Fiddling

Like you, I have never met a paedophile. I mean, we might have done, in the way that we might have met a Muggletonian, But we are wholly unaware of having done so, you and I both. Yet this country's cultural and political elite cannot get out of bed, if that, without tripping over one or more nonces. And every single time, our betters had had no idea. Or so we are invariably expected to believe.

The truth is that like illegal drug use, the sexual abuse of children, especially but not exclusively adolescent males, is fundamental to cultural and political power in this country, both those practices themselves and the opportunities that they present for blackmail. That in turn crosses over with the endemic sexual harassment and assault of male staff who are barely, if at all, into adulthood.

To silence Her comprehensive critique of the ideology known as centrism, the Catholic Church has been accused of being a hotbed of such activity in terms that are in fact as risible as QAnon, and barely distinguishable from it. Anyone who really believed them would be on par with anyone who really believed that. Centrism and right-wing populism are con tricks to sell exactly the same economic and foreign policies to different audiences by pretending to wage a culture war. At times, even their tactics are practically and effectively identical.

At the very least, those making such claims against the Church should be asked whether the behaviour alleged would be unacceptable in their own circles. Since it is almost always sex with postpubescent boys, then that question would answer itself. Again as with illegal drugs, they should be asked directly whether they had ever engaged in it. Moreover, the ones in Britain, at least, should always be asked whether the act in question would be illegal both in every member-state of their beloved European Union, and in every one of their beloved United States of America. By contrast, Catholic Canon Law has a specific offence of sexual activity with anyone under 18, regardless of any lower age of consent, if there even is one, in the civil jurisdiction where it took place. It is beyond dispute who has the moral high ground.

Huw Edwards's sentence suits the liberal elite down to the ground, since the objections to it are coming from those sections of opinion which they regard as illegitimate. No good is done by complaining that Edwards has been treated more leniently than the Just Stop Oil and similar nuisances, who may not all have deserved as long as they got but who did deserve something, or the rioters, who have themselves been let off appallingly lightly. Centrists consider themselves proved right by criticism from either of those quarters. Never mind both.