School gang row sparks Birmingham City Council witch hunt
Mar 27 2009 by Paul Dale, Birmingham Post
If a way could be found to convert hand-wringing into useable energy, there would have been enough electricity generated at a meeting of Birmingham’s Reducing Gang Violence Scrutiny Committee to keep the Council House floodlit for a month.
Members were in shock at the temerity, the bare-faced cheek, of the Birmingham Mail in publishing the names of 80-odd city schools said to act as recruiting grounds for violent gangs.
How on earth could this have happened, asked people with weird and wonderful job titles such as Assistant Director Inclusion Support, Project Manager of Integrated Youth Support Services and Youth Inclusion Programme Manager.
Er, well, it happened because the Reducing Gang Violence Scrutiny Committee decided in its infinite wisdom to publish the list of schools on the council website. So the names were in the public domain four days before the Mail performed a valuable service to parents by printing the list.
The hand-wringers were in full flood, but since they are all terribly right-on and liberal, the worst put-down they could come up with was that publishing the names had been “very unfortunate”.
The witch hunt of all witch hunts is underway now, with senior council bods scurrying to protect their backs.
John Cade, who heads the scrutiny section, took the original decision to publish the list on the website because he “assumed it was a public document”.
Cade, a wily operator, immediately removed the document as soon as the flack began to fly.
Tony Howell, the chief education officer, or in city council-speak the Strategic Director for Children, Young People and Families, demonstrated how he managed to climb the greasy pole of local government. He summoned Iron Angle to his office, and promptly blamed the police for “inappropriately” adding the list of schools to a year-old private briefing document.
It is believed that West Midlands Police want urgently to speak to a middle aged white man describing himself as the Strategic Director for Children, Young People and Families. They believe he may be able to help them with their inquiries.
Attention is also being focused on Debra Davis, the Canadian Queen of Spin, whose sprawling Public Affairs and Communications Department failed to spot the incendiary potential of the schools list. Davis and her press office team are supposed to read reports before they go public and warn council executives if there are any opportunities for “unhelpful” press coverage.
Some poor sap will probably be lined up to take the blame and find themselves given important new duties in the nearest job centre, but you can bet it won’t be the likes of Howell, Davis and Cade.
