Banned wagon
A weekly survey of the things our rulers want to prohibit
WHY is violent crime increasing? Because there aren't enough laws? Or because existing laws are not properly enforced, the police do not secure enough convictions, and when criminals are convicted they are treated too softly? David Blunkett appears to believe the former. The Home Office has announced that the next criminal justice Bill, due to be introduced in the autumn, will include a new offence of assaulting a public servant. Attack a nurse or a teacher, and you will face up to three years in jail.
Few will argue with that, though there is one obvious point to make: is it not already illegal to strike nurses and teachers? Of course it is; but this, believes the Home Office, is not deterring people, because assailants are now charged under the law of common assault, which results in their being given lenient sentences. 'We need to send a strong message,' says an official, `that it is not acceptable, ever, to hit a public servant.'
Maybe, but is it really any less acceptable to cosh over the head a five-foothigh old lady behind the desk of a private dental surgery than it is to land a punch on the nose of a bolshie 13-stone male nurse in an NHS hospital? If so, all those who live in Brixton should make sure they get their hands on a Unison card, quick. From autumn onwards, muggers will no doubt take the trouble to ask you for your employment details before they set upon you.
One suspects that the proposed law is really more about satisfying the emotional needs of Labour's increasingly restive public-sector unions: a way of telling them, 'You are really special, you know, whatever Tony says about the scars on his back and all that.' If Mr Blunkett is serious about cutting crime, he'll forget about this silly, discriminatory law, and make sure that all violent criminals are given three years in jail, whomever they strike.
Ross Clark
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