Perverse logic

I must admit I am not a fan of the Nolan Show.  However, my job means that on occassion I have to listen to it.  As I drove into work this morning it was examining the issue of children who participated or were watching/in close proximity to the recent riots.  It was attempting to ask the reasonable question of where were their parents?

They invited on the Children's Commissioner to discuss the issue.  First it is interesting to note that it has taken 4 days for the CC to say something on this issue.  The statement does rightly focus on parents.  However, her performance on Nolan did not.  The comments of the Commissioner became mono-directional in trying to shift responsibility onto government agencies with platitudes about non-defined processes and with it left to Nolan to raise parents and adults directing the children.  This attitude of non-responsibility does nothing to resolve the situation.

Perhaps instead of paying for perverse logic with times becoming tighter someone may get around to asking not only why we have such a Commissioner but does she really need 23 staff or was their real value in her distributing a free full colour calendar in every Belfast Telegraph late last year.

PS In her statement she made mention of the North Belfast Taskforce spending.  Its spending in Ardoyne has had a consistent youth focus with such a large youth population it has always been a key community issue.  Ardoyne also enjoys greater statutory youth provision than the surrounding communities (IIRC about 6 times more per capita is spent on the youth of Ardoyne with two full-time youth clubs supported and supplemented (commendably) by a strong team of volunteers).  However, it does not provide a solution when many involved didn't come from the area.  It is hard for the North Belfast Taskforce to deal with youth who travelled from Armagh to participate in a riot.

UPDATE Chekov has a couple more examples of this dodgy line of thinking.