The announcement over the weekend that John Reid is considering introducing an equivalent of Megan's Law into the UK smacks to me of political opportunism, and an attempt to divert attention from other issues within the home office - including the fact that the outrage caused by relatively lenient sentences awarded to a man who kidnapped a three year old were in fact the result of New Labour drawing up legislation and not the fault of the judge.
As I see it, the main issue involved in releasing the information is that it will stir up lynch mobs of the kind witnessed in Portsmouth a few years ago. Quite apart from the issue of vigilantism, this is a disturbing thought as during those riots a pediatrician was attacked by morons who couldn't tell the difference between a child doctor and a child molestor. On top of that, the wrong individuals were identified in a number of cases and attacked. I saw some archive footage over the weekend of hand written banners were the word paedophile was misspelt.
Citizens are entitled to the protection of the state if they are threatened - this is true regardless of what they may or may not have done in the past. In particular, if they have committed a crime and have served their sentence, it is not acceptable for individuals to take it upon themselves to add to their punishment. If John Reid were to publish the details of paedophiles released from prison, he would almost certainly be incurring additional costs involved with protecting those people from vigilantism.
Better changes would be to give the courts the authority to extend the sentence of paedophiles if there is a significant risk they may strike again. There is lots of evidence that paedophilia is compulsive (a lesson that tragically the Catholic Church learned the hard way) and if you have already committed the offence, it seems reasonable to want to keep you in prison until you are no longer a risk to other children.
One suspects however, that this bill is less about protecting children and more about whipping tabloid hysteria so that, combined with the World Cup, the public will forget about the complete mess they've made of running the Home Office.
Monday, June 19, 2006
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Death of "the Boss"
The news of Charles Haughey's death reminded me how much I've moved away from Irish politics since my move here. I learnt of the news through the ILUG IRC #linux channel. During the week, one friend remarked "you're getting more British with every passing day". I'm not sure if it was meant as a compliment or not, but I really don't care.
But back to "the Boss". Ever since a friend lent me the Scrap Saturday tapes I'll always think of him going "Meara" at an unfortunate PJ Meara (yes - I know its satire). There's little doubt that he was a flawed politician, and frequently the target of the Irish left. Yet during his career he was responsible for a number of changes that have shaped modern Ireland - including the abolition of the death penalty, patronage of the arts and the development of Temple Bar and the Irish Financial Services Centre in Dublin.
But back to "the Boss". Ever since a friend lent me the Scrap Saturday tapes I'll always think of him going "Meara" at an unfortunate PJ Meara (yes - I know its satire). There's little doubt that he was a flawed politician, and frequently the target of the Irish left. Yet during his career he was responsible for a number of changes that have shaped modern Ireland - including the abolition of the death penalty, patronage of the arts and the development of Temple Bar and the Irish Financial Services Centre in Dublin.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Baby's first world cup...and the heat...
This time last year I was packing up in our old flat before heading off to Singapore to get married. A lot has happened since - new job, the arrival of our gorgeous little boy. One thing that I still remember about the build up to the wedding was not handling the heat particularly well - the day before the wedding I had a terrible heat induced headache. Today has also been very hot, and right now I'm sitting in the back garden enjoying it.
It was supposed to be Baby's first world cup - we'd bought an outfit for him, but the little darling decided to go to sleep instead. It's probably the result of a morning when he was left along with Daddy while Mummy went to Tesco to do the shopping (the original plan had been Sainsbury's, but being a world cup match day I gather the car park was absolutely insane. E got to Tesco's in Romford only to find that the queue to get in was rather long).
Which rather nicely brings me to a very important point - there is really nothing that can match the feeling of spending the morning with your son on your knee and having him smiling at you. As I wrote that last sentence, baby showed his sense of irony and the little sweet heart decided to puke. Luckily he missed the laptop. And me for once!
It was supposed to be Baby's first world cup - we'd bought an outfit for him, but the little darling decided to go to sleep instead. It's probably the result of a morning when he was left along with Daddy while Mummy went to Tesco to do the shopping (the original plan had been Sainsbury's, but being a world cup match day I gather the car park was absolutely insane. E got to Tesco's in Romford only to find that the queue to get in was rather long).
Which rather nicely brings me to a very important point - there is really nothing that can match the feeling of spending the morning with your son on your knee and having him smiling at you. As I wrote that last sentence, baby showed his sense of irony and the little sweet heart decided to puke. Luckily he missed the laptop. And me for once!
Friday, June 02, 2006
how stupid can FIFA be?
From ireland.com:
In a letter to the Irish Football Association, Fifa insisted its officials should not be expected to determine whether a player fulfilled eligibility requirements on the basis of the Belfast Agreement.
"The fact that a player holds an Irish Republic passport does not demonstrate conclusively that he or she is eligible to play for Northern Ireland," the letter to IFA chief executive Howard Wells read.
Neither does a British passport you twits.
Rules and regulations
Maybe I'm just turning into a slightly grumpy old man, but I'm feeling a little peeved with the passport application process. As I've noted elsewhere, a number of major changes have taken part in my life over the last couple of years, and the two changes that are relevant to this story are my arriving in Brentwood from Ireland at the tail end of 2004 and the more recent arrival of my wee fella in Harold Wood Hospital on Good Friday.
In order to facilitate his visiting grandparents in foreign parts, he needs a passport. And the most wonderful woman in the world (aka my wife) was talking about going back to foreign parts with him in a few weeks.
This gives me a minor headache, as it appears that I need someone to countersign the passport form. This someone must be of standing within the community and have known me for two years. For added values, the someone must be a UK resident and be a UK or Irish citizen (this last one actually gets me my solution).
Of course, I know plenty of people who are "of standing" for a number of years but most of them are in Ireland and the ones who aren't are relations of mine. Luckily there's an old school friend who is Irish and counts, so he can sign the form, because otherwise I was going to have to ring up an old priest friend of my mothers to get the forms signed. The system clearly wasn't designed to facilitate the process for ex-pats who have only relatively recently returned home.
And I just described myself as an expat for the last 25 years of my life. A Thiarna déan trócaire.
In order to facilitate his visiting grandparents in foreign parts, he needs a passport. And the most wonderful woman in the world (aka my wife) was talking about going back to foreign parts with him in a few weeks.
This gives me a minor headache, as it appears that I need someone to countersign the passport form. This someone must be of standing within the community and have known me for two years. For added values, the someone must be a UK resident and be a UK or Irish citizen (this last one actually gets me my solution).
Of course, I know plenty of people who are "of standing" for a number of years but most of them are in Ireland and the ones who aren't are relations of mine. Luckily there's an old school friend who is Irish and counts, so he can sign the form, because otherwise I was going to have to ring up an old priest friend of my mothers to get the forms signed. The system clearly wasn't designed to facilitate the process for ex-pats who have only relatively recently returned home.
And I just described myself as an expat for the last 25 years of my life. A Thiarna déan trócaire.
Congratulations
To Pron and Sinead on the safe arrival of baby Eoin Tadhg at 9:31 in Dublin this morning
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)