Labour government’s pathetic response to grooming gangs stinks of a cover-up

THIS Labour government never looked more pathetically gutless than in its response to the grooming gangs.

The systematic and nationwide sexual exploitation of vulnerable young white girls by is the greatest scandal of our time.

And doesn’t want to know. In January, the Government announced a £5million fund for five local .

That was an obscenely inadequate response to mass child sex abuse.

These atrocities played out in scores of cities and towns for decades.

that failed vulnerable children can’t be allowed to investigate their own failures.

Now, that already derisory response has been .

Forty-five minutes before the broke for the Easter holidays, of the told an almost empty chamber that the Government would now be taking a .

At the discretion of the councils involved, that £5million fund can now be spent on other projects.

This is more than political cowardice. It stinks of a cover-up. The scandal of the grooming gangs screams out for a statutory inquiry where witnesses are made to give evidence.

This is exactly what we had with the inquiry, the and the . A formal investigation, conducted within a legal framework.

Anything less is a cop-out. Anything less is running from the ugly truth.

“The truth?”; Jack Nicholson’s crusty old warrior shouts at Tom Cruise’s slick young lawyer in A Few Good Men. “You can’t handle the truth!”;

When it comes to the grooming gangs, Labour can’t handle the truth.

And yes, we can all understand that this is politically tricky for Labour.

We get that a , or to shine a light on the woke cock-ups of Labour-run councils, or to weaken its support in northern cities and towns.

But we are talking about the mass rape of children.

Political expediency for Labour should simply not come into it.

Real teeth

And this cowardly cover-up is enormously dangerous for our country because it encourages the forces who would love to see this multiracial, multicultural country come apart.

Ignoring the does not make this country a less racist place. The opposite is the case.

Labour’s inability to face the evil inflicted on all those white working-class girls will be a gift to those who seek to promote division.

Labour really don’t get it, do they?

This is a tolerant country. Cultures and races co-exist here more peacefully than they do anywhere in the world.

But by ignoring the unspeakable crimes of the Pakistani grooming gangs, by lacking the moral courage to call for an inquiry with real teeth, this Government only promotes racial division.

If those rape gangs were white, would be coming down on them like a ton of self-righteous bricks.

Oh, Prime Minister, you are a lawyer. Isn’t it painfully obvious?

If British justice is not colour blind, then it is not real justice at all.

Clean pair of heels

AS , it is tempting to suggest that the UK’s rat-infested second city looks like somewhere in the Third World.

But that would be an .

A local resident called Natasha, who has an 11-week-old baby son with an impaired immune system, told BBC Radio WM that part of her street in Winson Green was “quite literally a waste site”;.

You would imagine – wouldn’t you? – that the local MPs would be working night and day to resolve a strike that has .

But , Labour MP for Hodge Hill and Solihull North – two of the areas worst affected by the bin strike – has provoked outrage by taking himself off to on a “fact-finding mission”; with seven other MPs in his role as chairman of the Business and Trade Committee while his city rots.

Mr Byrne stayed at Tokyo’s New Otani Hotel before moving on to Kyoto and Osaka by bullet train.

It is ironic a MP was swanning around Japan while the rats grew fat in his constituency.

Because Japan is by far the cleanest country in the world.

I’d bet my life Mr Byrne – who extended his business trip to spend a private holiday – did not see one scrap of bubble gum wrapper on his jolly to Japan.

Let alone a .

31? It's Beatle mania

, the brilliant, snaggle-toothed Brit who just stole the show in The , is to play George Harrison’s ex-wife Pattie Boyd in the four-film retelling of story.

The real Pattie was 19 when she played a schoolgirl in A Hard Day’s Night and met 21-year-old Harrison.

Aimee is already 31 – around the same age as the actors cast to play The Beatles. But The Beatles were young.

When the band broke up in 1970, John and Ringo were 29, Paul was 27 and George was just 26.

What’s striking about the casting of the four Sam Mendes films on The Beatles is the venerable age of the actors.

These films will be unmissable. But Harris Dickinson (John) is 28. (Paul) is 29. Joseph Quinn (George) is 31.

And (Ringo) is already 32 . . . 32? By the time they were 32, the Beatles all had long-established solo careers.

I loved Barry in Saltburn and The Banshees Of Inisherin. I loved him a little bit less in Apple’s ludicrously anti-RAF war drama, Masters Of The Air.

But even for a brilliant actor, 32 is far too old to be playing a Beatle – any Beatle. Nobody’s acting is that good.

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AS the world’s support for the brave people of falters, full credit to for making the time to and spend time with veterans. Good for you, Harry.

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GASPS of shock that Angus Young – the-school-cap-and-blazer wearing lead guitarist of AC/DC – just celebrated his 70th birthday.

Rock and roll’s delinquent schoolboy is 70? It hardly seems possible.
And the most astonishing thing of all is – Angus still hasn’t handed in his homework.

Liz at 59: From that dress to this bikini

blows kisses to her 3million followers from a sun-dappled beach in the Maldives.

Liz turns 60 this summer but she truly looks better than when she was on Hugh Grant’s arm half a lifetime ago.

And not only does in that Blaze bikini from Elizabeth Hurley Beach, she designed it herself.

What a woman.

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ANOTHER royal tour, another triumph. In an age when the MAGA wants to build walls, erect barriers and alienate America’s old allies, how heartening to see III in , quietly promoting our country while totally charming the locals.

This was soft power in action. And it matters. And it works.

Charles gave a lovely speech — in Italian — to Italy’s parliament, which expressed his genuine and deeply felt affection for that great country and included some pretty good jokes about British crimes against pasta.

Grace. Humour. Decency. Our monarch embodies these virtues. But these quiet, decent values are out of fashion in Trump’s America.

The Donald sneers that foreign leaders are “kissing my ass”;. Classy!

His Vice-President, , says, “We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy things those Chinese peasants manufacture.”; Why the need to be so offensive? Why casually insult a nation? Why call the Chinese “peasants”;?

This week charmed 59million Italians. While the Veep of the USA deeply offended 1.42billion Chinese.

Who is better serving their country?