Boris Johnson: Come off it, folks: how many paedophiles can there be?

[morningpaper]

A great article by Boris Johnson about our obsession with peederfiles

Did you see the Panorama report last night on Bail Hostels. Lots of LOOKOUTHE'SBEHINDYOU! style reporting.

the seating on flight things are a bit silly. but i suppose boris doesn't live in a place which most ex offenders would live in anyway.

What, London?

"To all those who worry about the paedophile plague, I would say that they not only have a very imperfect understanding of probability; but also that they fail to understand the terrible damage that is done by this system of presuming guilt in the entire male population just because of the tendencies of a tiny minority."

I SO agree

He really is a very good writer. He has a really good turn of phrase. You can just hear his bumbling voice as you read it.

Yes you can

he is fab

Eminently sensible article. He is a good writer, yes. Not so bumbling as he so cleverly pretends to be.

I can't stand him ... but I do love the article. Thanks for the link!

he's right of course

Oh yes, he's right.

It's boggling how much people don't realise how rare all this is. I'm forever explaining to people that kids are at much greater risk of being run over than molested by a stranger. And much greater risk of being molested by a family friend or relative than a stranger.

And the abduction risk is 99.9% estranged family, too.

That is a wonderful article and so right. My DSs have very very few male role models - no grandfathers or uncles near here, a DH who does not like playing sport and had no father around himself so is unconfident with them, and no male teachers at primary school. Only football coaches and they get such a hard time from some parents. They have a clever clogs sister and a mum who likes to 'wear the trousers' - what sort of message is this giving out about the value of boys / men in today's society?

agree, nqc, family members far more likely to be responsible

I guess it's a bit like the classic female fear of stranger rape. I asked a large group of women on a women's site, ages ago, if anyone had been raped by a stranger. Nobody had. Quite a few had been raped by "friends", though.

A friend of ours, a warm, funny, laid-back, intelligent man, has recently given up teaching at primary school level. There were a couple of reasons for doing so, but one of them was the sense of always being 'under suspicion'. I suspect he was a really fun and 'different' teacher and just the kind of person you might connect with as a 9yo boy.

Oh dear, I do hate agreeing with Boris Johnson. But, um... [looks round nervously in case anyone is watching and thinks this is setting a precedent] hurrah!

we have 3 male teachers at our primary school, I wish there were more.

My brother is a primary school teacher and has the same reaction Issymum. It makes me exceptionally angry. Someone I was speaking to about him actually made a paedophile comment to me - about my brother. Did he think I would find it amusing FGS?

I remember shortly after I joined MN there was a thread about whether you would employ a male nanny, and I was really shocked at the response. It made me awfully sad that ds was growing up in this atmosphere.

we've never had any applicants from men for our nursery jobs - I so wish we had (one friend had 2 men working in theirs) as a range of ages/sexes is ideal, imo

becky, my brother's a priest so the comments I get are even worse

The school DS will probably be going to currently has one FT male teacher and another who teaches a few specialist lessons. I am fervently hoping they hang on to him (he recently married one of the other teachers so there's got to be a chance they'll both stick around).

very good article

i agree

Yeah, the gender thing is a big reason why I love the co-op DS2 goes to. None of the staff are male, but there are a few dads who do shifts, which is great.

oh I love Boris, agree with every word

we were at the park a few weeks ago and a little boy of about 3 went flying in his eagerness to get to a tractor thing

dh was nearest and went to pick him up as it was the immediate human response and then paused and dithered and looked about

another man rushed over and they did this sort of 'errrr, hmmmmm' dance with the man saying 'oh he is my grandson, his dad is over there' with both of them wondering if they looked suspicious

very annoying this paranoia

agree oliveoil

when DH was at the park playing with our two girls another little girl came up to him and started trying to hold his hand

he was MORTIFIED

he started running away in terror and she kept following him

In contrast, when I was in Spain last month, I dropped the baby on the train (like you do) and a young man immediately scooped her up without hesitating and passed her to me - you would NEVER see that in this country anymore

tragic

lol and awwww at mp's dh

Great article.

A little unsure about his comments on physics and maths teachers, but otherwise - spot on IMO.