Baroness Butler-sloss Cannot Be Trusted with the Inquiry into Institutional Abuse

The Times
July 11, 2014

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/leaders/article4145660.ece

The government’s decision this week to order a wide-ranging inquiry into allegations of child abuse in major public institutions was a mistake. The inquiry’s scope is too broad to offer any realistic hope of a timely or worthwhile outcome. It is now clear that the appointment of Baroness Butler-Sloss to lead the inquiry only compounds the original mistake.

For the inquiry to serve any useful purpose its leader must be a person beyond any suspicion of bias towards the institutions being investigated. Lady Butler-Sloss is not that person. Following her appointment this week she insisted she had “never...