The UK Government announced last night – wait for it – that it is to print leaflets with details of minor court judgments and then bombard localities with these things to name and shame the culprits. Presumably this is to provide guaranteed income for the private sector businesses to whom 30% of the Post Office is to be sold?
The argument is that local newspapres have largely stopped printing the details of local court reports – not in Argyll – and that petty criminals respond more to this naming and shaming in their home areas than they do to imprisonment. That argument however, is not backed up by what would have been a logical parallel move – to cut jail sentences whose ineffectiveness would be replaced by state-controlled naming and shaming.
No mention of the enviromental costs of paper production for this stunt. No mention of the cost to the taxpayer of distribution costs – at a time when we’re in hock to the tune of £2 trillion thanks to the unregulated banks. And no mention of using the Internet – which is the obvious option in today’s communications: fast, cheap, universally available.
It’s a short hop from papering the country with more junk mail to next week’s whizzy announcement that naming and shaming is to be upgraded by the reinroduction of the stocks – vinegar-soaked sponges provided free, courtesy of you and me.
But hey, as we clear the junk mail from our halls it won’t half take our minds off that £2 trillion debt Prudence (did we ever seriously call him that?) has got us into. Not.