In Memoriam

The law of England has many uses. It can be a sop to the tabloids, a catch-all arrest warrant, or a license for the Government to circumvent those inconvenient statutes whose repeal it finds politically inexpedient. Now a new use has been found: the law of England can serve as a memorial to the dead. Shocked into action by the non-military killing of a non-Muslim, which may have been accidental and whose perpetrator is said, in the conveniently anonymous passive voice, to be "obsessed" with violent pornography, the Government has decided to extend its police powers over what passes before our eyes. Although there is "no evidence of a direct link between viewing violent images and committing violent acts", the Government has decided to award gospel status to "developing research suggesting that individuals who were predisposed to commit violent or other sexual offences might become more likely to do so when exposed to such material". Research which is as yet incomplete, and with which some members of the British Psychological Society disagree, does no more than "suggest" the possibility that individuals with a predisposition towards violence might perhaps, in certain circumstances, become more likely to indulge that predisposition after viewing certain images. Furthermore, somebody's mother believes that "for quite a lot of people, especially if they are rather impressionable, [such images] can be very harmful indeed", which obviously settles the matter. The mother regards the law as "a terrific memorial" for her daughter ("In memory of Jane Longhurst, and for the gratification of Liz Longhurst, I arrest you for the unauthorised exercise of your visual cortex"), but has misgivings over "whether there will be enough money to make sure it is enforced properly". Since enforcing it properly will presumably involve monitoring every download in the country to ensure the absence of violent bits and sexual bytes, she may well have a point.