The
Hodge Appointment
Blair
appointed his former Islington neighbour Margaret Hodge to the new post
of Minister for Children in June 2003.
Hodge
had been the chief of Islington Council (1982-1992). She had received numerous
warnings that the council's social services were in chaos. She was blind
to the criticism, seeing it as a challenge to the council's left loony left
social policy.
The
problems had included rampant child abuse, some of it by council employees.
The
Leninist Leader of Islington
When
Margaret Hodge was leader of Islington Council (1982-1992) the red flag
fluttered over the town hall : inside there was a bust of Lenin.
Her
influences included the Polish Marxist and Revolutionary, Rosa
Luxemburg.
Her nickname
was 'Enver Hodge' after the late dictator of Albania, who were he alive
today, would no doubt call himself a 'Blairite'.
She was ahead
of her times, and banned fox hunting in urban Islington. Reports ran in
the tabloid papers of Islington handing out grants for non-sexist jigsaws
and lesbian self defense classes.
By a twist
of good fortune, she just happened to live on the same Islington Street
as Tony Blair. Her solicitor husband, Henry Hodge, gave Cherie Blair her
first brief as a barrister. (thanks
to an article in The Guardian for these details).
Islington's
'progressive' schools made boys sit at the back of maths classes. Academic
results for boys and girls in Islington were truly crap. Hodge sent her
four children to school across the border to Camden (the Blairs also sent
their children out of Islington).
Hodge - whose
family made a fortune out of steel trading - was reported to have advertised
in 'The Lady' magazine for a nanny.
Islington's
Social Services and Child Care in Chaos
In October
1992, The Evening Standard ran a story under the headline 'The Scandal at
the Heart of Child Care'.
It alleged
that children under the care of Islington had "descended into a life
of degradation and exploitation" and that suspected pimps were having
sex with children and that youngsters in care were being seduced into drugs,
homosexuality and prostitution.
Hodge damned
the Evening Standard report as "a sensationalist piece of gutter journalism".
In 1995 an
official report identified 26 children under the care of Islington who may
have been abused and 32 staff who were the subject of allegations.
Previous warnings
had been dismissed by Islington as 'standing in the way of progress.'
Hodge
and the Victim
In June 2003,
Blair appointed Hodge to the new post of Minister for Children. A New Labour
Scandal was born.
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When the BBC's
Today Programme spoke to one of Islington's victims of child abuse, Hodge
wrote the BBC's Governor accusing the programme of 'deplorable sensationalism'
and claimed that the now grown-up victim should not have been interviewed
because he was an "extremely disturbed person. "
The "disturbed
person" took legal action and Hodge was forced to retract her statement
about him and pay damages to a charity named by him.
