I'm not happy about the 'mood music' but I could have said that a year or two ago as well.
It was never going to be easy. I always said that I'd have been more optimistic if more of the stories had been 'new' rather than continuations of stuff that emerged/was rumoured decades ago. Because there were issues with historical shit media, shit spook games, political games, conflation of gay with paedophile, size of Tory closet. Plus all the stuff about choosing victims who would not be believed, and the difficulties of us being able to tell the difference between a damaged victim of high-level abuse, and damaged victims of other abuse whose reality is distorted and may have gone on to become abusers themselves.
There is ample evidence in regards elite priorities, closing ranks, and the upper echelons of society being treated differently. There is a lack of evidence in terms of victims of the highest profile alleged suspects. Not much has emerged that would better enable us to judge which accusations had truth to them, as little as there ever was to help us tell the difference between cover-up and untrue, scurrilous rumour.
The obvious exceptions are Cyril Smith and Janner, and further exploration of older cases that were known at the time (eg Peter Hayman). Heath and Brittan were always going to be impossible unless something concrete emerged, either because of effective historical coverup, or a lack of actual crimes and victims. I had hoped for more on the likes of Morrison, but the inquiry on that didnt really get any further than what scraps we'd already heard in the press, and many of the witnesses were deeply unimpressive. I had also hoped that we might get a bit more on Dolphin Square, but I dont think that went anywhere either.
I dont think the inquiry will have much trouble in damning institutions for their priorities and failings. Beyond that, we needed compelling evidence of things to emerge and mostly this hasnt happened. And no fresh coverup was required for this to happen, any original coverup decades ago, and the subsequent passage of time, was sufficient. Or a lack of actual abuse from the highest levels.
Beyond the highest levels, good things still happened post-Savile. Up and down the country, many people have had their day in court and seen the perpetrators of historical abuse against them face some justice. But most of these perpetrators were not high enough level for those who were only interested in the big names getting nabbed. And of course many people didnt get full justice because a lot of the perpetrators are old and had health issues that prevented trials, but at least the victims were believed this time.
Having said that, the push-back from certain quarters has been predictable and hideous and demonstrates that plenty of priorities are still twisted. The message seems quite deliberate. And the whole process has fallen well short of meaningful truth and reconciliation. In some ways the establishment could actually have done with a few high-profile names to be brought to justice, in order to 'draw a line under things' and start to create a new foundation of trust. Similar reasons probably explained why the police came out with statements about trusting the supposed victim, but they picked the wrong case.
