Won't Somebody Think of the Children?

A spokesbeing for the Vicar of Downing Street has rebuffed allegations by Terry Grange, the Association of Chief Police Officers' spokesman on violent crime, that the government is pandering to a tabloid agenda or making policy on the hoof.

As to the latter charge, the very idea is ridiculous. "If we had said we are going to introduce Megan's law today that would have been policymaking on the hoof," the Vicar's spokesbeing said. This is certainly rebuffatory. Megan's law is an American law which allows parents access to information about paedophiles who might be living near them, so that they can allow their children to associate only with adults who haven't been caught. The Home Secretary, John Reid, has sent an underling to the greatest country in the world to see how well Megan's law works. If it doesn't work, I imagine Dr Reid will be scrawling out the British equivalent - Sarah's law, as it has been pro-actively pre-christened - on the back of an envelope before the week is out. But it won't be policymaking on the hoof, because they didn't announce it today.

Dr Reid's coalition partner, David Davis, has welcomed the idea of sending someone to the land of tar and feathers because "there are very many different states each doing different things and therefore you can learn from it" because "we have to make a judgment based on our own circumstances", circumstances which do not obtain in any of the many states which are doing different things. Reassuringly, David Davis "certainly would not do it on the back of a campaign to get headlines". Certainly, the last thing any Tory politician would do is pander to the Tory press.

However, it appears that Tony's eagerness to please has got him into a bit of a pickle this time. Terry Grange told the BBC that "The reality, as I perceive it, is that the only people with any real strategic intent and understanding on where they want to go and the will to be ruthless in getting there is the News of the World. The government is attending meetings at the behest of a newspaper and then altering its approach overnight." Given the cosy relationship between his reverence and King Rupert of the Redtops, this hardly seems fair. One does not accuse Hitler of pandering to Goebbels simply because the two of them happened to have a few ideas in common.