Public opinion is overwhelmingly negative and critical towards the systemic handling of grooming gangs in the UK. People express outrage, frustration, and disillusionment with the perceived inaction, negligence, and potential cover-ups by the authorities, including the government, police, and social services. There is significant distrust towards political figures, with notable mention of politicians like Kier Starmer, and skepticism towards media reporting. The involvement of cultural and racial dynamics further complicates the discourse, highlighting fears of political correctness obstructing justice. Many commenters appreciate international voices and individuals like Elon Musk, Tommy Robinson, and journalists for raising awareness. The collective sentiment demands accountability, comprehensive investigations, and urgent reforms to protect vulnerable populations and rectify perceived historic injustices.

UK Government

Police

Social Services

Media

Tommy Robinson

Elon Musk

[LabUK is also on Discord, come say hello!](https://discord.gg/ZXZCdy4Kz4)


*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LabourUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*

AutoModerator

It's a historic issue at this point, only unearthed by bad-faith, right-wing hacks. As far as I'm aware there is no ongoing situation.

keravim

no offence OP but this is actually a pretty good example of one of the many reasons why we're collectively fucked as a movement


your approach to any issue must NEVER be "let's go consult The Online Left so that I know how to feel about this, because I want to avoid (insert undesirable conclusion here)", that is literally how groupthink rot takes hold and its a big part of why so many online leftists are easily duped into supporting antisemitic/anti-lgbt left populist fringe shit, as they've always shied away from truly interrogating their own biases and ethical system


tl;dr if you don't know how to feel about something you need to educate *yourself* about it, if you're relying on a "how do 'we' feel about this" party line you're not meaningfully left-wing, you're just wearing a badge 

cucklord40k

I was a teacher. I’ve worked with children involved. I think the findings of the original inquiry need to be acted on and should have been long ago. The way that police treat the girls was not right and we all have biases and many people (myself included) are still not taken seriously when it comes to accusations. 

However, I don’t see what good can come of raking it up other than causing more trauma to victims and less justice seen as criminal cases are unable to proceed. I don’t understand the view point of those who support certain people who would claim to seek justice but it in fact cause more issues by risking cases being dismissed because they themselves break the law. My family is from Huddersfield (if you know you know). I was a friend with someone who turned out to be that way inclined and was caught by hunters posing as children online. The whole case was thrown out because they pretended to be police officers and rang his work place. 

There is not the law in place to enforce reporting and to aid those trying to support children. I know of people who have children on there books who are regularly found cities away drunk in hotel rooms but when the girls are then uncooperative (for whatever reason, they’re children who are being abused, services do understand that) there is literally nothing they can do except have meetings to discuss what’s happened and potentially use something the girls have done (assault a police officer etc.) to try and keep them away from their abusers for a while since they know the police are sniffing around. 

It’s a touch situation all round. But as someone who has worked with these children and someone who is a survivor themselves, having people faux outraged for their agendas isn’t doing anyone any good. 

Life_Sign342

Tbh this is not the place to come for opinions from "the left". Not even regular users of this sub are all left wing, and the way reddit works means very random people will be shown this post on their feed. 

Plenty of people on the left of politics have spoken and written very extensively about these things. Maybe I'll come back after work and link some better sources but off the top of my head PoliticsJoe have done two videos recently, one about the grooming gangs just in general then a reaction video to the debate about grooming gangs in parliament. Politicsjoe is a centre-left leaning podcast with varying amounts of seriousness. But you can frequently find their contributors invited onto mainstream news channels and the like.

Sophie_Blitz_123

Like it's being exploited, made something it's not, and being used as a weapon, it's pretty sick what's being done, and even dafter people fall for it

How many shows have this EXACT same storyline, the brave plucky hero beset by the rich powerful villain in a smear campaign  
  
Just goes to show you, people will believe what they want. or fear, to be true and just how easy people are led  
  
....and I say this as someone who despises New Labour and the Tory in a red tie leading them

Charming_Figure_9053

You'll get criticsed for the way you've phrased that but sounds like you're asking what is the non-racist/islamophobic take in contrast to the racist/islamophobic takes you've heard?

Basically a good rule of thumb is if people are talking about safeguarding failures and how to improve them they are probably more or less reasonable on the issue and are just focussed on actual ways to protect people which is a valid response. If anyone starts making it a "culture" issue and is overly focussed on criticising Muslims as a whole and/or witch-hunting people as if there was a national conspiracy to let child abuse happen they are turning it into an Islamophobic/far-right thing. 

