Sharon Shoesmith : sinner or sinned against?

Just posting this makes me feel a bit like the one hapless bloke at a public lynching who says "hang on a minute". But anyway, here goes.

I don't know if Sharon Shoesmith has a case to answer in the tragic and terrible case of Baby Peter - but that's the issue -no-one really does. The simple reason being that the woman has never had a hearing.

Unaccustomed as I am to actually defending senior managers in local government, I do retain the old-fashioned belief that even they have the right to present a defence for their actions.

What I do know is that once the tabloids got tired of their little witch hunt, children's social services remained dangerously overstretched and understaffed, and politicians of all major parties have no solutions.

I remain very suspicous of the motives of Ed Balls - a man whose top priority is his own PR, and I have a feeling that the remaing days of Shoesmith's hearing could be very uncomfortable for him.