The Blight Of The Dirty-Minded

The backlash against sexualisation of children seems to be beginning. Not before time. For having sold sexualised images of children, many in the fashion industry should have been indicted on charges of promoting paedophilia years ago.

I saw somewhere yesterday that there may be a proposal on the table to ban the sale of 'lads mags' to under-16's. Note how the priorities are ordered; while it might be considered inappropriate for under-16's to be able to buy them, it will still be acceptable for over-16's to do so. Instead of being the preserve of both dirty old men and dirty young men, lads mags will instead revert to being the preserve of dirty old men. No actual step will be taken to suppress this filth; after all, boys will be boys, girls will be raped, and we'll all live happily ever after, or at least until the next stats on incest and teenage pregnancy are published - a typically British, typically nonsensical solution.

Publishers of filth often say that they are merely catering to a market need. This kind of comment appeals to a very old strain in British liberal thought, that which claims that everything should be allowed unless it is specifically banned. Mixed with leftism, secularism and the fact that the UK seems to possess a larger than average number of dirty-minded people, this has helped produce our culture of teenage pregnancy and adultery. What is not said of filth-publishers is that they should perhaps be considered to be dirty-minded bastards. They are not brave or heroic seekers of truth and speakers of truth to power, but exploiters of young women. Creating a culture in which many young women, regardless of background or intelligence, seem to have no problem with being exploited has been one of The Enemy's greatest achivements. Filth-publishers do nothing but gratify their own dirty-mindedness in public. If they did it in parks or public toilets, they'd be subject to the full power of the law. Nobody produces dirt unless they are dirty-minded; and if filth-publishers are dirty-minded bastards, then their readers and advertisers are dirty-minded bastards as well, and anyone who apologises for them is either weak-kneed or just another dirty-minded bastard.

Ed Balls's Abolition of Roman Catholicism Act, Law Number 2,715 of Year 13 or whatever the hell it's called, passed into law last week, the one that mandates that abortion and contraception be taught in faith schools. I have difficulties with faith-based education; however, the way one reads of it being done in areas other than the west of Scotland means that the problems it causes here might have little to do with faith-based education per se, and are more likely to do with the west of Scotland. In other words, it's not the schools that are the problem; we're the problem. However, it was fascinating to see any 'Question Time' panellist last Thursday evening fail to produce any reply to the question from the floor suggesting that the best place for these matters to be taught is in the home. Of course it is; I wouldn't ever want any possible dirty-minded bastard, male or female, encroaching into what would be my space as a parent to ensure that my child received instruction on what would be the most important matters in their life in a manner I think appropriate and to my satisfaction. The level of teenage pregnancy perhaps says less about general British attitudes to sex than might at first be thought; it could, however, provide a telling commentary upon the calibre of British sex education and the calibre of British teachers. The unwarranted apotheosis of 'the teacher' has made many teachers arrogant, believing that they are not 'in loco parentis' but 'parens patriae' instead. This attitude needs to be smashed. No other professionals are more accomplished moaners, whingers and special interest-pleaders than teachers; a short spell working in outbound telesales at near enough to minimum wage as makes no odds would do many of them no end of good. Some seem to find it impossible to relate to other adults on anything other than teacherly terms, an attitude capable of enduring only for so long as others are prepared to suffer it. It is gratifying to see that Glasgow City Council has offered early retirement packages to many older ones. For some of those who have hit this once in a lifetime jackpot, it will merely make de jure a state of affairs which has no doubt been de facto for many years.

However, just as the Child Support Act 1992 nationalised paternity, the Abolition of Roman Catholicism Act nationalises the parental right to guide a child in the manner the parent sees fit. If he were intent in living up to his name, Balls would just go ahead and nationalise sex altogether. After all, the Child Support Act ensured that all fathers have the same rights in determining what is an appropriate level of support for their child upon the break-up of their marriage; none. The Abolition of Roman Catholicism Act ensures that all parents have the same rights to provide guidance to their child and to regulate what they are taught; none. The complete nationalisation of sex, the state taking to itself the right to determine who people have sex with, is the logical next step. What's he waiting for? '1984', come on down! Eric Blair, where are you now?

Ever since Jeremy Bentham started pumping out his poison, the British elites have had a hell of a problem with sex. This has bred an incipient dirty-mindedness in them all. It is this dirty-mindedness, this sexual incontinence, this lack of moral fortitude, which is the root of all our problems with teenage pregnancy and broken marriages. They wish to behave like pigs stewing in stys (and I appreciate that that comment probably does grave dis-service to pigs), or have read so much evolutionary biology that they think that human beings should be considered to be little more than a better type of bonobo monkey. Such people should have bananas thrown at them, and be cuddled into like David Attenborough posturing with a troupe of great apes; if they think they're monkeys, they should be treated like monkeys, if only because it's what they would logically seem to want. I should perhaps be more charitable to such people; after all, they tend to believe that we're only here because the sky fell in one day. As my 10 year old niece would say - Hello? However, it is only when they pull up their socks, or indeed put them on again, that this problem will ever be solved.

God help us. And that's a prayer.