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

[morningpaper]

A great article by Boris Johnson about our obsession with peederfiles

Well done that man!

Children's lives are being stunted and restricted by an adult terror of something that really isn't there most of the time. There are more men who like or are indifferent to children than are a danger to them.

Brilliant article and one I definitely agree with (even if Boris is generally a prat).

There's one male teacher at DS1's primary school and the new head due to start in January is also male - not bad for a school that only has 6 classes.

Only yesterday DS1 said "when I'm in yr2 (he's only just gone into yr1 LOL) I want Mr. xxxxx as my teacher as he's really cool".

And (as well as being a mechanic and a cook) he also wants to be a teacher like Mr xxxx.

Most abuse of children is sadly done by a relative. External risks are few and far between and there is certainly no more of it about than there ever was, less because children are watched more.

As children we played a lot in woods/a park. Sometimes there were flashers. My mother said the best thing to do was just go away and also laugh at them - that's a small one or aren't you cold or whatever. It certainly never shocked us. My daughter saw a naked flasher (quite rare those in London winters) in the park near her school. Again he was harmless.

I saw a flasher on a school cross-country (I was lagging quite a long way behind ). He said "look at this little girls" and opened his coat. I shrieked with laughter and had to be dragged away by my friend.

My grandmother was flashed at on a tube train, looked, sniffed and said "I've seen better".

However, I am not emotionally scarred and I don't view all men with trepidation as a result.

well I think you should report flashers as they could start off doing something like this and move on to more hideous things

and they are quite clearly mad to boot

we had a flasher around here a few weeks ago, they headline in the paper was 'watch out for pervert!' i suppose that made me panic a bit.

Of course he was reported! We were at school!

This sort of thinking was happening even years ago, sadly. I once had 'fun' booking an overnight sleeper train for my two ds's and me. I was told that ds2 was ok as he was less than 5yo but rules forbad males and females sharing a compartment unless they were adults. Ds1 could share with dh but dh wasn't coming with us on this occasion.

I was almost shouting down the phone to them that FGS, ds1 is my SON, he's SEVEN years old, and no, his father ISN'T coming with us so they CAN'T share. I did eventually get tickets but it was all 'very irregular madam'.

suedonim - that is so yuck isn't it? What the were they afraid would happen. Sick minds. And you were the one who was being 'irregular'........?

'Even as I write, I can imagine the lip-pursing of some of my lovely high-minded readers. How would you like it, they will say, if some weird chap was plonked next to your kids? And they are right that I would worry about some strange adult sitting next to my children, chiefly because I wouldn't want the poor fellow to come to any harm.'

that would be my thougth as well. they'd need full body armour around my kids!

Attitudes do seem a lot more sane in Europe. Last Easter break, we spent some time in Paris. DS2 was in the middle of a fierce man fetish. He decided some bloke in a park was really really nice, and sat on his lap for ages. The man was slightly surprised, but ok about it - I think embarassed because DS2 was clearly preferring him over the bloke he thought was DS2's dad (but wasn't, was just a good friend).

It was all very bizarre, Joelallie. I sometimes think the world's gone mad. Dd1 went to the US as an unaccompanied minor when she was 12yo. She was sat next to a woman who created such a hullubaloo about having a child next to her that dd had to sit in a crew seat for take off! Luckily, dd was eventually seated with a really nice elderly American woman and also had a chat with Sean Connery to pass the time.

What is wrong with sitting next to a child? OK.....a family of toddlers might make you take a deep breath and wish you were elsewhere but a 12 yr old? Perhaps she thought she was younger and that she might try and talk to her all the time or get air sick and puke all over her! I find it hard to beleive that the staff agreed to move her at that woman's say-so.

She had a good time anyway.

Bravo Boris!

bump for the horrified-at-4-year-olds-in-knickers crowd

MP, I agree with this article.

Well, knowing exactly how ridiculous you think my opinions are has really made my night.

Alex in the Telegraph did a fab strip when this thing first blew up - I cut it out and had it stuck up in the kitchen for yonks. It was a looong time ago (because it's crisp and yellow now!) so I'm amazed that this has just come up again but it went like this:

Have you heard that BA's new policy is that any lone man sat next to an unaccompanied child will be reseated somewhere else?

Sadly, a necessary precaution, Clive - if they're going to protect the vulnerable in our society against unwelcome or inappropriate attentions from a few vile and repellent individuals.

I suppose so... but then what kind of message do you think this policy sends out to children about men in general?

That we ought to be left alone because we've got work to do, or need a nap...and we do NOT wish to be bothered by some yammering puking midget with a gameboy on at full volume...

I do wonder why it didn't occur to her that he was their father - have his kids got black hair or something?

nearlythree I have the greatest repect for you and your opinions, and I always read your posts with a great deal of interest

However I think that when we are going to start berating primary school teachers just because we are "uncomfortable" and can't say why, we need to bring ourselves back to the rules of logic and not just talk vaguely about feelings of discomfort

Great article, totally agree.

I have a friend who is obsessed with police checks. She doesn't like the fact that the receptionist at her dd's ballet school isn't checked as sometimes she takes the girls to the toilet, and she thinks it is right that when parents help out at pre-school they can't even accompany their own children to the loo unless they have been checked. She was annoyed I never bothered to get myself checked when I used to help at a church thing. She also gets freaked by seeing children playing in the nude on the beach: 'you never know who could be watching'. Apart from the sheer paranoia it means she takes her eye off where any real danger is likely to come from - her friends and family.

I'm really glad that dd1's school has a male head and male teachers esp. now I have ds. Dh helps out too, and at the pre-school, and with the pre-school in particular it's really sad to see how much the boys revel in having a man around.

MP, should have said that I look out for your posts too. I only get upset on here when I disagree with someone whose opinion I care about!

i was in a local park with dd and dh and he was sitting on a bench taking photos of her with zoom lense because hes a lazy so and so ,and this other man who was obviousley a weekend dad came over to me and asked if my dh was with me ,he thought he was a peaodophile!! oh how we chuckled ! NOT.

i once experienced a flasher ,i used to have a horse and regularly went to muck it out alone , one day i was out in the field picking up horse poo and there was a man in the woods next to the field releiving himself and not having a tinkle if you know what i mean ,he did this for several weeks intermittantly until one particularly cold and frosty morning he was there and i thought this is just silly and wandered across the field towards him with the biggest muck shovel i could find and shouted 'arnt you worried it will drop off in this cold?' that was the last i ever saw of him!

Ooooh, my lips would be pursing if DS was sat next to a Tory on a plane!!

LOL at the article!