The comments by Jack Straw about the men of Pakistani heritage grooming vulnerable white girls was a surprise to me.
The way Mr Straw has tried to move the debate into a direction that can disturb the community relations and political atmosphere is unexplainable.
I think that it's not a case of a particular culture.
It is highly unfortunate that vulnerable girls are being abused all over the country, it is only being highlighted as an issue of white girls as the white girls form more than 95 percent of the population.
I think the way this issue is being highlighted is highly biased and the real issues are not being debated.
First matter in my opinion is that the exposure of vulnerable girls to abusers is a failure of the system as a whole including weakening family functioning, availability of drugs and drinks, and particularly the lacunas within the appropriate services and legal system which are not sensitive to the needs of these vulnerable girls and the time taken by the relevant authorities to take bring the perpetrators to justice.
I feel that Mr Straw has tried to find an easy solution to a really complex problem that needs to involve all communities to address.
As reported today by a councillor and youth worker that similar problems exist within Asian communities but as mentioned earlier the percentage of the population is only about 4 % nationally and owing to other reasons such incidents are not being highlighted.
It's high time that we as nation move away from blame culture and take responsibility what lacked in Mr Straw's statement what is the solution to this problem and what as a Justice minister Mr Straw did in his tenure?
If he has failed to discharge his duty to this issue why to point fingers now to a specific population?
The issue of grooming requires unified effort from all sections of the society, if as pointed out by the recent media reports it exists in few members of a community it must be tackled according to the law and examplary punishments be awarded.
I welcome the debate initiated by the Telegraph to debate the issue in the open rather than putting it aside.
We need to think on what steps need to be taken to adress the route cause of the problem not trying to cure the symptoms with sensational statements and diverting the attention from real issues.
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