Ok a lot were to blame for this, but where was the biological dad, that supposely loved this child so much, where was he????????????????

Sally, Winsford, cheshire

The father says in a statement that "he loved his son deeply". He also said he looked after baby P a few days before he died and that he was crying "daddy,daddy" when he took him home to his mother. My question is: WHY did the father hand him back over to his mother? WHY didnt HE notice the injuries

Steve, London, UK

For BABY P X

A little boy, sent for all to love,
Now gone to angels up above,
Now he will have all the care,
That I wish we could all share,
No more pain he shall have to endure,
Just so much LOVE, and needed care.

GOD BLESS YOU&KEEP YOU SAFE BABY P X

charmaine edwards, RIPLEY, Derbyshire

The lunatics (i.e. the London looney left wing of the trade unions) have probably taken over the asylum in Haringey

Once this particular rot sets into a particular public service it is very difficult to remove.

Hibberd, London,

Rest In Peace Baby P. May the Almighty take you and hold you in his arms. I will never ever ever forget you, beautiful baby.

Oudey Glover-Tettey, London, England

Brilliant article that illuminates the cancerous displacement of substance by process, of judgement and experience by centralised, simplistic and arrogant micro-management all across the public sector. Management consultants have a lot to answer for.

Michael, London,

Baby P, I am so upset about this poor child, how could they, the dog was probably treated better, do any of these people have other children? What of Baby P's father, why wasn't he given custody of the child? I am tortured by the thoughts of what this poor little boy went through.

Paula Mac Aodhagain, Tipperary, Ireland

Dr D has it exactly right - on the morals of Britain and on the state of its public services. Public administration is paralysed by a managerialism of targets, compliance checks, audits, idiotic mission statements, road maps, milestones and every other consultant born claptrap. Who will save us?

R Solicar, Exeter, England

Let's ban the use of the word "inappropriate" in all government writing. This useless word hides an appalling level of truth; when I see it, I want to puke.

Let's use instead, "sickening", "grotesque", "psychotically violent", and lastly, "bad enough to make you feel ashamed to be human."

iain, bedford, uk

Dr. Dalrymple is slightly off base when he writes "nothing can go wrong if the forms are filled in correctly."

It should read "no one can be blamed".

Excellent article. Copies of it and the intelligent comments posted in response should be sent to every MP and council member in the UK.

RW, Victoria, BC, Canada

The job of professional child protectors seems to have become impossibly difficult - and dangerous for some. Perhaps at some point we will have to face the fact that some people are not suitable to be parents - and should be prevented from assuming such a role. 1984 - maybe.

david, Ligneyrac, France

This country is full of unthinking droids. This is the problem.

The first reaction of most workers is defensive, task avoidance, shirk responsibility and pass it on, don't get involved.

From call centres to social workers: appallingly low levels of intelligence, common sense and respect.

Laura Roberts, London, UK

As a professional working with exceptionally vulnerable young people I deal daily with evidence of and disclosure of abuse. My job requires me to fill in forms about each concern - I have been asked to stop filling in so many as it is creating a paper backlog. Who am I protecting here?

Anon, Leeds, UK

Colin, we got into this mess by replacing individual professional judgment and responsibility with form filling to satisfy quality inspectors/auditors. BS5750 started it all in the early 80s, and it is still expanding. Quality is judged by record keeping, not actual performance. This is the result.

Stephen Mannering, Nottingham,

There is something grimly ironic about a news bulletin that juxtaposes a gut-wrenching catalogue of child cruelty with an appeal for more sperm donors, for it is statistically unarguable that two biological parents provide an altogether more stable and secure environment in which to raise a child.

Andrew Schofield, London, UK

We got into this mess by electing, three times, a government whose underlying ethos dictates that everyone being treated equally is more immportant that anything else. Hence a standard bureacratic approach which makes autonomy frowned upon, and kills common sense.

Jon Hatswell, Woking, UK

Reinstatement of the death penalty, anyone?

Archie, Thrapston, England

Dr. Dalrymple is to be congratulated on his analysis. having worked in inner city Primary Education, I have witnessed the bureaucratic 'Stakanovite' sinecurists he describes operate at first hand: his predictions on the net beneficiaries of this tragedy are also tragically accurate.

