3 responses to “Sparklebox statement due from Minister this morning”

1. 

   Gregory February 8th, 2010 at 14:57

   Ruane was sent other warnings – she refused to reply or acknowedge them. SF don’t really do child protection.

   Then you arrived – hurrah!

   So, top marks, the idea of a pedophile having a cash cow jacked into our schools browsers is too revolting to even think about.

2. 

   DC February 8th, 2010 at 19:52

   Oh brave Conall, dont stop there, check out below

   This echoes an age-old conundrum from the world of art. Can you value work produced by someone whose private life and acts you find appalling? Do the proclivities of those responsible for artistic or intellectual works have to be taken into account in their appreciation?

   Fiona MacCarthy wrote a biography of the sculptor and typographer Eric Gill in 1989 that dropped a small bomb on the art world.

   Gill was one of the most respected artists of the 20th Century. His statue Prospero and Ariel adorns the BBC’s Broadcasting House and the Creation of Adam is in the lobby of the Palais des Nations, now the European HQ of the United Nations in Geneva.

   But MacCarthy’s book revealed that he regularly had sex with two of his daughters, his sisters and even the family dog. These encounters he recorded in his diary.

   Piece of work

   For some of Gill’s fans, even looking at his work became impossible. Most problematically, he was a Catholic convert who created some of the most popular devotional art of his era, such as the Stations of the Cross in Westminster Cathedral, where worshippers pray at each panel depicting the suffering of Jesus.

   In 1998, spurred on by a cardinal’s praise for Gill, Margaret Kennedy, who campaigns for Ministers and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors, called for the works to be removed.

   “Survivors couldn’t pray at the Stations of the Cross. They were done by a paedophile. The very hands that carved the stations were the hands that abused.

   “He abused his maids, his prostitutes, animals, he was having sex with everything that moved – a very deranged man sexually.”

   But the Catholic Church would not budge an inch. The former Westminster Cathedral administrator, Bishop George Stack, retains an unequivocal view.

   “There was no consideration given to taking these down. A work of art stands in its own right. Once it has been created it takes on a life of its own.”

3. 

   Katoo February 13th, 2010 at 03:57

   Dear DC

   The idea of knowingly allowing convicted paedophiles to install software on school computers is ( AFAIK) unique to UK policing and educators.

   I think Conall also didn’t want schools in the 6-C ( if we can use the fenian expression) to be generating advertising revenue for a serial child pornographer.

   Katoo