Anyhoo...I feel that this has to be said and I've bitten my tongue for too long.
When is wilful neglect not considered to be neglect?
This is the question that has been on my mind for more than a week now.
The answer appears to be when the parents involved are middle class “educated” people.
Now to me this stinks of double standards…
Let’s look at the evidence…
A couple on holiday lock their sleeping pre-school children in their home and leave to enjoy a meal in a nearby restaurant.
The eldest of the children is subsequently abducted.
Some would say that is a tragedy….I say it’s a fucking outrage.
That child relied upon those parents to care for it and keep it safe yet the press seems to have overlooked this. Instead they prefer to concentrate on the social status enjoyed by the parents and present a sympathetic front.
Now let’s for a moment pretend that rather than being professional people the parents were in receipt of welfare payments and were visiting a run down resort on a bargain break to enjoy some sun, sea and cheap booze….can you just imagine the outcry that would have caused?
Newspaper editorials would have been baying for blood and demanding that the couples other children immediately be taken in to care, that the mother be sterilised, their welfare payments stopped etc….The couple would have been crucified.
Instead of this justified outrage what do we get???
An endless stream of the great and the good lining up to send some words of sympathy to the parents in front of any TV crew that will stick a camera & a boom mike in their face. And later throwing a wedge of cash into the reward fund which now tops £2.5m.
I would like to make it clear that I truly hope the little girl is found safe and well as in all of this she is the one character who does deserve our sympathy.
This is the question that has been on my mind for more than a week now.
The answer appears to be when the parents involved are middle class “educated” people.
Now to me this stinks of double standards…
Let’s look at the evidence…
A couple on holiday lock their sleeping pre-school children in their home and leave to enjoy a meal in a nearby restaurant.
The eldest of the children is subsequently abducted.
Some would say that is a tragedy….I say it’s a fucking outrage.
That child relied upon those parents to care for it and keep it safe yet the press seems to have overlooked this. Instead they prefer to concentrate on the social status enjoyed by the parents and present a sympathetic front.
Now let’s for a moment pretend that rather than being professional people the parents were in receipt of welfare payments and were visiting a run down resort on a bargain break to enjoy some sun, sea and cheap booze….can you just imagine the outcry that would have caused?
Newspaper editorials would have been baying for blood and demanding that the couples other children immediately be taken in to care, that the mother be sterilised, their welfare payments stopped etc….The couple would have been crucified.
Instead of this justified outrage what do we get???
An endless stream of the great and the good lining up to send some words of sympathy to the parents in front of any TV crew that will stick a camera & a boom mike in their face. And later throwing a wedge of cash into the reward fund which now tops £2.5m.
I would like to make it clear that I truly hope the little girl is found safe and well as in all of this she is the one character who does deserve our sympathy.
As an innocent child it must be truly horrific to be let down so badly by the two people you love and trust most.
