"THE wife of a Birmingham MP will appear before a crown court judge in February over allegations she broke into the home of his mistress and stole a kitten. Christine Hemming, 52, who is married to Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming, appeared at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
Read the rest of the story here.
He's quoted as saying:
“Some social workers are power-crazed individuals who want to mess up people’s lives and they are allowed to get away with it. They’re off their rockers.”Read More http://www.birminghammail.net/news/birmingham-news/2011/01/05/birmingham-mp-john-hemming-blasts-power-crazed-social-workers-97319-27935994/#ixzz1AGq89zmS
People who live in glass houses comes to mind.
I truly feel sory for the ordinary social work staff in Birmingham. Every time I go there things seem to get worse. I think politicians have helped ruin this once noble city - just a personal opinion, but based on many visits, although I have never worked there. Inspection reports over the last few years have generally been at best lukewarm, mingled with a hope that things can only get better. Some inspectors are more naive than others of course. Ofsted's latest round of inspections seem to be throwing up many deficits. Senior staff salaries rise - things get worse, and senior staff salaries rise even further, because no-one wants to work there except those who would do anything, even work for Birmingham Council, to further their career.
SOME Social Workers are, just like SOME politicians, SOME teachers, SOME doctors and nurses, SOME police officers etc. I never worked in Birmingham but met many Social Workers that worked there and the only thing I can say is I don;t think for a moment they take children into care unnecessarily, if anything they cannot take all children that need safeguarding. It is very convenient to blast accusations as member of a charity that has a clear anti-social work focus, but I bet he would sing a different tune if he were held accountable for the cases of children that are not safeguarded in his area. I also bet he is the type of person that believes Social Worker should always hapen to "them", to "other people" and it is easy to mils some votes shouting loudly in the press without really knowing what he is talking about.