Mark James

What @MaggieOliverUK has done through this judicial review is expose the Government's complete and utter reluctance to address serious issues that put vulnerable children at risk, and its unwillingness to implement meaningful changes that could make the system safer. This Government talks endlessly about tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG), pledging to halve it, yet when it comes to implementing measures that have been identified as important steps towards achieving that very goal, it appears more than willing to fight against them. Think about that for a moment. The Government has put more effort into instructing lawyers to oppose these changes and fight against their implementation than it appears to have put into actually making the changes needed to protect vulnerable children. Shame on them. Maggie went into this alongside me and other victims who gave evidence to IICSA, fully supporting the recommendations and wanting to ensure that the time we gave, the evidence we provided and the trauma we relived in order to be heard was not for nothing. And yet here we are, having to watch the Government fight against the very changes that came out of that inquiry. If the Government is prepared to challenge and resist recommendations arising from an inquiry into child sexual abuse, how on earth are we supposed to trust it to implement the recommendations that will come out of the National Inquiry into Grooming Gangs? The simple answer is that we can't. There is now a very real concern that myself and countless other survivors are once again putting ourselves through the trauma of revisiting our experiences, sharing our evidence and fighting to be heard, only to find that, when it comes to meaningful action, the Government will do everything it can to avoid delivering the change we have spent years fighting for. We cannot keep asking survivors to relive their trauma, put their trust in inquiries and give up their time and energy to help expose institutional failures, only for governments to pick and choose which recommendations they are willing to act upon. An inquiry is only as meaningful as the action that follows it. A Government that cannot demonstrate an unwavering commitment to doing everything within its power to protect children from sexual abuse cannot expect survivors to have faith in its promises, its inquiries or its willingness to deliver justice. Children's safety should never be a political inconvenience. And protecting them should never become something a Government is prepared to fight against. Shame on this Government.