What gets focussed on, even by the good faith people, is influenced by the media and political campaigns and so-on. The far-right are much more focussed on crimes commited by people of the demographics they hate than they are on the crime in general, this sometimes means the good faith people end up talking about those crimes more because of the influence the far-right has on the discussion. 

You might find this interesting from 2020 

&gt;This week marks a watershed moment in a decade of discussion of “grooming gangs”: a much-anticipated Home Office report has concluded that there is no credible evidence that any one ethnic group is over-represented in cases of child sexual exploitation.

&gt;For many in Britain today the term “grooming gang” immediately suggests Pakistani-heritage Muslim men abusing white girls, but the Home Office researchers now tell us that “research has found that group-based offenders are most commonly White”.

...

&gt;In her foreword, the home secretary Priti Patel called the findings “disappointing because community and cultural factors are clearly relevant to understanding and tackling offending” and implied that, with better data collection “including in relation to … ethnicity”, the findings would have been different. This looks like a last-ditch attempt to keep a politically useful trope alive. Concerns with “cultural factors” seemingly do not extend to understanding what motivates white British abusers.

&gt;In this sense, the exercise seems more political than scientific. The literature review that accompanied the main report was actually far more rigorous and nuanced. It clearly identified biases in datasets, definitional problems and other limitations that mean definitive answers to most of the questions posed are simply not possible. In other words, the “right” data are unlikely ever to exist.

&gt;It is time to call off the witch-hunt. We need finally to accept what credible research has been telling us for years: that child sexual abuse is not a “Muslim problem” but is endemic to virtually all communities. Look at the numbers: the sheer scale makes the ubiquity of abuse inevitable. An estimated one in 13 adults in England has been sexually abused as children. In 2019/20, police across the UK recorded more than 73,518 sexual offences against children, and the Home Office review itself reminds us that only around one in 10 victims actually disclose child sexual abuse to an official at the time.

...

&gt;If we really want to tackle this issue, we have to stop fixating on the lurid and false distraction of “Muslim grooming gangs”. We need to address the woeful under-funding of the relevant community, healthcare and violence-against-women services, and we need to address repeated systemic failings that are being neglected. There must be a genuine political commitment to tackle all forms of sexual abuse, and one that prioritises investment in services and communities

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2020/dec/analysis-new-home-office-report-admits-grooming-gangs-are-not-muslim-problem

MMSTINGRAY

Has anyone on here listened to Raja Miah and Maggie Oliver?

Wooden-Evidence686

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6egrJ5Vi0o4


Worth a watch he's Bangladeshi Muslim guy

cameraman12345

Does anyone know of any networks where local men form to take an organised stand against Pakistani paedophiles? It’s still happening today &amp; unless they’re met with force they won’t stop abusing vulnerable, white girls.

Party-Sandwich4072

What bothered me is that there were inquiries which were completely ignored by the then Tory government, and the minister for women and equalities (their current leader) 

Very late in the day as our current government tried to finalise action that could be taken to make people safer, based on the recommendations from those inquiries, those on the right tried to block it. Not because they cared about the victims but because they set to gain politically from it.

Right now I feel like the centre and left are quiet as they just want things to get done, so don’t spread information (whether it is true or not) that causes more division.

Division is not the answer to improving the state of things in the UK we need unity regardless of social grouping

Capable_Change_6159

[deleted]

###[Meta] Sticky Comment

[Rule 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/wiki/faq#wiki_2_-_address_the_argument.3B_not_the_user.2C_the_mods.2C_or_the_sub.) ***does not apply*** when replying to this stickied comment.  

[Rule 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/wiki/faq#wiki_2_-_address_the_argument.3B_not_the_user.2C_the_mods.2C_or_the_sub.) ***does apply*** throughout the rest of this thread.

*What this means*: Please keep any "meta" discussion directed at specific users, mods, or /r/conspiracy in general in this comment chain ***only.***

*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/conspiracy) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Ten years working in a childrens homes; 

grooming gangs are very much real  and child exploitation is something we deal with on a regular basis, have been involved in a few criminal investigations. Gangs seemed to deliberately target children in units due to vulnerability.

