Pride in Surrey, Safeguarding & Julie Bindel
Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2025 2:45 pm
I live in Guildford, very close to where Pride in Surrey happens, and where this happened on Saturday: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/0 ... eguarding/
I’m staggered this organisation is still carrying on under the same name with many of the same people. The founder and until very recently CEO, and his partner, both key figures, have been jailed for child rape this year. That should be the end of it. You can’t “rebuild trust” in that situation. They should have shut it down and started something new with different people.
Surrey County Council have at least pulled funding and cut ties, which is something. But the more important question is how it got this far. Multiple whistleblowers raised concerns for years, and were ignored. Both the council and Surrey Police looked the other way, and in Ireland’s case it seems clear his cosy relationship with the police provided cover. This isn’t some minor slip-up. It’s exactly the sort of institutional failure we’ve seen again and again in other abuse scandals, where “community leaders” are treated as untouchable and anyone raising alarm bells is sidelined.
Then we get to the Bindel incident. A lesbian feminist journalist, who has been talking about safeguarding and women’s rights for decades, asks questions and the local MP has her thrown out. That’s extraordinary. It tells you the instinct is still to protect the brand, shut down scrutiny, and silence the awkward questions rather than confront what went wrong.
More generally, I think this all underlines why public bodies like the police, fire service, ambulance, etc. shouldn’t be involved in “social justice” type work at all. Their core job is to stop crime, put out fires, treat injured people etc. That’s where the focus should be. The more they get entangled in campaigns and “community engagement” of this sort, the more blurred the boundaries become, and the harder it is to hold them accountable when things go wrong.
Strip away the rainbow branding and the corporate fluff and what you’re left with here is very old-fashioned institutional cowardice.
I’m staggered this organisation is still carrying on under the same name with many of the same people. The founder and until very recently CEO, and his partner, both key figures, have been jailed for child rape this year. That should be the end of it. You can’t “rebuild trust” in that situation. They should have shut it down and started something new with different people.
Surrey County Council have at least pulled funding and cut ties, which is something. But the more important question is how it got this far. Multiple whistleblowers raised concerns for years, and were ignored. Both the council and Surrey Police looked the other way, and in Ireland’s case it seems clear his cosy relationship with the police provided cover. This isn’t some minor slip-up. It’s exactly the sort of institutional failure we’ve seen again and again in other abuse scandals, where “community leaders” are treated as untouchable and anyone raising alarm bells is sidelined.
Then we get to the Bindel incident. A lesbian feminist journalist, who has been talking about safeguarding and women’s rights for decades, asks questions and the local MP has her thrown out. That’s extraordinary. It tells you the instinct is still to protect the brand, shut down scrutiny, and silence the awkward questions rather than confront what went wrong.
More generally, I think this all underlines why public bodies like the police, fire service, ambulance, etc. shouldn’t be involved in “social justice” type work at all. Their core job is to stop crime, put out fires, treat injured people etc. That’s where the focus should be. The more they get entangled in campaigns and “community engagement” of this sort, the more blurred the boundaries become, and the harder it is to hold them accountable when things go wrong.
Strip away the rainbow branding and the corporate fluff and what you’re left with here is very old-fashioned institutional cowardice.