last night's moral maze dealth with paedophilia - woolly-minded discourse IMO.

Over the last few weeks many in Britain have been in pursuit of those most publicly hated of criminals – people who abuse children.

Tabloid papers have urged their readers to send in photos of convicted child molester Gary Glitter and some commentators have described him as the epitome of evil.

Our horror at the life-long devastation that such criminals wreak on their victims seems to go hand in hand with a fascination with the offenders themselves.

But is there a point where our hatred of paedophilia crosses over in to the persecution of thought-crimes? Or is this a uniquely damaging crime; one that is so vile that all decent people are duty-bound to hate the sinner even more than we hate the sin?

That's the new series of the Moral Maze starting this week.

PANEL: Michael Buerk (Chair); ⚠️ ↗ Melanie Philips ⚠️ ↗; Clifford Longley ⚠️ ↗; Claire Fox ⚠️ ↗; michael portillo ⚠️ ↗

guest contributors:-

john gaunt ⚠️ ↗(media pundit)

⛓️‍💥[Removed], therapist

sam warner ⚠️ ↗ ,psychologist

helen drewery from the quakers ⚠️ ↗