John Hemming's Web Log

There has been quite a bit of press reporting about David Lammy's comments about the operation of the care system acting to undermine discipline. Clearly this is not the only reason that the looting occurred, but I know of a number of cases where the care system has undermined parental discipline to the clear and obvious detriment to the children. Hence I agree with him about the principle.

The link is to a copy of a report produced by the Australian Government in 2009 which was then as far as I can tell sat on and removed from the list of reports. The summary includes the following: The trends in discovery of oil can be used to project similar trends in the subsequent production of oil. Using a method developed here, forecasts of future oil/liquids production for 40 countries/regions around the world have been produced. The oil production prospects of different countries and regions vary immensely. However, on balance, when an aggregation is done across the globe, it is predicted that world production of conventional oil is currently just past its highest point (conventional oil is oil pumped from wells on land or in water less than 500 metres deep). A predicted shallow decline in the short run should give way to a steeper decline after 2016. However, deep water and non-conventional oil production are growing strongly, turning a slight decline into a plateau for total cr...

The link is to a story where a local council attempted to stop an elderly lady with dementia from going on a cruise. In this instance the CoP found for the human beings. My experience is that it normally finds for the state however bad the arguments for the state happen to be.

The Court of Appeal Judgement in Cheshire West and Chester v P appears to redefine the concept of deprivation of liberty to exclude disabled people, in effect depriving anyone locked up by social services on the basis of an *alleged* disability of safeguards and appeal rights. This judgment has been criticised in this excellent article by Sam Smith - along with many others including Community Care magazine , 39 Essex Street Chambers and the Mental Health Alliance . I have argued for the reform of the Court of Protection for some time - and this judgement only underscores the serious problems with the system. The Mental Health Alliance will be proposing options for reform in a forthcoming report and it is to be hoped the Department of Health listens. This is one of the most pressing issues facing this country today. Extract from the report here .

The link is to a story from Northampton where a mother was given a 28 days suspended sentence for putting information about her case on Facebook. RSC Schedule 1 Order 52 states: (2)If the court hearing an application in private by virtue of paragraph (1) decides to make an order of committal against the person sought to be committed, it shall in public state – (a)the name of that person; (b)in general terms the nature of the contempt of court in respect of which the order of committal is being made; and (c)the length of the period for which he is being committed. I don't have any information about the case apart from what is in the Northampton Chronicle. Clearly the existence of the hearing is not secret, but the identity of the mother is. My own reading of Order 52 is that suspended committal orders are not distinguished from other committal orders. It remains that contempt of court applications are of a criminal nature and for the protection of the rule of law they should invol...

The link is to a story (29/12/2011) in the New York Times about failed adoptions leading to homelessness. The USA started the obsession with adoption as a "solution" to care. They have about 50,000 "adoptions" from care each year. They don't actually track the total adoptions figure as the most recent total figure is from 2001 and is around 127,000. There is a very important distinction between adoption from care in the USA and England. In the USA there is often an adoption fee paid by the state which results in more children being "adopted". The question, of course, is what happens when the money stops. That is also why there are more older adoptions in the USA. In the UK the starting problem is that the care system often makes really silly decisions. We had the story in The Times about adoptees voting with their feet in their teens. It is important to note that this applies to children adopted in the 1990s. Our big push for adoption was from 2...

The link is to today's story in The Times about adoptions reversing as children get older. There has already been some of this, but with the more aggressive approach to adoption there are many more wrongful adoptions. The story is behind a paywall. I will extract a few quotes The two leading adoption charities are deeply concerned about the big increase in online unplanned contact, which flouts guidelines on contacting adopted children and risks seriously disrupting the lives of already troubled young people. The problem affects children who were taken into care for safeguarding in the 1990s. In the worst cases, children traced by their birth parents suffer a complete breakdown in the relationship with their adoptive family, the charities warn. Research by the British Association for Adoption and Fostering found that 53 per cent of adopted children have used unofficial means, including Facebook, to trace birth parents. A quarter said that the outcome had been unsettling. Where I...

The link is to the judgment of the Irish Supreme Court on matters relating to the Hague Convention and adoption. A number of parents have won legal cases in Ireland which prevented their children being returned to England and placed in care on the basis that this would lead to adoption. This case was an interesting one because the children were not actually in care or even subject to a care order, but that care proceedings were "pending". (Viz an application had been made to court.) The first test in international public family law is one as to which country has jurisdiction. This is based on "habitual residence". It is now clearly the case that if court proceedings have started in England then the habitual residence is accepted as being in England even if the family have moved to Ireland. The case has also looked at the question as to whether non-Irish citizens have Irish Constitutional Rights, but without resolving the issue in any way. The judgment is a long ...