Was on child sexual exploitation training recently and the new manager was outraged when topic of Rochdale got brought up and she dismissed the ethnicity of the perpetrators as irrelevant. It is a controversial subject that people in my industry are afraid to talk about due to feeling they would be misconstrued as racist

con__y_88

1. Yes.
2. Yes. I went to school with several girls who were abused by these gangs. One came to school visibly beaten and very intoxicated (she was talking to her school book, slurring her speech and could barely walk). The school were going to ring her parents and refer social services until they reviewed CCTV and saw her being dropped off to school by Muslim men in a black BMW (The licence plate of the BMW was tracked to someone that frequently visited the towns Mosque). She was 12 when it happened and she dropped out of school before she hit 16 (the age we leave secondary school here and either go to collect or enter work). Police called her a prostitute, a whore ect ect and didn't want to investigate. 
3. Plenty of stories. A town I grew up in had (and still has) one of these gangs which preyed on girls AND boys. Takeaway shops (which often have sleeping areas above if they are two floor) used to pimp these girls out. A number were found handcuffed to radiators during drug raids. Said girls got "freed" only to be back there again by the time of the next raid. This is because these men would get them addicted to opiods and other drugs they would have no access to, aswell as intoxicated and threatened. Local police were aware of them but did nothing because they were getting paid a fat stack of cash and didn't want to appear "racist" (their words). Said town also has a taxi service ran by a man who was claiming unemployment for several years (while he had 250 drivers on those books). 20 or so of his drivers were registered sex offenders from Pakistan and as soon as Friday and Saturday night hit (very busy times for taxi work, you get a lot of fares) they were cruising down to the clubs and bars and taking advantage of lone women. There were two accounts of girls being raped on the "school run" (driving pupils to and from school early morning or afternoon) which lead to CCTV being installed in vehicles, but drivers would just break them on purpose after one of them got caught playing with himself outside of a school zone and the CCTV was used against him in court. Said company changed it's name  many many times over the years because it earnt the nickname of "Dial-a-rape". 

There is, without a doubt, a gang or two in EVERY major town in the UK. It's systematic and the police are very aware of it.

IndividualCurious322

I think the more important question is why ?

And while there might be exceptions to the rule like yourself.. it boils down to religion and culture.

And those of us who went down to protest against it were met with people throwing oranges with razor blades in them at us.

So yeah, the subject is controversial because no one wants to point out the obvious truth of who they are, where they come from,  or what their beliefs are..

Kumarbi_Has_Risen_23

People of the uk need to revoult against their government.

RefrigeratorLazy4135

Fun Fact: It was that dickface Keir Starmer as ~~Attorney General~~ Director of Public Prosecutions who told the cops to stand down because waysisums are apparently more important than sex trafficked kids

Edited: Got rightfully corrected

JoeHexotic

Gangs almost certainly still exist but the numbers are dwarfed by the number of individuals or smaller groups who continue prey on children.

I personally don't know anyone targeted by a gang but know plenty who were victims or potentially victims of lone perverts/groomers.

There is a much larger underlying global problem.

MaximumGibbous

Here is an older article (2014)  about this topic and while i am not sure how it is now i do know it was a serious problem then:

https://web.archive.org/web/20160730160001/https://www.west-info.e%75/why-grooming-is-a-muslim-issue/easy-meat-multiculturalism-islam-and-child-sex-slavery-05-03-2014-2/

ZeerVreemd

The opening poster Pvt\_Conscriptovich was brave enough to identify the perpetrators and yet no-one seems to be addressing it. 

If a government gave two hoots about this problem, they could restrict immigration from a very small part of Pakistan. It cannot therefore be about religion as that spans the globe from Indonesia to Trinidad.

I do wonder if the British government carries some sort of guilt for flooding Mirpuri for a large reservoir rendering hundreds of thousands homeless in the 1950s or 1960s. I’m unsure if there were subsidies or tax incentives for the contractor concerned, or if the project was commenced before Independence.

WilliumCobblers

Yes, still around, still active, still being ignored in all parts of society. IMO people claiming they can’t investigate because they don’t want to be accused of racism is just a cop out. They can’t investigate because they don’t want to. It’s as simple as that. Maybe it’s a manpower thing, the problem is so rife throughout all cultures &amp; areas that they don’t have enough resources to investigate. And who is responsible for providing these resources? The government. Who has been cutting these resources every chance they get? The government. Ever wonder who they’re cutting resources? They want us to live in a state of fear. I think everybody knows by now that these gangs are active EVERYWHERE, including within Elite circles.

