to think that in 2012 we are both enlightened and educated enough to tell the difference between a homosexual and a paedophile?

[isupposeimabitofafraud]

Hey Mr Cameron?

Care to explain your comments on This Morning?

The only thing I'm getting out of that, is his own prejudices and the whiff of a lack of leadership and yet another cover up.

If Mr Cameron wants to save his own neck and not drown in this sick sea of corruption then taking it seriously and not being dismissive of the claims and accusing people of homophobia, might be a good place to start...

Together with an overall inquiry into why there have been so many institutional failures with regard to child protection and to gather all the conclusions of the 6 million other investigations that have been started post Jimmy Savile, for their findings are scattered to the four corners of the country by the wind.

I'm fuming. I don't want crappy ill thought out warnings about a witchhunt, it wouldn't BE a witchhunt, if the government actually started to take control of the scandal and handle it properly, sensitively and starting taking it seriously rather than acting reactively.

For weeks it was obvious that the Jimmy Savile revelations were going to spread and given what the government do know, and the fact they have both the intelligence and foresight to be able to see the direction it was going to head and act accordingly. Instead they have sat on their hands and hoped it would all die down, go away and we'd all forget about it. Well I'm not forgetting about it. I want PROPER answers and an institutional change of attitude and action. Not more crap.

Isn't this exactly how we got into this mess in the first place, by officials dismissing those who did report or trying to discredit them?

Haven't they learnt ANYTHING yet?

/rant.

[Jux]

I'm afraid that a lot of the parents at dd's primary would quite happily equate homosexuality with paedophilia. Don't underestimate the level of ignorance stupid people are capable of aspiring to.

[JaquelineHyde]

Am I the only person in the world who doesn't have a clue who any of the people on the list were. Or who anyone else being bandied around the internet is?

[TheCraicDealer]

I almost don't want to know, and I'm usually a nosy cow. DC was right, and although the homosexual/paedophile point was clumsily made, he had just been presented with a list of people (quite possibly colleagues, people he knows well) who were being touted as child abusers on live telly. Hardly gives you ample time to think of a perfectly measured response. This could so easily turn into a witch hunt. Trial by media is not going to help anyone, he was right to tell PS to take his "evidence" to the police.

LOL at Phil thinking access to google makes him a hard hitting investigative journalist, though.

[VoiceofUnreason]

A glimpse at the headline on the front page of this morning's Daily Star (no, I don't read it, I saw it when at the garage) shows you just how DC was right and PS was wrong. Talk about fuelling the morons.

[DontmindifIdo]

djelibeybi - yes Jimmy Savile was different, noone (other than the children he abused) had a good reason for wanting to bring him down. An MP on the other hand, has at least one, usually 2 people after his job and an alligation just before an election would normally be enough to do that. I find it hard to believe that if rumours were well known, then opposition wouldn't put that in the public domain, and that all the police who would have to be involved were all Tories, that none would want to leak it to get another MPs in.

And while I can believe if the whips office had heard about it, they would want to cover it up, but I also can't believe they'd let that MP stand for another election with a risk of it coming out at an inopportune moment, they would want to encourage them to stand down to minimise the risk. Remember, the Tories have always been far less loyal to their own MPs if they show the slightest weakness than the Labour party has been. Anyone who's seen as a vote loser in a seat they should otherwise get is encouraged to "spend more time with their family".

[MulledWineOnTheBusLady]

There is some hilarious backpeddling from Schofield in the paper today. He seems a little confused though:

"Unfortunately there may have been a misjudged camera angle for a split second as I showed the prime minister some information I had obtained from the internet."

Does he think no-one apart from Hard-Hitting Journalists? can see the internet?

[Pagwatch]

Well Peter Tatchell was on Radio 5 supporting Cameron this morning. So I am not sure that every one concerned about part of the public linking homosexual with paedophile is part of a Tory conspiracy

[limitedperiodonly]

If Dave doesn't like stunts perhaps he'll stop going on programmes such as This Morning expecting an easy ride in front of the housewives with Phil and Willobooby.

Let him submit to an interview on his piss-poor record in government and disastrous non-policies with a proper journalist. He wouldn't dare.

Failing that, he could turn up to Prime Minister's Questions as required instead of releasing self-serving pictures of himself on the phone to Obama and farting around the Middle East, dodging scrutiny on the economy and pretending to be a world statesman.

This Morning and Schofield are what they are. Dave and all the other politicians who cynically go on it deserve what they get.

[FreudiansSlipper]

Have any of us seen this list, no I do not want names

I would like to think that no one now questions those that choose to not disclose their sexulity some may have felt they had to hide their sexuality to progress in politics it would be foolish to deny this and really do these people who havechooses to hide their sexuality never been questioned who they are really interested in

How many people still think that young girls dressing up in revealing clothes attracts paedophiles. Of course i am against this as hate to see sexualisation of children but it does not make someone sexually attracted to children but some feel it is as some still feel a gay man is more likely to be attracted to young boys than a straight man might be

Why deny this, it was the point I feel DC was making. PS is a fool he was only trying to improve his own reputation that has come under attack recently and it has backfired

[VoiceofUnreason]

Notice that in The Guardian another victim of the abuse at North Wales has come forward to say that he does NOT believe that the top Tory whose name is all over the internet (and whom The Guardian names) and was the subject of the Newsnight report was involved in the abuse. He believes it may have been a relative and that said top Tory is innocent.

