Petition enters Top 100 in less than a month – New Statesman reports on launch of ECDN – Times columnist Sathnam Sangera stand up for Sir Al & against detention – 71 MPs support motion to end child detention
End child detention now has become one of the fastest growing petitions on the No10 website registering over 1,350 signatures in less than a month. It is now one of the 100 most signed petitions out of 4555 on the Downing Street website. Among the many recent signatories ECDN was delighted to spot several award winning writers who have backed our campaign including Ali Smith, Andrea Levy and Gillian Slovo.
In today’s Times column Sathnam Sangera takes critics of the Children’s Commissioner to task for failing to recognise Sir Al Aynsley Green’s persistent objection to the detention of asylum seeking children and points out that had the Child Abuse and Neglect report been about puppies he would have received a welter of outraged emails and letters of support.
Meanwhile, the New Statesman which launched the award winning campaign ‘No Place for a Child’ – bringing the issue of child detention to a wide public for the first time, reports the launch of end child detention now in Daniel Trilling’s column under the headline ‘Not Suitable for Kids‘. The article kindly provides a link to the Downing Street petition – which I’m sure has brought in many more signatories so thanks Dan, we are pleased to be continuing the NS’s good work.
In the House of Commons, support for Chris Mullin and Peter Bottomley’s early day motion continues to grow with 71 MPs from all over the country now demanding an end to child detention. If your MP has yet to sign there is a model letter that you can adapt to request their support – we are particularly keen to get more Conservative MPs on board, so please make a special effort to write to your MP if she or he is a Conservative…
