Thursday 22 July 2010

So That ‘Poacher Turned Gamekeeper’ Stuff Is Overrated, Is It?

A row has broken out after the General Medical Council recruited a woman convicted of conspiracy to abduct a child on to an expert group charged with producing child protection guidance for doctors.
Which sounds crazy, right? Another of those mad, ‘progressive’ ideas?

Well, not when you see just who this person is: doughty campaigner against the medical establishment’s stranglehold on the right to act without fear of personal consequences, Penny Mellor, of ‘MAMA’ fame:
Penny Mellor, from Wolverhampton, served eight months of an 18-month jail sentence after being found guilty of a "wicked conspiracy to abduct" a little girl in 1999. She still maintains she was trying to prevent the child from falling into the hands of social services. Mrs Mellor has been involved in more than 50 complaints against professionals working in child protection, accusing numerous doctors and nurses of misconduct.
Note that the ‘Indy’ carefully avoids giving Ms Mellor’s group any publicity whatsoever. No link, not a reference to the fact that she’s doing this on behalf of disadvantaged groups (mothers fighting the medical establishment).

In fact, their description of her makes her sound like a crank.

Quite different to how they habitually describe campaigners against things the ‘Indy’ is not in favour of, in fact…
The GMC was last night under growing criticism from respected paediatricians, just months after winning widespread praise for setting up the group.
‘Respected’ by whom? Dare we suggest, by other paediatricians?
Child protection experts say they are dumbfounded at the decision to appoint Mrs Mellor, who they believe has contributed to an environment of fear among paediatricians, leading many to turn their backs on child protection work.
That ‘fear’ being based purely on the not unreasonable request that they work within strict guidelines and are expected to face consequences when they get it badly wrong because they haven’t followed procedures, or have no evidence for taking the action they wish to take.

How awful that must be!
The GMC refused to explain its decision to The IoS but its chief executive, Niall Dickson, told the BMJ that Mrs Mellor was included in order to give the group credibility and that it was important to hear all perspectives.
It’ll take a hell of a lot more than her appointment to give this group credibility, unless it moves to redress some of the issues that have hit the headlines recently.
Mrs Mellor could not be reached for comment, but in her BMJ letter she said she welcomed the opportunity to sit around the table with the RCPCH president and "get paediatricians to listen to the other side of the story".
I'm sure she’ll talk. I doubt they’ll listen.

But the GMC are to be congratulated for making the effort. The squalling and foot-stamping by the privileged few shows they are on the right track…

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

and a POlice ocifer was not a murdering fuck-wit @ G20, comment pls

Anonymous said...

We are in trouble in terms of our democracy. I believe many working in police and social services are barking mad, and almost all groups seem incapable of any self-criticism these days, thus preventing them even listening to criticism from the outside.
One wonders what this woman's real story is beyond what AP has been able to dig out and why this isn't news?
I've just posted on Thomlinson, but cut short as I realised half a book was about to come out. The excuses used by CPS come from 'The Manual on Fucking-Off the Public' published between the wars.

Woman on a Raft said...

One wonders what this woman's real story is beyond what AP has been able to dig out and why this isn't news?

There will be books written about that within the next ten years. The short answer is: these cases are usually covered by the extreme secrecy of the family courts, which make the terrorist cases look like models of transparency.

The result is that the story, when it leaks out or someone risks telling it, can't be properly examined by comparing the evidence and it keeps getting chopped-up.

Paradoxically, if David Southall hadn't been so keen to get Penny Mellor arrested and imprisoned, she might never have become such a permanent feature of the story. Criminal proceedings are done in public. She became a public point of contact for people who found themselves in similar positions.

The story is not a neat one for journalists; editors panick because the solicitors from local authorities are all over them. Christopher Booker was complaining only this weekend that:

"I have never, in all my years as a journalist, felt so frustrated as I do over two deeply disturbing stories of apparent injustice that cry out to be reported but which, for legal reasons, I can refer to only in the vaguest terms. To cover them as they deserve, and as the victims so desperately wish, would challenge a part of our legal system shrouded in an almost impenetrable veil of secrecy."

Anonymous said...

So in short when faced with a POlice officer who is acting criminally, shoot the fucker or die, yes?

Brian, follower of Deornoth said...

I see. Another gang of Stasi scum are being called to account, and naturally they don't like it.

All public-sector filth are liars and perjurers until proven otherwise.

JuliaM said...

"We are in trouble in terms of our democracy. I believe many working in police and social services are barking mad..."

'Many', not 'a few'? Now that's worrying!

"The excuses used by CPS come from 'The Manual on Fucking-Off the Public' published between the wars."

That's the worrying thing. They seem desperate to avoid bad publicity on almost every other aspect, but this? A two-finger salute to every law-abiding person in the UK.

"The short answer is: these cases are usually covered by the extreme secrecy of the family courts, which make the terrorist cases look like models of transparency."

The family court secrecy rules have been a disgrace to British justice for years.

I thought they were supposed to be easing, in one of Jack Straw's few good moves while in office?

"All public-sector filth are liars and perjurers until proven otherwise."

It's becoming harder and harder not to view that as a default option...