Paedophilia Scandal In Downing Street Sparks New Outrage, Old Questions

The revelations over Downing Street's failed cover up of senior aide David Rock's arrest for child pornography last week have thrown sex scandals in to the news yet again. Starting with Saville and others from the BBC in 2012, more recently schools and now unbelievably the Commons; these stories have rarely been absent from the papers over the last few years,
This to me, is worrying on multiple levels. Firstly the thought of a person trusted to formulate policy and advise on the running of the country being involved in child pornography is of course deeply troubling; you would think that for all our Government's faults they might be able to manage a decent back ground check on their staff. However what I find more shocking, especially in the more serious cases of serial offences such as Saville's, is that these people were never challenged by colleagues and that victims were continually ignored. Looking back at the details of the Saville cases now, it appears glaringly obvious that abuse was taking place, and the question to be asked therefore in this and all the other cases is why has it taken until now for it to be exposed. The answer is not particularly palatable; these paedophiles or sexual predators exposed recently all share one thing in common, other than the disgusting nature of their crimes, and that is that they are all in positions of power and trust. Radio DJs, head teachers, policy advisors; all positions that provide them with enough of a standing for a suspicious colleague to tell themselves 'surely not' and ignore it, or those who knew to simply turn a blind eye. This is what scares me, that we live in a society that despite our pretences at modernity still contains the level of blind deference to authority that allows crimes such as these to go unreported for  so long .
The only positive to be drawn from this is that these crimes are finally emerging, maybe 50 years too late in many cases but this is still an important step and indicates the beginning of change. The argument made by some that these things should be left in the past and not 'dragged up for no reason' bemuses me, justice should be done no matter how late, for the sake of the victims still suffering from the consequences of crimes that could have been avoided were it not for the cowardice of far too many people. The positive effects of this are showing already, many more victims have been given  the confidence to speak out  in turn and one by one the failings of the past are being at least acknowledged if not repaired. The question of why they were allowed to happen in the first place however is one which will continue to be asked for a good while yet.

Caitlin