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Government risks civil unrest over pensions
New Party sympathises with expenses backlash MPs
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New Party calls for BBC to end its 'discrimination' of smaller political parties
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Richard Vass' letter to the national press
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Who are the real progressives?
Memories of '76
The reactionary left
The Democratic Imperative
Socialism for shoppers
Spivocracy in action
Precisely
The abdication of leadership
Rebuilding communities
The loser tendency
The United Nations: what moral authority?
How to banish cynicism
The Chancellor's iron grip - on power
British politics: Is it dead yet?

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Are you now or have you ever been...?

It is regrettable that a number of celebrated children's authors have only belatedly recognised the restrictions under which teachers and others who work with children are required to work these days. Nevertheless they have a point.

It is insulting for anyone to be asked, effectively, to answer the question "Are you now or have you ever been a paedophile?", and scarcely less so to be asked to pay £64 for the privilege of being certified by the government on the basis of your answer.

We may well ask whether this sexual McCarthyism is justified. Any such justification must surely rest on its success in protecting children, but if this is the criterion we ought to ask why such questions are not asked of every parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle or cousin, given that most sexual abuse of children takes place within the family.

Furthermore, no system of child protection, however stringent, can ultimately protect children from determined acts of evil, or unpredictable acts of madness, as the recent attack by a teacher on a student in Nottingham has demonstrated.

The real reason the government's approach is wrong is that it doesn't work, and cannot work.

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Are you now or have you ever been...?