Ok-Noise2538

There are some people who are only appalled because they are from a non-white heritage - supports their views of “deport them all”.

Where is the outrage for the trafficking horrors occurring in the U.K. ? The sex rings involving top officials, including royals?

A child rapist is a child rapist - there is no colour to it.

PushDiscombobulated8

Nurse-Cat-356

Yet you still have the Americans judging europe for their views on immigration while they don't bother to learn the facts of the matter.

teen girls have always jumped in cars with boys, i knew loads of people in bands, let's just say i heard all sorts, not condoning it but it is selective outrage for hate purposes.

Dirk_Ovalode

The rape of Britain , 

http://rumble.com/vtkuam-the-rap

waggelite

Think this is common all over, but different brands and different ways to hide.

horsetooth_mcgee

There is a ton of information about this on the web so your question seems a bit suspicious.
And yes there is also information that it is still going on and is also common in other countries and widespread.
The numbers are probably much higher then we know, the girls in the Uk was kept quiet as an example by being first gangraped and then covered with gasoline and threatened to be killed, after that they were driven half naked out in the woods (mores) 
To just walk back and forced to do it again again…
Witnessed by a farmer who reported they refused help and that it was something common he had seen happening.
But google it with a warning… it’s a extremely dark rabbit hole

Various-Account-9346

Please use [Good Faith](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskConservatives/comments/107i33m/announcement_rule_7_good_faith_is_now_in_effect) and the [Principle of Charity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_charity) when commenting. Gender issues are only allowed on Wednesdays. Antisemitism and calls for violence will not be tolerated, especially when [discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskConservatives/comments/17ygktl/antisemitism_askconservative_and_you/).


*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskConservatives) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Here’s a link that actually works:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/grooming-gangs-scandal-covered-060000347.html

The bottom line in this is that police and government officials allowed gangs of Pakistani men to have their way with young white girls.

Why would they do this?  Because calling the gangs out and arresting them would be seen as “racist.”  I shit you not…  They allowed this to happen because they didn’t want to offend the groomers.

The worst part of this whole story, is the fact that when fathers were able to track down their daughters and try to get them back, the police arrested those father’s for it.

SurviveDaddy

Honestly, my first thought is that I never want to hear a Brit make a crack about school shootings ever again.

I think many of Britain's institutions are so fundamentally cowardly that they just lied for decades because they couldn't face something so humiliating and horrifying.  From the top, they were afraid of being seen as racist or that telling the truth might cause civil unrest that they were constitutionally unprepared to handle.  From the bottom - and I'm basing this on accounts I've read from victims themselves - there actually was some pretty gross misconduct and bigotry.  Police at the lowest levels not taking complaints seriously or even being subverted/corrupted by the gangs themselves.  I read more than one account of local cops dismissing victims as "Paki shaggers."

And there's something uniquely sordid about how they apparently refused to deal with it specifically because it so closely resembled a right wing horror story.  They just desperately wanted it not to be true and tried to just...make it not real.

&gt;This has received significant backlash from the media and government, essentially saying to Elon Musk, you're not British, it's not your issue, highlighting these issues is election meddling.

Would that the British were so retiring and demure when discussing our politics.  Yeah no.  Elon Musk, right or wrong, can say what he likes.  Britain may have surrendered free speech on its own soil but their writ means nothing here and he can berate them as much as he likes.

And if their electorate rips their hearts out, it's not Elon Musk's fault.

&gt;Do you think this scandal is big enough to ensure Labour won't win the next election?

Not a fuckin clue.

Grunt08

If you want a first hand source, one of the victims did an [in-depth interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etpAtC2S0uQ) a few years ago. I've only watched bits of it so far but it's horrific how badly she was treated by the authorities and all in the name of not risking to offend or create bad impressions of a racial group.

I still believe that equality is the best way forward for a multi-cultural society but that only works if everyone is treated equally under the law since special treatment breeds resentment between groups and just leads to racial strife.

greenbud420

Watching this from the US over the last, literally, 15 years or so has been by turns maddening, bewildering, frustrating, and almost comical in a tragic way. 

The way UK, and W Europe at large, has given its beautiful cultures away to millions of migrants who despise Western culture, share nearly none of its core values, refuse to assimilate, and spit in its face, all while mooching off welfare meant to support tax paying natives, is just so utterly demoralizing to watch.

