Below is a dreadful piece of sensationalist scaremongering on BBC Breakfast's Facebook status update re the announcement of the proposed curtailing of the Orwellian scope of CRB checks for workers and volunteers who work or are in contact with children and vulnerable adults:
Plans to scrap criminal record checks for anyone (my highlights) working or volunteering with children will be published by the government today, do you think this is right or will it make it easier for adults in positions of trust to abuse children. Nick Clegg will be speaking to us later. Please send your opinions and any questions you have for Nick Clegg
That first attention grabbing line is completely wrong, as the proposal is to remove the need for CRB checks on those who only occasionally come into contact with the groups in question, for example if one of your friends or relatives or trusted neighbours very occasionally take your kids to school or to social activities, the finger of suspicion currently pointing at them requires a CRB check, and under the new proposals this draconian measure will be removed. Those in regular contact with the kids and the vulnerable will have the same scrutiny applied to them as before.
If the intention of those who run BBC Breakfast's Facebook page was to engender a stream of paranoid ranting in response from folk who have not read the full story, ironically available on the BBC News webpage, then they have succeeded. When I wrote this there were over 200 replies , most along the lines of this mangled effort:
They should not be scrapped, or you're giving a green light to pedophiles (sic) etc coming into contact and harming children. Betcha ass (no comment!) if Nick Cleggs kids were at risk (instead of being in a safe private school cocoon (sic)) this would not ever be scrapped.
Obviously some responders have said the whole piece is wrong and pointed the Mr & Mrs Angries at the true story, but it just shows the unsettling levels of fear and paranoia rampant in this country. It's no wonder kids are getting fatter by the minute and developing all sorts of strange allergies as their parents never dare let them out of their sight for more than five seconds. This sort of Daily Mail style rubbish from the BBC does not help in the slightest.
I have urged the more sensible respondees on the BBC Breakfast Facebook page to complain about this shoddy piece of journalism, and I'll post up any reply the BBC may give to my moan.
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The proposed curtailing of the CRB checks system forms part of the Lib Dem sponsored The Protection Of Freedoms Bill along with limiting police powers to keep DNA test results, reducing the Big Brother intrusion of CCTV which has advanced to the stage where the average citizen is now "on camera" dozens of times a day*, and barring wheel clampers from private land.
One thing that always happens when a Labour administration is in power for any length of time is the increase of unnecessary bureaucracy which goes hand in hand with burgeoning state surveillance. Remember the ludicrous folly that was the ID cards scheme for example? Although Tories when in opposition always pay lip service to the idea of rolling back the State, when in power, and economic cuts aside, often do little about it.
Liberty has always been high up the agenda of the Liberals and subsequently the Lib Dems, and Clegg's party have actually managed with this Bill to do something that was in their manifesto, and the principal behind this Bill was one of the reasons I voted for them. It may be a tiny step towards regaining a soupçon of their lost credibility in some of their voters' eyes, but could well be too little too late to stop them being decimated at the next General Election.
* Anything up to a frankly unbelievable 300 times a day, depending whhich statistic you find!
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If like me you consider the way the current Government is going about cutting our budget deficit is ill-considered, too fast and far too harsh - to put it mildly - on Saturday 26th March there will be a big protest march in London. Be there if you can, and if you can't, shout at a Tory!
More here http://www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk/2011/01/make-march-26th-a-massive-show-of-strength-cor-newsletter-25-january/
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