"I recently watched the old black-and-white movie How Green Was My Valley, which I had not seen in years. It was not the scenes of pit disasters, poverty and paralysis which lingered with me afterwards but instead one which would have appeared in no way extraordinary when the film was first released: the preacher takes a young boy on a walk, sits with him under a tree on a spot overlooking the valley, puts his arm round him and tries to give him some philosophy for coping with life’s twists and turns. It is an innocent, avuncular moment."Today every vicar, priest, teacher and youth worker is warned against such companionship, however innocent. To be deliberately alone with a child at all would give rise to hysterical or busybody reactions let alone to be found in isolated surroundings with an arm around the lad’s shoulders. Yet such relationships between the generations are natural and the overwhelming majority of them conceal no dark agenda..."
Ann Widdecombe, The Daily Express
• Ms Widdecombe will be appearing in panto later this year - Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs at The Orchard Theatre, Dartford.
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" To be deliberately alone with a child at all would give rise to hysterical or busybody reactions".
ReplyDeleteYeah and it's perpetuated by people like you Widdecombe, Quasimodo's fugly sister has spoken.