I've kept thinking over the years that at some point they'd finally wake up. But no, they've just let it go on and on and get worse and worse. I think some of those countries are lost at this point and will be outpopulated and outvoted in the future by people who do NOT share Europe's Enlightenment ideals. Very, very sad.

And before someone chimes in about how this is "racism," no, it's about culture, not color. It's about social mores and values and behaviors. People with theocratic Islamic beliefs are not compatible with liberal western values. 

  
As for Elon calling it out, I don't know, I haven't been following. But if he is doing so, then good. It needs way more attention.

onemanmelee

Import the third world and this is what happens. 

Pay attention liberals. This is what us conservatives are saving you from because you don't seem to understand these matters until it's too late. Easy to virtue signal until you're hit with the consequences.

Aggressive_Cod_9799

I game with quite a few people from the UK - mostly Labour types - and they’re convinced it’s all being blown out of proportion.

I think it’s a fairly serious issue that’s been brewing for years. 

I think that accusing someone who is circulating their opinion of “election interference” is preposterous but not unexpected.

willfiredog

That FOIA response (from the Gwent police department) describes the information being requested, and states that the the agency is required first to confirm or deny whether the information described in the request is held and second, if the information is confirmed as held, to disclose the information. 

The agency’s final response, on the second page, says: “Gwent Police can confirm that no information is held.” So it sounds like they have no record of such a Home Office memo.

PubliusVA

Your government failed the British people. The government is flagelating itself so hard that it won't do anything about those causing harm all around them.

Intelligent_Funny699

Sam_Fear

I first heard about this year's ago, but not much. It's tragic that it's continued, and disgusting that the government has been working to ignore it, or even protect the criminals.

soulwind42

&gt;I'm not sure if this makes US headlines

No headlines, our media is controlled by the same blobsters in charge of UK headlines, but lots of social media for years.

I've spoken to UK leftists here about this, and they're super worried about racism this gang-raping might precipitate. It's the [Norm McDonald joke](https://x.com/IamSean90/status/1874572690478215413) in real life.

kapuchinski

Infuriating but not surprisingly. I heard about the situation a decade ago and progressives said it was a far right conspiracy theory.

blaze92x45

I worry, and hope I'm wrong, but there's a continuing trend to allow crimes to happen so you don't look racist.   

BART (subway) used to use CCTV footage to help identify criminals, but stopped because it enforced stereo types...    

If it's true that the cops left a 12 year old girl with 5 men from Pakistan (arrested HER for drunk/disorderly), because the sex was consensual..  I mean, where do you even go from there?

bardwick

I don't consider the UK government legitimate at this point. The UK is a dead nation, with carrion crows feasting on its innards. I do not want the US to suffer the same fate.

biggybenis

Well, a lot of us social conservatives were worried that the loosey-goosey, hedonistic, shifting-definitions type of rhetoric around sexual behaviour &amp; associated cultural norms/morals would eventually end up with things like this, and here we are. 

It's messed up that that happened, but I can't really say I'm surprised, unfortunately.

CuriousLands

I’ve been aware of it for years having followed Tommy Robinson for the better part of a decade and the craziest part to me is that it took Elon Musk schizoposting a decade later to bring to light the utter atrocities that institutional wokeness can bring. They’re literally more afraid of offending people than they are of child rape. This is what happens when you have too much empathy, it isn’t a virtue and the grooming gangs are a case study of why I’m terrified of wokeness as a cultural and political force.

back_in_blyat

This was my father's belief  
And this is also mine:  
Let the corn be all one sheaf—  
And the grapes be all one vine,  
Ere our children's teeth are set on edge  
By bitter bread and wine.

Inumnient

Nothing about the UK makes sense to me.

I struggle to understand why any country has a King in 2025.

I have watched documentaries about Churchill. He makes sense.

The current acceptance of so many criminals into society is strange.

Biden and Kamala Harris tried the same, and the US quickly kicked them to the curb.

I do not seeing the Democrat party recovering from this for a long while.

However in the UK, this persists.

It’s very odd.

SnooFloofs1778

[https://x.com/sammywoodhouse1/status/1875542164442091893](https://x.com/sammywoodhouse1/status/1875542164442091893) this gives you an idea of the issue. Now repeat this across 250,000 girls and then realise that Starmer was head of the CPS when lots of these cases were being decided upon.

