Nursery World - To the point... (15)

Our weekly columnist Beatrix Campbell looks at the different responses to child abuse allegations in Britain and Ireland The Irish government's radical response to the Ferns inquiry into decades of child abuse by priests who - unlike their victims - enjoyed the protection of the church, dramatises the remarkable difference between political culture on either side of the Irish Sea.

The Irish government's radical response to the Ferns inquiry into decades of child abuse by priests who - unlike their victims - enjoyed the protection of the church, dramatises the remarkable difference between political culture on either side of the Irish Sea.

In Britain, the state totters from one child abuse crisis to another, putting social workers in the stocks for failing to protect children, colluding in an inquisition against doctors for intervening, and then remaining mute while yet another inquiry exposes the disastrous effects of the Government's retreat from investigation.

The politics of child protection is driven by the amazing success of accused adults' movements. They have used complaints procedures to great effect, to sway the Government and to intimidate and discredit the child protection professions.

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