Dr. Steven Grainger, Southsea, UK

Ever since public services and servants stopped working for the public and began dictating to the public this trend has been increasing.

This needs to start a change at the top where MPs are accountable and actually represent their constituants.

Russ, Glasgow,

"How did we get into this mess?" Asks Colin from Shrewsbury. By ignoring the warning bells that the good Dr Dalrymple and other independently minded people have been sounding for a decade or more and following slavishly the doctrines of New Labour. That's how.

Paul, Saigon,

At last someone who has worked in the area willing to tell the truth about Public Sector gravy train. We might as well have no child protection and all the related costs than have what we have. It doesn't work. Better to take all at risk kids and send them to a decent boarding school - cheaper too.

Pennie, London,

I have asked myself since I returned homeagain, Just what has happened to England?
It seems few people are willing to speak the truth, stand up for what is right and stick their necks out, (especially for someone other than themselves).
I thought that those qualities were so once so very BRITISH?

Pat van der Veer, Liverpool, U.K.

I work for a large multinational alongside government agencies, and I can totally agree with pretty much all of what Dr D is saying. My work is full of frustration because of processes and forms, it does actually surprise me when tasks are completed, albeit 3 months late (because of reviews usually)

Chris, London, UK

"Baby P's mother and her boyfriend .. tortured him to death, not social workers"

Quite so, but it is the system the article complains of that overlooks this. It is ineffective against social ills if it tries to administer them out of existence via excessive process and the language of evasion

john, edinburgh,

This is a very balanced and, extremely ufortunately, entirely accurate article that reflects the self serving nature of our astonishingly incompetent and astonishingly expensive public services.

At the end of the day, reports will be published and no one at all will be held to account for failure

Peter, London,

Scott of Stirling - while it is true the mother & boyfriend were the ones who actually tortured Baby P to death, it is because scum like this exist we pay social workers to prevent such atrocities happening. Why, Why do they NEVER learn.

eileen, Gloucestershire,

Don't blame stepfatherhood, serial or otherwise - real dads can be just as terrifying. Jozef Fritzl was no stepdad.

Bob Samms, Warwick, UK

In current and past dealings with social workers, I would say that this article hits the nail squarely on the head.

Attempts to keep a child safe, are overwhelmed by stupidity and - frankly rotten - form filling. Male parents who care provably and deeply, are treated as 'abusive' and 'threatening

Charlotte Peters Rock, Knutsford, England

A few years ago I was mugged in Manchester at gunpoint. I called the police from the callbox in a highly traumatised state, who assured me they would be there straight away. They arrived 40 mins later. When I was taken to the police station, I went past a room full of bobbiles filling out forms

Charles, London,

Dr Dalrymple is probably one of the best commentators on the general state of the United Kingdom, not just restricted to medical matters, in any paper I've come across. Though medicine is the focus, the larger context is always taken into account. Thank you for the straight talk and thoughtfulness.

HTrivedi, London, UK

Good article, but yet another piece of commentary which seems to forget it was Baby P's mother and her boyfriend who tortured him to death, not social workers. His killers weren't ticking boxes or protecting their jobs, and no 'review' could explain their actions. Far more worrying than paperwork.

Scott, Stirling,

How do we get out of it? Read John Seddon, the Vanguard solution. Long story short, Command and control, target-driven, box-ticking behaviours are stripped out and all the time freed up by this can be used to do the work that we were supposed to do in the first place.

Alison Bell, Hamilton, Scotland

Use your eyes, trust your judgement and act! I agree with the comments on paperwork. No doubt all procedures will have been followed and forms completed so that's ok. The baby should have been in care just on the bases of the disgusting neglect let alone abuse.

s swallow, hillingdon, uk

My first reaction is to say that Dr D is just a bit too cynical. But on reflection maybe not, we do see this 'process-driven' workstyle all over the UK these days. Form over function, shift the blame, no one takes responsibility for anything. How did we get into this mess? How do we get out if it?

Colin, shrewsbury,