"lalalalala...I can't heeeeear yooooo"

Philip Balmforth, a former police inspector, is the 'vulnerable persons officer' responsible for Asian women in the Bradford district — a post partly funded by Bradford social services. According to Ann Cryer, the Labour MP for Keighley who was at the Civitas meeting, through his singular skills he has prevented thousands of Muslim women from enduring forced marriages or honour violence. He is, in short, a community hero — or should be. But instead he has been suspended from his post and, said Ms Cryer, was today expected to be sacked.

His ostensible offence? It seems it was to have been reported in the press as saying that the true extent of the problem was not being grasped. This comment reported in the Times apparently sealed his fate:

Referring to the 33 girls missing in his area, he said: ‘If these girls are missing, who has been told? Who is doing anything about it? I want to know from every education authority, “How many children did you lose last year? And where are they?” At the moment, we just don’t know. It’s like knocking a nail into a piece of stone.’