Woolf and May: This Untenable

Theresa May’s star shone bright at the Tory Conference and any leadership ambitions she may have harboured were burnished even brighter by her performance there. Moreover she had been able to brush off the unfortunate affair of the fumbled Butler Sloss appointment. The star of Fiona Woolf  was in the ascendant too; a highly respected City lawyer, magistrate and Lord Mayor of London. For these two women of outstanding achievement and unimpeachable integrity things could hardly get better. But they could get worse. And they have.

Theresa appoints Fiona chairman of the child abuse inquiry in the wake of Butler Sloss. Fiona flags up she is a dinner buddy and neighbour of Leon Brittan, the former Home Secretary over whom a question mark hangs about warnings connected to child abuse in high places. She thinks that she ought to send Theresa an official letter to explain this just in case. The Home Office decides to draft the letter. Why? It is to them, not from them. A letter written by or on behalf of the recipient is not a genuine document. There are seven drafts each of which appears to reduce the significance of the connection between Leon and Fiona. Seven drafts. Just think about that.

Then the story leaks and Fiona appears before the Home Affairs Select Committee. They are not happy and demand another letter, which they publish together with the seven drafts. Victims groups  lose confidence in the integrity of the whole set up and demand Fiona stands down. She hangs on at the time of writing this, but she is unlikely to survive the weekend.

What this all reveals shocks everybody outside Westminster and will have a profound political knock on effect. It demonstrates that these two women, while together a powerhouse of achievement all should admire individually, like the Establishment of which they are vital component parts, when it comes to judging what torments victims of child abuse and drives opinion outside their charmed and pampered circle, have not got a clue. The shambles of the setting up of the child abuse inquiry is becoming as big a story as the appalling revelations of the abuse itself. The Home Office appears as a dishonest fixer. Make no mistake there is going to be a price to pay for this.

Talking of Public Inquiries, where is Chilcot? Don’t worry; like everything else it is probably being fixed.

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