Sarah Champion and the grooming gang attention span problem

There are now two debates underway about grooming gangs and how the government should investigate them further. The first is the one raging on social media, largely conducted by people who haven’t up to this point shown much interest in the issue but who are busily accusing others of not doing enough. The second is a more fruitful one between the politicians who actually have engaged with the inquiries that have happened over the years, and who are now trying to work out what should happen next.

A few weeks ago, there were no debates at all, and it is notable that last night the government appeared to be pushed by events into announcing it was implementing some of the recommendations of the inquiries that have already taken place. Yvette Cooper told the Commons that so far ‘none of the 20 recommendations from the independent inquiry into child abuse [IICSA] has been implemented.’