Monday, June 19, 2006

Closer To Crabs Than Human Beings

In the midst of a piece about a policeman pointing out that publishing sex offenders' addresses might not be sensible, a Home Office spokesman says:

Mr Reid had only been home secretary for a short period of time, but had already made a number of statements about the protection of the public being paramount.

Apparently, the fact that after their addresses were made publicly available, a number of sex offenders in the United States were killed by vigilantes has no bearing on the protection of members of the public.

An afterthought: it has all become clear to me - the Home Office spokesman was thinking of pediatricians. No more torch-wielding mobs for them.

Update: now the News of the Screws, in defending itself against the allegation that it is deciding government policy, confuses the relationship between a newspaper and its readers with that between an MP and their constituents:

A News of the World spokesman said: "A newspaper's role is to represent readers...

Funny, I don't seem to remember any elections being held in which a tax-dodging plutocrat was picked to represent anyone.

3 comments:

Milan said...

Such registries do make a mockery of the idea that one's 'debt to society' can be paid off.

dearieme said...

Milan, but isn't that a very silly idea anyway?

Rob Jubb said...

Eh, maybe not. Remember we're talking about a debt to society, not to the victim.