Phoenix Spirit

"If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them."
Dalai Lama

Theresa May, how you like to save the pennies for a rainy day. Only trouble is, the rain has been battering down heavily for quite some time now. I'm not tory bashing here (then again, I most probably am), but the Home Secretary's decision to merge the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) into a National Crime Agency shows just how tight she actually is.

Never mind not expecting her to buy you a pint at the bar, more like do not expect her to listen to what human rights activists have to say full-stop. Oh she might have scrapped Labour's Big Brother plans for ID cards, and banned an English Defence League racist march in Bradford.

But since Jim Gamble, the chief executive of CEOP has resigned over her plans to join his unit with the Serious and Organised Crime Agency and the UK Border Agency because he believes it would sabotage their independence, it goes to show miserly her politics actually is.

Shy Keenan, a child protection campaigner said:"We need an independent Child Protection Force, that is focused only on child protection, not soaked into a massive team where he has to fight every single day for funding to do what actually has to be done, and needs to be done."

And coming from someone who founded the Phoenix Survivors to campaign for justice for victims of sexual abuse and to rescue children at risk after she herself was abused, you would think Millionaire-Mrs-May would listen.

With Sara Payne, media campaigner and mother of murdered Sarah Payne also speaking out against the "worst possible news" of this new quango, you would think the Home Secretary would LISTEN. But she hasn't, and she should.

Write to her to express your concern:
Rt Hon Theresa May MP
Home Secretary
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
Telephone number: 020 7035 4848