Ellee Seymour

Tony Blair admits his 10 years in office did not turn out as expected with foreign policy taking a very high profile, as he explains in this essay published in today’s Economist entitled: “What I’ve learned“.

“Ten years ago, if you had told me I would spend a significant part of my premiership on foreign policy, I would have been surprised, a little shocked and probably, politically, somewhat alarmed. Even today, we all run for office concentrating on domestic issues.

“Foreign” policy rarely wins votes, and can easily lose them. Yet nowadays the reality is increasingly that we are obliged as leaders to think, work and act internationally.”

Surely Blair could have delegated more to his Foreign Secretaries, he did not need to personally take charge of so many foreign issues. Sadly, our NHS and education system has suffered as a result.

His view on future politics is that it needs to “open up” and engage interactively on the internet, an area Labour is currently struggling with.

“Above all, political parties need to go out and seek public participation, not wait for the public to be permitted the privilege of becoming part of the sect.

So, membership should be looser, policymaking broader and more representative, the internet and interactive communication the norm. Open it all up.”

In fact, being interactive on the internet means listening and responding, not ignoring the messages if they don’t suit your agenda, like the views of thousands of people who signed the online petitions over road charging.

I have no idea how paedophiles are presently treated, but obviously it has not been successful. In order to deal with the “scale of the problem”, it has been recommended that some child sex offenders should receive a police caution and then be managed within the community instead of sent to jail.

Jim Gamble, of the Child Exploiation and Online Protection Centre has recommended this as a practical way of dealing with the huge scale of the problem.

This would indicate that the problem has not been managed successfully so far. It is a cheapskate way of dealing with these offenders as our prisons are full. 

Whichever way you look at it, viewing child porn is sickening and is often the tipping point for child abuse. I want tougher sentencing to be imposed, with treatment, not softer options. It has to be remembered that if there was no demand for child pornography, innocent children would be spared this horrific abuse. Where is the data to prove that a police caution and treatment in the community is successful?

My local paper reports this week of an 11-year-old schoolgirl’s terror when a man tried to lure her into his van. Wife in the North recently described how a man tried to pick up a young child outside a school in a nearby village.

This ludicrous idea will send shivers and feelings of outrage amongst our civilised society.

Leanna Warner vanished four years ago aged five while walking barefoot to a friend’s house around the block from her home in Chisholm, Minnesota. She has not been seen since.

The local paper described how hundreds of volunteers and dozens of law enforcement personnel from the FBI and local police departments combed woods, roadside ditches and abandoned mine pits near Chisholm, but found no clues or leads. A $5,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the conviction of her abductor.

Known as Beaner, the age progression photo shows Leanna as she would look today. With police investigating the possibility that she might have been murdered, her family still remain hopeful that she is alive until they have evidence to the contrary. They state:

“It’s been almost four years since Beaner has disappeared.  We have had         many more leads and many more disappointments.  We are no closer to solving her disappearance today as we were the day she left us.  With no evidence to prove the contrary - we remain very optimistic that she is alive and well. We will not stop looking until we have an answer.”

In memory of those who are still missing.