"For those who would like to castigate me for sudden 'conversion',"

I may have wrongly (paranoid, moi?) taken this comment as a swipe in my direction. Keith (whoever he is) is not my friend, either virtually or in real life. I do however find it problematic that I find myself in an arena where I feel alienated from those I would usually identify with, and instead occupying a space more commonly occupied by those of a rather different political stripe than my own.

That however is of course my issue. Meanwhile, here is another article by Julie Bindel from Dec. 2010 on the same topic (also flagged up by the same poster at Carespace) Gangs, Girls and Grooming, whose conclusion sums up some of my already expressed feelings on this matter:

"These gangs will be allowed to operate with impunity if we deny their existence in some sort of twisted attempt to be anti-racist and culturally sensitive. Some people, including many white liberals, are loath to admit what it is going on. If we do not tackle the problem head-on, and work together to combat this dreadful abuse of children, the only beneficiaries will be the extremists."