Last week saw the imprisonment, for the first time, of someone found guilty of the crime of female genital mutilation. This development, welcome though it is, leaves an enormous elephant in the room - the fact that in 21st century Britain, after experiencing centuries of so-called Enlightenment, every year we still permit thousands of babies to be legally mutilated. I speak, of course, of male circumcision, the “weasel” term used to disguise the infliction of pain and suffering on new-born males.

If this practice did not already exist in our society, and we then came across people abusing baby boys by attacking their penises with knives, we would treat them as extreme paedophiles, lock them up and throw away the key. But because this grotesque behaviour is hallowed by cultural and religious delusions, and does not affect their babies, the majority of people turn a blind eye, or mumble something about multi-culturalism; rather than recognising that, as FGM was described in the recent trial, male circumcision should also be seen as a “a barbaric practice and a serious crime”.

Ronald McGrath

Langley Way, Watford