Goldie urges national debate on soaring rate of neglected children

Published on Saturday 24 May 2008 20:18

SCOTTISH Conservative leader Annabel Goldie has called for a national debate on neglected children and warned the problem is potentially as bad as drug abuse.

Goldie told the party's annual conference in Ayr that the number of youngsters referred to children's reporters for lack of parental care had "soared" from 16,000 in 2003 to nearly 19,500 three years later.

Her call came at the climax of an upbeat conference, which saw UK leader David Cameron address delegates in the wake of the Tories' decisive by-election victory over Labour in Crewe and Nantwich.

Goldie said: "Unless we are prepared to lead a debate on this deepening crisis, the problem will remain invisible like drugs abuse, not talked about in polite circles, and the very foundations of our society will be crumbling beneath us."

She sounded the warning in a closing speech to the conference, in which she tore into Labour – a "tormented and divided rabble" who, she said, were not even a credible opposition, let alone a credible defender of the Union.

She also made a sharp attack on SNP First Minister Alex Salmond, who she said had been given a gift by Labour's U-turns on an independence referendum. "Rejoicing over this mayhem, his smile getting smugger by the moment, his self-satisfaction oozing out of every pore – and there are many pores for it to ooze out of," said Goldie.