Sunday 1 December 2013

Out Of Control

It's not often I read a story that is so shocking I've had to re-read it a couple of times to ensure I'm not imagining it. But Booker's column in the Telegraph today is one of them where he documents another case of abuse of power by social workers.

He writes of a pregnant Italian mother who is bi-polar. Having flown to England to attend a two-week training course she has a panic attack when she couldn’t find the passports for her two daughters. This ends up with her being sectioned under the Mental Health Act. Five weeks later she is forcibly sedated and has her baby removed by caesarean which is taken into care by social workers.

A High Court judge, Mr Justice Mostyn, had given the social workers permission to arrange for a caesarean. She is not allowed to see her baby daughter; her family weren't consulted nor were Italian social workers. In October, another judge, told her that she would be escorted back to Italy without her baby.

It's a damning indictment of the abuse of people's rights by the judiciary and local authority particularly when it comes to 'family courts'. Autonomous Mind notes:
If this story does not underline the brutal nature of ‘public servants’ and ‘court officers’ whose actions demonstrate they are completely out of control and giving themselves authority that is wholly excessive and unjustified, nothing else will.  It is shocking, disturbing, frightening, and it makes me ashamed of my country and the dictatorship it has become.
This abuse of power must be defeated.  Whatever it takes.
Quite. Just out of interest the Executive Director for Family Operations for Essex County Council is Helen Lincoln who incidentally earns £142,000 - just £500 less than the Prime Minister. Her email address is Helen.lincoln@essex.gov.uk.

15 comments:

  1. TBF, like you I had to read the article again to be sure of what I had read. Words fail me. All I hope is that the Italian Government makes a major issue of this on behalf of this unfortunate woman and her family. From this, I can conclude that according to our public servants, we no longer own our bodies or our children. How have we come be in such a place where one's worst nightmares are now reality? It is way past time when some of these people are severely punished for what they are doing. And to repeat myself, if it was in my power, I would sack all social workers and abolish every public post that contains the word social.

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    1. "How have we come be in such a place where one's worst nightmares are now reality?"

      Exactly, it's the lack of justice being “seen” to be done that's the issue. What starts as good intentions always goes down a more sinister route where there is no scrutiny or proper accountability.

      It's exactly this point that makes the EU so dangerous. Good intentions it had but the lack of accountability is its fundamental flaw.

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    2. It's institutionalising goodness. That makes goodness another box ticking exercise and given a choice between what apparatchiks personally think right and what ticks the boxes and covers their arses, they'll go for the second. In other words a bureaucratic exercise which they can defend as something the bureaucracy required and they were just following orders, but nothing moral or proper about it. We've heard enough about just following orders already.

      In this case there's also a breathtaking arrogance and lack of common sense about it.

      Anyone with any gumption would have realised that this Italian woman was having problems a long way from home and the obvious solution would be to tell Ryanair that the best course was to put her on a plane back to Italy and let the authorities there sort it out, if they felt any intervention was necessary.

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  2. Thank you for that creature's email address.
    Lets all bombard her with our fury and disgust......

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  3. Sent her an email, and I feel so much better venting my fury.

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  4. "Your children" is as much an illusion as democracy, "we need your consent for this procedure" The unsaid bit is "if you don't agree or give it we'll take them off you and do it anyway."
    The problem with the judiciary is they always defer to the "expert" opinion, never considering that the expert involvement is in itself a huge business.
    Life rule 2: Beware expert opinion as the principal beneficiary is often the expert. Evaluate and consider, even get outside expert opinion, also to be evaluated. The problem is in cases like this they are all programmed with the same software.

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    1. The programming is called Common Purpose, I would bet my life the Ex of Essex CC Family Ops is a CP graduate.

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  5. Do we know what has happened to the 'two daughters' given that the baby was taken away - her being deemed unfit.

    This truly is the most bizarre and scary of stories; barely comprehensible that humans could be so cruel to other humans. Was the Italian - not even a native - threatened such that she reacted in a way that any mother to be would,so prompting an escalation by the SS?

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  6. I have done as you suggest and sent this email:-Dear Madam

    I have read some disturbing news in the Telegraph newspaper and on the internet about the treatment received at the hands of Essex social services and the court of protection. Knowing the UK is famous and is thought of as a beacon for it's respect for the rights of the individual and for the protection of the individual through the fair practice of the law I cannot believe what I have read to be true. It has to be that what is being printed is only part of the story and there is another side to it that if known would show that the lady in question has been treated fairly, compassionately, with common sense and competently. No doubt you and others involved in what on the face of it looks like an appalling case of mistreatment of a pregnant lady and her baby will set the record straight and no blame will be attached to anyone and therefore no consequences for badly considered actions will be needed.


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  7. I should be very careful with your emails, especially to any social service defartment.
    After a similar "brush" with educational welfare, I received endless interviews and visits, along with barely concealed threats.
    What are the bets that the child is placed with a same-sex relationship couple?

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  8. I wonder if you asked Ms Lincoln where she stands on abortion she would say that she supports a woman's rights over her own body...

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    1. She'd duck out of that easy enough by saying that the process which had been constructed in the light of feminism and the rights of the unborn child, had been followed.

      Whether the process was actually doing these things and had any corrective mechanism if it wasn't, is a question she'd duck by saying it was outside her pay grade.

      I doubt Ms. Lincoln is much more than a Common Purpose clone who can be expected to stick to the script.

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  9. Look at the face. Someone HAS to have smacked that in the past:

    http://www.essex.gov.uk/Your-Council/Local-Government-Essex/ECC-Structure/Senior-Officers/Pages/Helen-Lincoln.aspx

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  10. http://www.forced-adoption.com/social-workers.asp

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