Developments in the Baby P case today include the news that a former Haringey employee had raised concerns about the standard of social care in the borough with ministers. Rather than listen to her the council had obtained court injunction preventing her from speaking about the matter. See the report on the Daily Telegraph site.
If this is the attitude Haringey takes to criticism how will it ever learn when things are going wrong?
To keep up with developments I recommend the blog written by Lynne Featherstone, the Lib Dem MP for part of Haringey.
Lynne is quoted on the Telegraph site too, talking about Haringey's use of an injunction against Nevres Kemal:
I think she is right to take up this issue. But I wonder what those Lib Dems who seemed so appalled that David Cameron raised it in the Commons on Wednesday think about it."It is absolute obstruction," she said.
"You have to think that everyone is acting on behalf of their own self interest, to protect themselves.
"Nowhere is the interest of the child being served. An injunction on the social worker is madness."
On reflection I think those most at fault for those unedifying scenes were Labour backbenchers. They heard Haringey Council and social workers mentioned and rode to the defence of their people by barracking Cameron. It was this that made him genuinely angry and he had every right to be angry.
And one of the best things about being a Liberal Democrat is that you are not caught up in the often over-cosy relationship between Labour councillors and their Labour supporting staff. As Lynne shows, this leaves us free to raise issues like the death of Baby P.
Incidentally, wouldn't it be more dignified if we were allowed to give the child his real name?
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