Hate, hypocrisy and hysteria

When it comes to sex, Britain now seems to be gripped by a dangerous form of schizophrenia. On the one hand, there is mounting panic over the issue of paedophilia, where a media-driven climate of hysteria means that even the mere allegation of child abuse can be enough to destroy careers and wreck lives. Yet, on the other hand, we have a youth culture that is obsessed with sex. In the relentless promotion of adolescent sexual freedom, all moral boundaries have disappeared, pornography has been brought into the mainstream and the law on the age of consent is derided or ignored.

It is this grotesque double standard which makes the witch hunt against the Education Secretary Ruth Kelly so sickening. In recent days she has faced a barrage of calls for her resignation over claims that, through her incompetence, she has allowed an army of child abusers to be employed in our schools.