The Rotherham case you linked to is just one of many here is an image to give you an idea of just how many are involved [https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1874662563796967475](https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1874662563796967475)

SamRMorris

There are no such gangs. Diverse persons do not do such things. Only white men do such things. /s

SeaPage6528

What is ‘going on’ I would say is the following:

- Many years ago (last case broke/was prosecuted in 2011 I believe), there was a scandal where cases of Muslim (and possibly other minority) gangs who groomed young girls weren’t investigated properly by the police/Crown Prosecution Service at first, at least partly out of fears of being racist.

- There were investigations into some of these and actions were taken to address the issues, and the gangs identified were prosecuted. The Conservative government at the time the scandal broke, nor now the Labour government (so far) saw a need for any kind of national-level inquiry.

- Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson, is a right-wing activist who was a central member to the English Defence League, has demanded for years for…well, many things. One of the more reasonable ones though is a national enquiry into the above ‘issue’ (if such an ongoing issue exists). He is currently in jail for contempt of court after repeating falsehoods (which the court found to be libellous) on Twitter/X about some of the defendants in one of the cases, which he very nearly collapsed.

- Nigel Farage, a politician previously known for being one of the leading figures behind Brexit, is currently amassing significant political momentum as both the current Labour government and previous Conservative government are/were very unpopular.

- Elon Musk has recently developed close ties with Mr Farage, and it seems will back him financially in the next election. Musk has decided to launch into a campaign calling for a national enquiry, and also demanding for the release of Mr Yaxley-Lennon.

My read on the situation is that the only thing ‘going on’ is the political opportunism by Musk. His calls for Yaxley-Lennon to be released are frankly ridiculous, and show what a naive understanding he has of our legal system (we are quite different the US). Farage, FWIW, has largely distanced himself from Yaxley-Lennon so far. A big part of his political strategy though is certainly immigration, so the two are closely aligned on a number of issues.

SynUK

There have been no political dog whistles about the issue of these gangs, more accurately referred to as sexual torture and rape gangs than grooming gangs. Anyone arguing that they are a dog whistle is not doing so in good faith nor from an informed position.

The details that have recently come to light are so terrible that the Jay Report on what happened in Rotherham has been regarded as inadequate to address the national picture. This is something that has happened in many cities and towns across the UK with significant Pakistani populations and looking only at local occurrences without investigating the bigger-picture will necessarily not fully address this.

Starmer's decision not to enact a national review leaves the matter with individual local authorities who are only able to investigate what has happened in their own jurisdiction with no joined-up function to consider why this has happened elsewhere, and how to prevent it happening again. Without a national investigation that can compare contrast, identify commonalities, etc. many aspects of this issue will remain unaddressed.

DevilishRogue

Look up Jimmy Savile. A popular radio DJ. Abused his influence to touch children. Look at how deep it all goes, the BBC, the police, the social services, hospital nurses and staff all knew. Very close ties with the royal family. 

Society failed these young girls back then, and now again with this more recent situation of grooming gangs.

Apprehensive-Win6244

British police and authorities at every level of government sacrificed white children to the rape gangs in order to not be thought of as racist. And they prevented news because it might make people think racist things. 

They have been putting people in prison who criticized the rapists, even by liking or reposting someone who did. 

This will be remembered as harshly as witch burnings and the worst war crimes of last century.

Brennelement

When I hear the term "grooming gangs," I picture bands of hooligans giving forced haircuts and makeovers to dirty street people. Chasing down hobos and scrubbing them down involuntarily.

No-Lavishness2019

They are actually violent child raping gangs, but the media chooses to call them grooming gangs.  The media also generally hides the fact that many of the child victims were urinated upon.

RonNumber

lollulomegaz

These cultures have been doing this stuff for thousands of years. It would horrify you if you knew what went on in Africa and southwest Asia. Child brides are very much a thing still in this world.

randompossum

White British woman from London reporting here. Grew up in the 90s and 2000s and saw a lot of this stuff first hand. The central issue as I see this is an issue of framing: where you hear grooming gangs this is a reference to a particular scandal involving Asian gangs using their taxi and takeaways to lure in schoolgirls to rape, traffic and drug them. 

Police were slow to act for MULTIPLE reasons. ONE reason was fear of being labelled racist for targeting Asian grooming gangs. Pervasive slut shaming led to children being blamed for “wanting it” by accepting the bait. Classism meant that girls from deprived communities/the foster system were deemed to be “trouble” and “not worth saving”. Finally the legal and policing systems are and always have been VERY BAD at handling sexual abuse of any description. 

