of this book here

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on September 2, 2014 at 9:13

Thanks, Liz. I hadn't read Patrick Butler's review before now.  As Butler says, Ray Jones' book makes a convincing case against The Sun and Rebekah Brooks for the harm they did.

But, reading and rereading the book, it seems to me that Ray Jones has fallen into an old trap. He counters 'Blame-All' by giving us 'Praise-all'.

Without doubt, Sharon Shoesmith was unjustly scapegoated.  Jones also makes a strong case for saying the same applies to Gillie Christou (Team manager) and Maria Ward (social worker).

But even so, I think it was unwise of Ray Jones to write about "a child protection system which had been finely tuned over fifty years since the death of Maria Colwell and the Colwell Inquiry..."  (page 290). Nobody who has read the Victoria Climbié Inquiry Report could claim that "finely tuned" was an accurate description for any of the agencies then involved.

As you say, it should be an interesting evening.

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