See the link for the website dealing with Florence Bellone's winning of the reporting prize for reporting on the English Family Courts scandal. Quoting from the website: Title of the article Great Britain: The Stolen Children Name of media RTBF The Grand Jury distinguished the report for its investigative merit in highlighting a human rights issue occurring in a highly-developed European Member State. The piece was characterised as ‘a technically impressive, investigative report into shocking and relatively unknown human rights violations’.

I attended St Edburgha'a carol service last Sunday. Robert Jones has produced some good photographs of the event. The music was good, but I don't think it is available on the net.

The link is to a story behind the paywall of the Sunday Times relating to Friday's jailing at around 4pm of Vicky Haigh for 3 years. On the way to the meeting in London (at which she asked a question of Anthony Douglas which was one of the reasons for which Doncaster MDC tried to have her imprisoned) she saw her daughter and went to say hello. At a time at which the press would not ordinarily be there on Friday she was given 3 years. Doesn't seem right to me. It remains that she has not yet managed to appeal the original family court decisions mainly because the solicitors are holding onto the file. It is also the case that the promised publication of various documents by the authories promised earlier this year has not happened. I suppose keeping her in jail will make it even harder for her to challenge the original decision.

There is a youtube channel Idowish12 which includes a lot of films of Birmingham's past. For example: and

The CTB v Imogen Thomas case raises a number of constitutional concerns about the accountability and reliability of secret justice. On 20th May 2011 the Neuberger Committee reported on secret justice clarifying what should happen. These procedures were not followed (in this case) on a number of occasions. On 2nd November 2011 there was a hearing which was not even listed. On 11th November 2011 the press were excluded without explanation. On 25th November 2011 there was a hearing with a decision for which no judgment was given until yesterday. The court should have clearly discharged the original injunction some months ago. The key issue, however, is that Secret Justice leads to miscarriages of justice. Secret Justice often means No Justice. In this case it is still unclear whether Imogen Thomas would have been able to prove her case had CTB not been named in parliament. What is clear is that the original injunction would have prevented Imogen Thomas’s lawyers from doing nec...

This link will give a video of the evidence session at Today's Education Select Committee (Martin Narey and myself).

I noticed in Le Monde over breakfast this morning that the Socialist candidate for France's presidential elections has said he will renegotiate the treaty. I have found the story in the online version of the newspaper and that is the link. When I told the Minister for Europe of this I was informed that it was on Radio 4 this morning.

The express story has been updated to include more than was in the printed story. It now includes the following comments from the British Association of Social Workers: Nishra Mansuri, of the British Association of Social Workers, recognised the whistleblower’s comments and said: “It’s a major concern. The cuts are creating so much pressure for social workers that the right decisions are not being taken. “We’re storing up so many problems, but the odds are against us.”

The link is to a story in Today's Sunday Telegraph about the many foreign children trapped in Childrens Services' kafkaesque world.

The link is to a story in today's Sunday Express about how misleading reports and psychobabble are used to destroy families. This is an extract: The whistleblower, a father who works for a large authority in the south of England, said: “We’re being pressured to go against what we think is right for families. “Personally, I’ve written reports and been told ‘You are too positive with this family. We’ll never get it to court unless you make it more negative’. “Although it goes against what you feel is right, you feel under an obligation.” He went on: “In order to get a child through to a child protection conference, we’re told to make the situation look bad, and worse than it actually is. “We don’t necessarily make things up but we can change the emphasis.” He said these reports were used to take children out of a family home and in many cases placed for adoption. “It destroys families, but the newer, younger social workers see this as the norm, they just want to toe the line with th...

A number of journalists have phoned me to ask my view as to the use of the veto. I think Cameron was right to use the veto on changes to the treaties. It is entirely right that the 17 Eurozone countries resolve how to get greater fiscal unity which is essential for the success of the Euro and consequential success of the UK. However, that does not mean that we have to sign up to that. We should not try to stand in their way and prevent them resolving their difficulties. However, it is not surprising that unanimity amongst the 27 EU states is difficult to achieve. When I tell the media this strangely enough they are not interested in interviewing me. The story they are looking for is "coalition in trouble over veto". I am not surprised at the editorial approach, however. The party is saying that he did not use a "veto". I suppose a "veto" is technically different to not agreeing something that needs unanimity. However, the effect is the same.

I wondered if Hansard had corrected what I thought was Ed Milliband's error at PMQs when he said: the dinner lady, the cleaner or the nurse, people who earn in a week what the Chancellor pays for his annual skiing holiday Indeed they have stuck with what he said. Perhaps it wasn't a mistake and he thinks that cleaners earn £11K per week.