In this child abuse inquiry, the victims must be heard. But it may be too late

Theresa May’s statement to MPs should have had sound effects. It ought to have been accompanied by the crash and tinkle of breaking glass falling to the floor. For, in an extraordinary piece of theatre, all the more effective for being so unexpected from this least theatrical of ministers, for a moment at least she broke down the barrier between the House of Commons and the real world. It was a moment that will rank with her “nasty party” speech to the 2002 Conservative conference.

For hundreds of years MPs have gone to the chamber of the Commons and argued with one another. They have inhabited a more or less private world quite disconnected from their voters, an elite in a zone apart. Yesterday, when the home secretary abandoned the conventional engagement with MPs and directly addressed the survivors of sexual abuse to apologise for the fiasco her inquiry has become, she tore down an invisible wall.

It was a move that may well have delivered her from the deep hole into which she had been brought by the mismanagement of the inquiry which is still hobbling, leaderless, to the starting gate. It was also a departure from parliamentary convention from which there will be no retreat.

May’s admirers say she has a unique political asset. She genuinely does not mind if people dislike her. It is one reason behind her remarkable success.  (more...)

In this child abuse inquiry, the victims must be heard. But it may be too late

Meanwhile, an occasional lackey gets thrown to the piranhas:

Former South Yorkshire chief constable leaves post at children’s hospital