According to theregister.co.uk, though as far as I can see largely unreported by mainstream media, the government’s latest Criminal Justice Bill is back in the Commons on Wednesday. Undoubtedly there will be important and necessary measures in it, but pitched in with them will be a proposal to make the viewing of certain types of pornography illegal. Apart from the apparent inability of the government to define what exactly would constitute illegality, the possibility is also raised of a sexual act which, in itself, is legal becoming illegal as soon as it is made into an image.
In addition to the potential criminalisation of an awful lot of otherwise law-abiding people (as it seems that just about any pornographic image not wholly concerned with missionary sex could be covered by the new law), there is also the issue of an already hugely overworked police service having to divert resource from rather more pressing matters to enforce Labour’s latest intrusion into people’s private lives.
The government will get away with it of course as it follows the pattern they have already established for eroding personal freedom. Many smokers and porn enthusiasts will undoubtedly have backed the government’s ban on fox hunting; many hunters and porn enthusiasts will have backed the government’s ban on smoking; and now many smokers and hunters will be backing the ban on porn.
Easy for Labour really and it will continue to be easy until people start to realise that the actual subject of a specific erosion of liberty or privacy is not as important as the erosion itself.
Tags: bans, criminal justice bill, liberty, nanny state, pornography, uk
