Saving The Children Through A Database

Another case of the database culture and the pathetic "won't someone think of the children!" mentality actually creating problems rather than solving them:

A group of respected British children's authors and illustrators will stop visiting schools from the start of the next academic year, in protest at a new government scheme that requires them to register on a database in case they pose a danger to children.

Philip Pullman, Anne Fine, Anthony Horowitz, Michael Morpurgo and Quentin Blake all told The Independent that they object to having their names on the database – which is intended to protect children from paedophiles – and would not be visiting any schools as a consequence.

I'm not surprised, really. And it is not just registering on the database. You have to pay £64 for the privilege. Yeah, a lot of those authors - particularly Pullman - could pay that amount without batting an eyelid. But that doesn't answer the question of precisely why they should have to. Unfortunately, they are the victims of a paranoid society that increasingly seems to believe that anyone who wants to interact with children will spontaneously turn into a leering paedophile if they happen to be left alone with a child. It is as much an insult to common sense as it is to the individuals being asked to pay to be put on a government backed database.

But it is this comment that further shows just how outrageous these ideas are:

Anthony Horowitz - author of the popular Alex Rider series - wrote in a comment article for the paper: "In essence, I'm being asked to pay £64 to prove that I am not a paedophile. After 30 years writing books, visiting schools, hospitals, prisons, spreading an enthusiasm for culture and literacy, I find this incredibly insulting."

Quite. Ultimately, the assumption now is that if you work with children, you are guilty until to have paid to be put onto a government database to prove that you are innocent. It strikes at the very heart of British Justice, and shows what 12 years of Nu Labour rule has turned this country into: a paranoid, self-doubting and self-destructive mess.