Also, the guy who came forward and was interviewed for Newsnight told the 1997 inquiry into the abuse that he believed his abuser was dead. The top Tory in question is still very much alive.

These two facts alone prove why 'trial by Twitter' and what Schofield did yesterday are dangerous.

[CrikeyOHare]

How many people still think that young girls dressing up in revealing clothes attracts paedophiles. Of course i am against this as hate to see sexualisation of children but it does not make someone sexually attracted to children but some feel it is as some still feel a gay man is more likely to be attracted to young boys than a straight man might be

Yes, exactly.

It's odd. I'm a heterosexual woman who fancies men - like a gay man does. And nobody expects me to therefore secretly fancy little boys, so why would anyone think that about gay men?

Lurking deep beneath the surface, some people do still see homosexuality & lesbianism as a perversion, and equate it in their minds with paedophilia & even bestiality. This becomes quite evident in conversations about gay marriage - "Oh, I suppose people will want to marry their horses next!" WTF?

DC was right, in this instance.

[MrsjREwing]

I was annoyed with Scofe, due to the way he behaved towards Savile's survivors.

I think differently to those on this thread, I think Scofe did simething good, he asked DC if people who are suspected peadophiles will be spoken to as the internet savvy population are discussing the list on the card.

I would think it best to rule out or prosecute those names asap.

WTF has it got to do with being gay? What an odd thing to say!

Psychopaths are attracted to hurting people, Man, Woman or child, by hitting, head fucking etc, they have no empathy, they get off on power, control and getting away with conning others.

"It is well known psychopaths are in positions of power" quote Jim Fallon on BBC Horizon, good or evil?

I really don't understand the people falling for DC's bullshit?

[MrsjREwing]

Lord McAlpine has made a statement.

[MulledWineOnTheBusLady]

I would think it best to rule out or prosecute those names asap.

PS asked if DC was going to "speak to" the people on the list, which is such a screamingly inappropriate suggestion from every possible point of view it makes me want to weep. If there are allegations about those people, they need to be put to the police investigating.

[MrsjREwing]

Well McAlpine made a statement, I think it was the Guardian that named him today, and Sally Bercow named him last weekend on Twitter. Better the names "out there" just get looked at and ruled in or out now.

[Nancy66]

wonder what Tom Watson has got to say for himself

[Bongaloo]

I don't think Pip's problem is that viewers may have been able to make out names (anyone so inclined to pause the TV could just spend that 3 mins online like he did).

""I asked for his reaction to give him the opportunity to make a point which he very clearly made about the dangers of any witch hunt.""

[economistextra]

I think it's time to bring back justice for abused children. Name and shame convicted paedophiles, let the public choose justice, its clear that the justice system doesn't reflect the wishes of the majority and this is supposed to be a democracy. Make paedophiles fear being caught and convicted, I believe the majority of the public would like hanging to be brought back for them.

[SamuelWestsMistress]

Schofield was acting the saviour and just looked a proper twat. I've really liked him for so very many years and to be honest went off him when he did that in the blink of an eye. What a fool.

[LineRunner]

Cameron did not handle that intervew at all well.

[thumper1806]

I think the whole "homosexual" reference was unfortunate, but not wholly surprising in light of so e of the most recent reavelations (I'm thinking specifically of the boys home in North Wales).

With this is mind, given that all of the alleged victims, and all of the alleged perpetrators are male, the conclusion thaqt most people will draw when trying to think of who might have been invloved is to focus on those whe were rumoured to be gay.

Now, I've seen some of the names and the reasons they have been linked to the case, and some of the reasons are tenuous at best, focussing mainly around the persons sexuality. Now, we know that homosexuality does not equal child abuser, but unfortunately that's the means by which these blogs etc are identifying possible suspects, (ie. Joe Blogs was known to have had a secret relationship with a male before, so he was probalby involved!).

I think DC was right in what he was saying, but that he missed a step in explaining why, making everyone think he had drawn his own conclusions or was muddying the water.

[MulledWineOnTheBusLady]

Yes, MrsJR, but by the police investigating, not by the PM! I don't want to live in a country where the PM goes around interrogating citizens because a TV presenter gave him a list of suspected paedo names off the internet.

[PeshwariNaan]

Look, I NEVER agree with DC and I agree with him here. It smacks of Brass Eye.

[Nancy66]

Dear Prime Minister

here is a list of poofs. Can you please have them all locked up.

Thanks

Philip Schofield

[DuelingFanjo]

"some feel it is as some still feel a gay man is more likely to be attracted to young boys than a straight man might be"

I still do not understand why DC had to bring being gay into the interview. Why couldn't he have said 'Actually Phillip I don't think that's an appropriate thing for me to be commenting, it is far better that a proper investigation be done than us looking at a list from the internet which may not be correct'

Why did he even bring homosexuality into it?