Paedo-geddon!

The Devil's Kitchen rightly points out this absurd and frustrating story - a vicar banned from a school for kissing a girl on the cheek. Frankly this is worthy of Chris Morris - it is beyond belief. I am surprised that they did not drag him from the school and burn him in a giant wicker phallus. It almost looks like a wind-up. Sadly it isn't.

There is a massive difference between someone kissing a child on the cheek and someone abusing a child. I cannot, cannot, understand how people do understand this very simple fact. How can showing affection to a child who has done well be interpreted as abuse?

And there is more to it than just the absurdity that someone links a kiss on the cheek with statutory rape. Is this really what it has come to? Are we so paranoid about paedophiles that we see them everywhere? This is like America at the height of McCarthy's power - rather than reds under the bed, we have paedos under the bed.

And how does this help children? They will grow up afraid of adults, and afraid of affection. Yes we have to teach kids to be careful and to avoid strangers. Monsters do exist, and kids need to be protected from them. But the fact remains that the chances of a child being abused by a stranger is far far far less likely that the chances of a child being abused by someone they know.