General Chat

I've a great deal of respect for Butler-Sloss and more so since she took the decision to step down. Her statement showed her as the woman of integrity and sense I think she is.

Supercrutch is right that it was victims and support groups who were unhappy with Butler-Sloss' links to the establishment in terms of career and background; she acknowledged this herself and said it was particularly the victims' feelings that helped her to decide.

Interestingly, Frank Field was defending her today but several of the MPs behind the letter for the CSA inquiry, including Simon Danczuk and Zac Goldsmith, felt she'd made the right choice.

NB the VICTIMS were unhappy with her appointment. I happen to agree with them. They waged a fair and vigorous internet campaign over the past week which I helped with.

Unless the victims believe the panel will be totally impartial the review will remain under a cloud long after it is completed.

Another example of women being disproportionately disempowered in public life.

It seems to me that her decision followed a touch of bullying from several quarters, coupled with some disgraceful & unwarranted innuendo.

A real shame!

Sorry, but I do not think that the press or armchair politicians can be blamed for this fiasco, it was not of their making, the fault lies firmly and squarely with the government, in particular the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister.

I have the utmost respect for Baroness Butler-Sloss, this is not about her, it is about "The Westminster Establishment" investigating "The Westminster Establishment" and that just cannot be right. Any candidate appointed from the House of Lords, the House of Commons, the Civil Service, or with close connections to the "Westminster Establishment" would have unleashed the same furore.

The Home Secretary knew that, the Prime Minister knew that, yet they just carried on with this ill thought out appointment - Why?

Keith Vaz, Chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, not my favourite politician, has said "The whole inquiry process is becoming shambolic, missing files, ministers refusing to read reports and now the chair resigning before the inquiry is has even commenced," - if that does not describe a fiasco I don't know what does.

The only fiasco is that the press and the armchair politicians think they know better.

Shame....!

Downing Street has said it would "take a few days" to appoint a new chairman and appeared to indicate that whoever was chosen would not be so closely linked to the establishment.

A Downing Street spokesman said there had been no change in the view of the Prime Minister or the Home Secretary about Lady Butler-Sloss' integrity or suitability for the job.

My own view is that the reason the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary wanted,a very wide enquiry, an enquiry that would cover what went on at the BBC, the NHS, Care Homes, and Religious Establishments, an inquiry headed by a respected establishment figure, an inquiry that would produce a mountain of dross and the occasional very small lump of coal, the hope being that in amongst all the dross the real truth about what went on in the highest echelons of the establishment would be buried, an enquiry that would ensure that those establishment figures, involved in any way with the sexual abuse of young people, would remain undisclosed.

In short they had hoped to treat Joe Public to a massive dose of "Mushroom Management" you grow mushrooms in a dark room and every so often open the door and throw some, lets say manure ;-) at them.

Downing Street won't say it, the Home Office won't say, so I will say it, the appointment of Baroness Butler-Sloss to head this inquiry, once again brings into question the Prime Minister's judgement, as he must have given his permission to his Home Secretary to proceed with this appointment, in saying that I am in no way questioning Baroness Butler-Sloss's integrity.

The Prime Minister and the Home Secretary showed total incompetence over this appointment, they must have known that this would backfire on them. Baroness Butler-Sloss has done the honourable thing, now the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary should do the honourable thing and apologise unreservedly for this fiasco.

Better still the Prime Minister should jump in his car and take a trip down The Mall to Buckingham Palace - and ask the Queen to dissolve Parliament :-D

A great shame. A woman who had the respect of all political parties with a spotless and exemplary career behind her.

It' time the press were told they don't run the country and to stop hounding people.

I think it is awful.

She should not have stepped down. Maybe she should never have been given the role in the first place.

She is not her brother. As a long standing and well respected Judge she is more than capable of being impartial, she would not have got where she is without it.

There is at present no indication that he did anything wrong at the time. This is press using pressure and nasty insinuations about Sir Michael Havers.

i am pleased about that, i don't think she was the right person to do the job...

The head of the inquiry into allegations of historical child abuse, retired judge Baroness Butler-Sloss has said she is stepping down from leading the inquiry.

Downing Street said "it was entirely her decision" and a new chair would be appointed within days.

Lady Butler-Sloss has been under pressure to quit from MPs and victims concerned about her family links.

Her late brother, Sir Michael Havers, was attorney general in the 1980s.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28295282