Tuesday, December 18, 2007

If you can judge a society by the way it treats children ...

I know you're probably busy.

Running round buying presents, planning menus, hanging decorations and all that stuff ...

But please please please take the time to read this article in The New Statesman.

NB: Approx 2,000 children pass through UK holding centres each year.
Their imprisonment breaches a key UN Convention.

Puts not being able to buy the latest fad into some perspective, eh?

Thanks to Fiction Bitch for bringing the article to our attention.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

This is appalling. And the UK is supposed to be part of the "civilized" world. This doesn't sound to me like very "civilized" behaviour. What with this and the detention rulings, the UK is fast starting to sound like SA in the bad old days. The nanny state is heading towards political tyranny - and that's deeply scary.
I'm hearing more and more of the same from other English friends. What is happening that all that the Britain once stood for is eroding? And yes, I accept that Britain is not the only case in point and that generally the world is going mad.
Thanks for highlighting this article, Debi.

Debi said...

It is deeply scary, Ab Van. And part of the trouble is that I don't think many people are aware of the extent of these atrocities.

We have to shout very loud to ensure it's clear that we won't accept this kind of abuse being done in our name.

Aimee said...

That is actually disgusting behaviour on behalf of our government. How must these people view our country? If the majority of the public knew this, there would be uproar. How can this be going on without us knowing? It's revolting. It makes you want to be sick. You don't want to think of people being treated like that abroard, let alone in your own country!

Good blog by the way!

Debi said...

Welcome, Aimz. My point exactly!
Good luck with the YouTube BTW.

Penelope Farmer said...

The way asylum seekers are treated shames all of us. I have a psychiatrist friend works with Helen Bamber. Her stories - both of what the patients she sees have fled from and how they are treated here - are horrendous. I've been trying to persuade her to write an article for the Daily Mail, including some case histories. As perpetrators of the worst myths and prejudices about those 'scrounging demons', asylum seekers, it would be interesting to see if the Mail would print it. Probably not.

Talk about no room at the inn (or for our demonised poor either)

Debi said...

Granny - it would be interesting to hear that the Mail have agreed to publish such an article, since they and their ilk are indeed responsible for the outrageous scaremongering that leads to government targets.

I doubt they will though ... *sigh*