00:00Uldum has been, of course, at the epicentre of this story for much of this year.
00:05What do you make there of the suggestion that there are failings not just at the local level, but actually at the Whitehall level too?
00:15It doesn't surprise me at all.
00:18It's the rot doesn't necessarily just start at the local council level.
00:22It goes all the way up because these officials in one way or another would have known through reports going through to the DfE.
00:31I think as Dominic Cummins said in his interview, you know, these reports exist, you know, a redacted and unredacted version.
00:37And it's clear that basically, you know, in the name of community relations, these things were whitewashed and hidden away so they wouldn't upset anybody.
00:46But as time passes on, and it's the records will probably prove these things were covered up.
00:51And if they can do it at a local level, a micro level, then they can certainly do it at a national level.
00:57And I think there's a lot to be uncovered.
01:00Yeah, I mean, Michael Gove there saying that Rotherham Council was very much pushing this, asking the Department of Education,
01:06asking him to join them in their legal case to prevent the Times newspaper from publishing any of these claims about grooming gangs and the like.
01:16Could you say the same about Uldum?
01:17I couldn't say the same about Uldum because there's no, I've not got any proof to hand.
01:23But what I could say, Emily, is that our local press has been absolutely absent and silent on this.
01:29And it's a disgrace that they didn't have the journalistic integrity to follow up on these cases because we've had survivors come forward who cover from a period back into the 90s and even as far as the 80s,
01:42who clearly came forward in the assurance review, who came to the full council meeting, who came to a mic and actually came to their cases.
01:51Yet if you were to rely on the local press, you wouldn't have even known these cases existed.
01:55And a lot of these people who now worked in the press or worked in the council comms team are now working for MPs or are working in the council still.
02:07You know, the famous media strategy at Uldum Council was, you know, the Operation Messenger is that we didn't want to disprocute, you know,
02:14say that it was all Asian men that was doing this and it was targeting white working class girls.
02:20These people are now still at Uldum Council who worked in that communications department that devised that media strategy.
02:27These people still work in one way or another in the media who now sit in offices of MPs.
02:35And it baffles me that this wasn't picked up.
02:39It wasn't picked up.
02:40Well, it clearly was.
02:42People were going to the press, going to the Department for Education, going to the local council,
02:49going to the police.
02:50All of this is constant.
02:53It isn't new.
02:56But what we're seeing now is that the floodgates have opened and no one's got nowhere to hide anymore.
03:03Well, let's hope so, Lewis, because we're relying on this national inquiry, aren't we?
03:08We're relying on this national inquiry, being able to call these people and haul them in in front of the inquiry so that they actually tell the truth on this.
03:17Because, I mean, it's pretty clear that the rot is at all levels, isn't it, Lewis?
03:22An uncomfortable truth, because I think that from the 2001 riots, there was a fear that the community cohesion, the tensions,
03:33and it's still language that is used today, surrounding this issue, was that we shouldn't talk about this because it may inflame tensions.
03:43But I think, as Lewis Casey's review has made clear, we shouldn't hide from the truth.
03:52Facts are facts.
03:53There are not alternative facts.
03:54There are not alternative versions of the truth.
03:57There is only the truth.
03:58Yeah, absolutely right.
03:59And if you are honest with it, then people will respond according to it.
04:04Well, this is why it's so important to have this statutory inquiry where witnesses can be compelled.
04:07And as you rightly say, there is nowhere to hide.
04:10But Lewis Quigg, Oldham Councillor, thanks indeed for joining us and talking through this issue.
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