Double Plus Ungood
Monday, May 21st, 2007 11:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caddymanI am vaguely surprised that no-one has picked up on the latest piece of statist nonsense to emerge from the rump Home Office. Now that they have been divested of any useful function by the creation of the ominously Napoleonic sounding Ministry of Justice, there is nothing to fill their time other than the continued pursuit of ID Cards and other bizarrely repressive ideas.
It is interesting and somehow ironic that the concept of justice has been surgically excised from the rump Home Office whilst responsibility for policing, immigration etc has stayed where it is. Lady Justice is blind, see, and separates out right and wrong with impartiality (not to be confused with the application of the law, as often it is, which is something else entirely). It doesn't always work, but at least the ideal is there behind the procedure. The rump Home Office no longer needs even to be squeamish in ignoring such a concept - that is the job of the Ministry of Justice, so they can start dedicating themselves whole heartedly to instruments that benefit the state rather than the individual.
Expect further pushes on the increasingly expensive and unwanted ID card scheme. It will become more closely linked (if possible) to passports, which are at least voluntary and subject to the entry requirements of foreign immigration services.
In the meantime, seemingly unnoticed in the detritus of other potential instruments of repression is this little gem. Council staff, charity workers and doctors could be required by law to tip off police about anyone they believe could commit a violent crime. Innocent until proven guilty? No, profiled into criminality more like, on the basis of hearsay and conjecture.
There's almost a Minority Report feel to it.
What happened to the country I was born in; where'd it go?
It is interesting and somehow ironic that the concept of justice has been surgically excised from the rump Home Office whilst responsibility for policing, immigration etc has stayed where it is. Lady Justice is blind, see, and separates out right and wrong with impartiality (not to be confused with the application of the law, as often it is, which is something else entirely). It doesn't always work, but at least the ideal is there behind the procedure. The rump Home Office no longer needs even to be squeamish in ignoring such a concept - that is the job of the Ministry of Justice, so they can start dedicating themselves whole heartedly to instruments that benefit the state rather than the individual.
Expect further pushes on the increasingly expensive and unwanted ID card scheme. It will become more closely linked (if possible) to passports, which are at least voluntary and subject to the entry requirements of foreign immigration services.
In the meantime, seemingly unnoticed in the detritus of other potential instruments of repression is this little gem. Council staff, charity workers and doctors could be required by law to tip off police about anyone they believe could commit a violent crime. Innocent until proven guilty? No, profiled into criminality more like, on the basis of hearsay and conjecture.
There's almost a Minority Report feel to it.
What happened to the country I was born in; where'd it go?