YP Letters: Actions louder than words on British values

THERE is a glaring flaw, in the call from Communities Secretary Sajid Javid MP, for public servants and local politicians to demonstrate that they uphold values which form the “building blocks of our society” (The Yorkshire Post, December 19).

In April, MPs voted not to provide urgent help to young, unaccompanied refugee children, with families in the UK. They were left exposed to physical, emotional and sexual abuse and exploitation.

That was in defiance of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which we ratified in 1991. Even if Sajid Javid and others see international law as a ass, our international reputation could be restored, if we urgently and fully integrate the UNCRC with all domestic legislation and do so in memory of the late Jo Cox MP, so brutally murdered six months ago in Birstall.

If we only show respect for the rule of law when politically expedient to do so, we may be blindly led down the Australian path. Last year, it passed a law to imprison doctors, nurses, social workers, teachers and others, if they expose failures of the government to put a stop to the torment, torture and rape of adults, sexual abuse of children even under the age of five and the failure of babies to thrive because of deprivation.