Most of the right wing noise focuses ONLY on that first element to the exclusion of the rest to fuel their anti-immigrant sentiments. They ignore the fact that there are many other factors that I would argue have far more causal weight attached to them than the race of the perpetrators. 

Crucially grooming gangs using these tactics are all over the country, and most of them are white. Most of them are also not caught and punished. The racial and religious element that has come to define this issue not only pushes far more substantial issues (victim blaming, slut shaming, classism, widespread institutional failure) into the background but also distracts from the fact that most grooming gangs are compromised of white men. It conceals the fact that this, at base, is an issue of men preying on children. Not Muslims.

AGJB93

The UK is being destroyed from the inside out. It’s awful. May they burn for their treason. Cowards and sellouts.

OwlRevolutionary1776

Don't worry about who is hated it who is loved. And don't fall for fear tactics. That's what they want you to do! They want you to be scared. Be brave. That's my recommendation. It's what I do.

Sitcom_kid

&gt;Nonetheless, I see Starmer is pretty universally hated by the media as an outsider looking in

That speaks to the inclination of the UK mass media that you're consuming, by chance or by choice.

A party whose leader is 'universally hated' does not win 412 of 650 seats total in the UK House of Commons.

[https://www.bbc.com/news/election/2024/uk/results](https://www.bbc.com/news/election/2024/uk/results)

[https://www.statista.com/statistics/1441451/uk-projected-election-results](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1441451/uk-projected-election-results)

&gt;The Conservative party suffered a landslide defeat in the 2024 General Election, with the center-left Labour Party winning 412 seats, and the Conservatives just 121 seats. With 326 seats needed for a majority government, this was a crushing defeat for the Conservative Party, and the end of their 14 years in power.

To misquote John Maynard Keynes: “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”

DamTheTorpedoes1864

The crimes are real, but they are also being used as a political dog whistle, blending a genuine crisis with agenda-driven narratives.  The narrative focuses on linking grooming gangs primarily to specific ethnic/religious groups, Muslim men.  It seems like a tactic which frames the real issue by stoking fears about immigration, multiculturalism and social integration.  Emphasizing ethnicity over systematic failures shifts the attention away from the broader issues like law enforcement lapses, societal neglect and polarizes public opinion to advance political agendas.  My two cents.

kerlious

Starmer is universally hated?

Maybe if you get all your information from the daily mail.

This is some Nigel Farage/Elon Musk BS.

KnotSoSalty

kearney84

The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written.

\^ 

*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskALiberal) if you have any questions or concerns.*

I think that it’s very interesting that a story from 2014 has suddenly become relevant. It wasn’t that relevant when the conservatives were in charge of the government and it wasn’t needed as part of a tool to keep hyping up anti-immigrant sentiment.

Now that Labour is in power and Elon Musk would prefer Nigel Farage’s party minus Farage because he’s not enough of an asshole for Elon, suddenly it is relevant again.

I know it might shock people who are the targets of this story being brought back, but it is in fact the case that white people born in majority white nations do actually commit crimes.

ButGravityAlwaysWins

&gt;What do you think about the whole "grooming gang" situation in the UK?

It is terrible! The UK should be looking for every possible opportunity to prevent it from recurring, including preventing the apathy of local law enforcement.

It is also being cynically dredged-up by bigots and xenophobes because they believe it suits their political goals. That is *also* true, but it doesn't take away from the seriousness of the problem.

Side Note: I've noticed that the loudest voices about this issue don't seem to have a coherent proposal about what to do about it.

othelloinc

GlitteringGlittery

It’s not a manufactured story, but it is being presented dishonestly. Musk either has barely looked into this at all or is intentionally misinforming; he is acting like there has been no inquiry and Labour are obstructing one from happening. He lambasted in particular Labour MP Jess Phillips, the Undersecretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, for saying a local rather than national inquiry was needed. 

In reality, there have already been several local inquiries (for the different areas this occurred in) *and* a national inquiry. The issue is not that the cases have been hushed up; the issue is that the recommendations that came from the inquiries have not been sufficiently implemented.

