Anyone Worth Denouncing is Worth Denouncing Properly

History, even British political history, is full of fine ideas that didn't quite work out in practice. The party of Peel and Disraeli became that of Johnson and Truss; the party of Gladstone and Lloyd George became that of Clegg and Davey; the party of Keir Hardie became that of Keir Starmer. By a miraculous reversion of this process of moral entropy, the Prevent programme has been exalted from its first just cause to encompass ever more expansive vistas of virtue.

Introduced by the Reverend Sir Tony of the Garter after the terrorist response to his personal liberation of the Middle East, Prevent was intended mainly as a Muslim-baiting enterprise, "encouraging" teachers and other public servants to spy out children and teenagers who might one day need their citizenship clipped. A recent review by a Windsor-sniffer and waterboarding enthusiast has predictably led to increased radicalisation, with the definition of potential terrorists expanded to include such eminently Blairite targets as socialism, communism and anti-fascism. In order to ensure a proportionate response, those wishing to nominate someone eligible for "support" must provide the beneficiary's "name, religion, social media name, ethnicity, nationality, main language, immigration or asylum status, and any additional family details," and official materials make clear that no quaint old rules about confidentiality will hinder the sharing of information about neurodivergence, mental and emotional health or "cultural factors." With the exceptions of Mr Churchill's conquest of Europe, and the move to private profiteering that has made the hated National Health Service what it is today, it would be difficult to find a more glorious example of a British political project fulfilling and surpassing its original aim.