The education secretary,Michael Gove has said he will launch an investigation into a council that removed three children from foster parents due to concerns about their membership of the UK Independence party.
The announcement came as Rotherham metropolitan borough council said it was launching an internal investigating into the decision, following mounting condemnation from political leaders including Gove and Labour leader Ed Miliband
Gove branded the council's actions as "indefensible" and said he would be personally investigating the situation.
The interesting thing about this is that a consistent off the record line by Tories on UKIP is that they are a crypto-racist party: that’s what distinguishes their line on Europe from good old fashioned Tory Euroscepticism. And here’s the PM saying so publicly: the phrase “fruit cakes” also occurs. And maybe some of this is to do with the wider Tory/UKIP dynamic; Gove’s action seems to have forced a partial retraction from Cameron.
It’s pretty clear from the Groan piece that the children were withdrawn from the family following legal advice; about what specifically isn’t said. Given that there were no concerns about the actual level of care being offered it looks like an overreaction. But then the fact that the missus and I can’t foster in the first place because we’re smokers looks like an overreaction too. Frankly I’d rather they were too strict than too lenient. Social services aren’t a branch of kids ‘r us.
UPDATE: come to think of it, I suspect the public response to denying fostering to members of a political party will be similar to that involved in denying it to smokers - mainly indifferent, some feeling that it goes a bit too far and a general sense that you can't be too careful.
What's the usual Telegraph line on UKIP, anyway?
Posted by: Chris Brooke | November 24, 2012 at 07:10 PM
And a tweet from Krishnan Guru-Murthy!
*** Downing Street now say they do NOT retract David Cameron's comments on UKIP.Utter confusion. #c4news on air now ***
https://twitter.com/krishgm/status/272412937799491584
Posted by: Chris Brooke | November 24, 2012 at 07:16 PM
Not kept up regularly. My impression is that it's something like they're a phenomenon that would not occur if the Tories were their old selves.
Posted by: jamie | November 24, 2012 at 08:04 PM
The fact that they're in Rotherham I think has some meaning. In Tory Shire Heartland, being a Kipper is at least a vaguely in-group thing to do; in the Urban North, it's more like being the founder and sole member of the Alabama chapter of the Shiv Sena.
Posted by: john b | November 25, 2012 at 01:26 AM
in the Urban North, it's more like being the founder and sole member of the Alabama chapter of the Shiv Sena.
Not necessarily. The elected mayor of Doncaster is an English Democrat.
Posted by: chris y | November 25, 2012 at 12:51 PM
Yes, and unfortunately 'Yorkshire and the Humber' has a UKIP MEP who is very far right. I think this is the key- if the foster children are of Eastern European descent then it might well be a cause for concern if they are placed under the care of a couple of paid-up xenophobes.
Posted by: Igor Belanov | November 25, 2012 at 06:48 PM
Surely the main point here is any chance to bash social workers and anyone who smacks of the nanny state and their desire to act as thought police. (Not that I think they do, I just thought that was the standard daily mail line)
Posted by: guthrie | November 26, 2012 at 12:07 AM
Well, you certainly managed to guess the Mail's headlines this morning.
Posted by: Martin Wisse | November 26, 2012 at 07:06 AM
And do please note that one of the authors of the Mail's front-page story today is my namesake.
Posted by: Chris Brooke | November 26, 2012 at 05:35 PM