I believe racism and political correctness are material facts to this story. And while I take the point that the abuse is abuse and a crime is a crime regardless of race, creed, colour, sex and age the causes of this are not being addressed for fear of those asking this question being regarded as politically incorrect and racist. It’s just this weapon that has been used by the abusers to carry out such horrors for so long.

The hereditary Pakistani abusers carried out these acts on the vast majority of young vulnerable white girls (and a few boys) because they did not hold them in the same regard as girls from there our cultural background. This is racist. This was one of the conclusions from the legal team that prosecuted 5 Rotherham men of sex offences that lead to this report.

Secondly political correctness operated, the report suggests, as a limiting factor for those that had the power to act and in news coverage at the time of the legal case. What needed to be said and sorted was not said nor addressed for fear of inflaming a situation, causing tensions between communities or for the fear of those in positions of power being called racist.

I’m saddened 24 hours after this story has broke at the silence from many that are morally culpable in this and those that are in fear of saying what they believe because it is not politically correct. Those that are lawfully culpable I have no doubt will be held to account in both the civil and criminal courts. We now live in a society that will bring them to book.

I suggest until we are ready to have open and frank discussion about such things and not be limited by fear of being branded racist or adhere to the rules of political correctness that there is an environment for this to happen again.

My final thought on this is the number of children abused in this case. 1,400 in Rotherham. I don’t know what proportion of children that the local authority in Rotherham are responsible for this represents but I’m horrified we live in a society that that values it children so poorly that there are so many that require local authority and state intervention to keep safe. I didn’t realise this, but those that carried out this abuse did.

Someone posts a video of horrible mad women putting a cat in a bin in Coventry a couple of years ago and the country is up in arms, death threats, police protection etc. But we allow children to be put at risk in such large numbers without outcry. Time for change. Time for action. Time to speak openly and say what is right.