In my view, much the same way many approached this issue when the story first broke about 10 years ago, Musk would not be talking about this if he couldn’t use it to legitimise one of his own focal points and that of his base: men he classes as foreign in some way endangering people from and in white western culture. He is not interested in any other result or proposal beyond “foreigners should not be in the country (unless I personally can benefit sufficiently from their labour)”. It’s a particularly convenient weapon for him as it’s very easy to push liberals into a position where they can be accused of “downplaying/denying the abuse by Pakistani men of white children”.

Musk also wants the political landscape and leadership in the UK to reflect his values and needs. He sees the Reform Party as the best route forward, and is reviving a news cycle/debate that bolsters support for them.

queryasker123

Obviously real in 2013. It's just getting drug again so people can feel good about being racist.

AshuraBaron

That this type of thing has been occurring for generations upon generations with men from all ethnic backgrounds and racial profiles in many different organized power structures (gangs, churches, etc.) exploiting unwanted children of all genders and ages for sexual gratification. It's disgusting and awful, but not new. It's also not new for men in power, like Elon, to use the natural disgust and outrage to stir up racial resentment and chaos for their own political and power benefit. Side note: Don't be surprised if some day we find out Elon and all his current buddies were also involved in some type of similar ring of powerful men exploiting weaker children and girls. It needs to be acknowledged and addressed in every instance. But, don't fool yourself into thinking only "other" people participate in this kind of thing.

Independent-Stay-593

I have no idea what you’re talking about.

hitman2218

Manufactured. 

The Tories are making a big stink about it but none of the MPs who were ministers at the time mentioned it once in parliament during their entire administration. 

An enquiry that lasted 7 years and cost £200 million reported back with recommendations that were completely ignored by the Tory government. 

This entire scandal is being politicised in an attempted to make the Prime Minster look bad. Which makes no sense because the now PM used to be the British version of the Attorney General and was literally the reason  many of the abusers were jailed. 

What’s more pernicious is that this entire debate is only happening cos Musk tweeted about it.

2localboi

Police and voters and politicians don't actually care what happens to poor people. The main reason nothing was done is that the victims were viewed as addicts and prostitutes who got what was coming to them. Once they decided that the victims didn't matter, whatever excuses they could think of to do nothing would suffice.

The fact that kids aren't adequately served by the organizations meant to help them is the real issue. Prisoners, parolees, homeless people, and others find themselves out of options too, and the only people offering support at the end of the line are traffickers.

Anti-trafficking organizations have been studying and monitoring this issue for decades. They tried to explain this during the wave of QAnon accusations. It's not getting through, because again, people do not care what happens to "them". 

Keep a close eye on how much is done in the UK about that versus how much is done about immigration.

saikron

I think Musk and other fascistic types are pushing a narrative here that goes beyond the facts to push specific anti immigration narratives.

there is a legitimate scandal with a high number of poorly handled abuse cases...but its already been looked in to, no evidence of a cover up was found, and other recent studies have found that overall there is no significant difference in SE asians being disproportionately likely to be sex offenders

elljawa

Leucippus1

That sounds bad, but idk anything about it.

jagProtarNejEnglska

Isn't this currently under discussion in the bi-weekly thread? 

[https://www.reddit.com/r/AskALiberal/comments/1hvs1rj/comment/m642cmh/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskALiberal/comments/1hvs1rj/comment/m642cmh/)

MaggieMae68

It is absolutely real, no doubt about that. 

But the current focus is 100% manufactured. The Tories have continuesly, and actively, denied taking any responsibility for the issues whilst it was on their desk, yet suddenly care deeply now that labour runs the government. Typical. 

And of course foreign actors are dredging up the issue, only caring now that labour has won.

DoomSnail31

that its mostly made up BS that UK conservatives dont actually care about. or else why wouldnt they have done something while in power?

and why would they kill off a bill that does?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4qdc9M0a6k

SlitScan

Just like everything else Elon is on about, it's a disproven conspiracy theory that was popular with rightwing dipshit grifters five years ago.

jonny_sidebar

FirmLifeguard5906

I think it’s a systemic problem. If they properly funded and staffed trade schools, people could go learn to be stylists and beauticians the right way &amp; wouldn’t need to join gangs to get into grooming.

HarrySatchel

Jswazy

The UK faces continuous challenges with grooming gangs involving predominantly British Asian men, with systemic failures in child protection highlighted.

Grooming Gangs in the UK

Why This Matters

Public Sentiment Summary

Highlighted Comments

Parties Involved

What the people want