Saturday Night

While it is fun to poke fun at Gideon Osborne, the bigger liability for the Tories is Chris Grayling, who makes himself look a berk every time he opens his mouth, and he has been at it again. In the first half hour sine the story was published it has been tweeted nearly 500 times. Beggar the huge Tory advertising budget………WE SHALL FIGHT THEM ON THE SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES!

Mind you, I am not overly enamoured with the Labour party and Ed Balls makes me sick to the pit of my stomach. I have been reading a bit on the court case of Sharon Shoesmith, the director of social services in the Baby P case; and it seems clear that Balls interfered in the reviewing process and pretty much bullied the inspector.

I have little time for managers in social services, but I recall being quite impressed by Shoesmith at the time (I was in a minority of  1 think) She didn't apologise, she didn't make mealy mouthed statements: she defended her department, which is almost unheard of. We seem to be in a culture where we have to accept guilt and blame and I don't think it's healthy. Honest appraisal cannot be tolerated.

Balls seems to have made it clear that he wanted a scapegoat and every interview he did at the time supports this view. At a time when clear headed rationalism was needed, he jumped on the scapegoating bandwagon, and looked fore someone to blame. Well, the sacrificial lamb was slaughtered, but the demonising of Sharon Shoesmith will do nothing to protect children in the longer term.