𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

When the state refused to act, the British people stepped in — and the truth is finally being forced into the open. This week should have stopped the country in its tracks. It didn’t. And that, in itself, tells you everything you need to know about how deeply broken our political establishment has become. While much of Westminster chattered on as usual, a genuinely historic event began in London: the start of the Rape Gang Inquiry, launched by Rupert Lowe MP and funded not by the state, but by the British people themselves.

More than £600,000 was raised by ordinary citizens who have had enough of lies, evasion and institutional cowardice. That fact alone should shame everyone who has spent years looking the other way. Yet much of the mainstream media barely mentioned it when it happened earlier this month.

This inquiry matters because it is doing what the establishment refused to do for decades: forcing the truth into the open. It is examining gang-based sexual exploitation, grooming gangs, and — crucially — the repeated failures of public authorities who were warned time and again and failed to act.

This is not about hindsight being 20/20. This is about warnings ignored, victims silenced, and officials more concerned with reputational risk and “community tension” than with protecting vulnerable girls.

Rupert Lowe has been absolutely clear about the purpose of this inquiry. It is not performative. It is not a talking shop. It is about action. Over the next two weeks, evidence will be gathered, testimony heard, and the full scale of institutional failure exposed.

And when that process is complete, the intention is justice — real justice — including private prosecutions where appropriate. Justice for the girls who were abused.

Justice for the families who were dismissed and ignored. Justice for a country that was systematically misled about what was happening in its towns and cities.

Contrast this with the behaviour of the political class. Let us not forget that Keir Starmer, and Jess Phillips opposed even commissioning local inquiries when they had the chance. Not a national inquiry. Even when the evidence was overwhelming.

Their instinct was delay, deflection and denial. Only once public pressure became irresistible did they announce a government-led national inquiry. That inquiry, we are told, will take three years and £65 million, led by Baroness Anne Longfield. Forgive the public if they are sceptical.

When the same political culture that failed the victims is tasked with investigating itself, confidence is understandably low. The question is not whether the state can spend money. It always can.

The question is whether it has the moral courage to confront uncomfortable truths, name those responsible, and accept consequences.

On the evidence of the past thirty years, the answer is no. That is precisely why Rupert Lowe’s inquiry is so vital. It exists outside the machinery of state complacency.

It is not constrained by political sensitivities or career preservation. It applies pressure — relentless, public pressure — and in doing so it increases the chances that the official inquiry cannot quietly dilute, delay or bury the truth.

More importantly, it gives victims something they have been denied for far too long: belief. Belief that they will be heard. Belief that their suffering matters. Belief that what happened to them was not an unfortunate “failure of process”, but a profound moral collapse that demands accountability.

This inquiry may also save lives. By exposing patterns of abuse, institutional blind spots and cultural evasions, it may prevent current and future victims from being groomed, exploited and destroyed.

That alone makes it one of the most important initiatives in modern British public life. History will judge those who tried to suppress this issue harshly. It should also remember those who refused to be silent.

Restore Britain’s inquiry is not just an investigation — it is an indictment of an establishment that failed its most vulnerable and then tried to forget them.

The truth is finally being dragged into the light. And that is long overdue.