Reid warned of 'lynch mob law' over parental access to paedophile details
As a further example of the Labour party's lurch to the right under Blair, we today have John Reid threatening to introduce the controversial US Megan's Law into the UK.
When even the Tories are expressing caution, you have to be on very shaky ground indeed.The home secretary is sending his prisons minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, to the US over the summer to look at the operation of Megan's law in different states to discover the best way of ensuring the controlled release of information to the public. "I start from the position that information should no longer remain the exclusive preserve of officialdom. I believe that the public have the right to protection and they have the right to information. We must make sure that we get the balance right, though, and that the flow of information does not undermine the public's safety."
Mr Reid is the first home secretary since the murder of Sarah Payne, aged eight, by the released paedophile Roy Whiting in 2000 to concede that the names and addresses of released sex offenders should be circulated beyond the police and probation staff. At present the multi-agency public protection panels which decide on how released paedophiles should be supervised inform parents and schools on a strict "need to know" basis.
The shadow home secretary, David Davis, said he backed the government's approach, but it needed careful consideration: "We must also make sure we don't end up with some lynch mob law," he warned.
Lest we forget when the News of the World started it's disgraceful campaign of "naming and shaming" sex offenders, blood thirsty crowds started attacking people in Portsmouth and one man was attacked because he had a similar name to an offender.
This is simply another example of Blair's governments lurching to the right on law and order in an attempt to placate the readers of the Daily bloody Mail. And they wonder why their traditional voters are deserting them?
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