Why I'm looking forward to Clare's Law
I'm always suspicious when Home Secretaries get involved in the Internet, or indeed any other form of new technology. They are not, by and large, people who understand technical issues and are therefore subject to blandishments of management consultants and solutions vendors, who will tell them that computers are the way to solve whatever the issue of the day is. This is why when I heard on the radio about some new law requiring the police to tell you who are are dealing with on the Internet, I did a quick google on the superficially mad proposition and was not surprised to find the current incumbent to the fore.
According to the Mail on Sunday, Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has indicated in a letter that she is considering the idea.
I didn't really read the rest of it, but I assume the idea is that when you click on an online newspaper article at, let's say, the Daily Mirror or the Daily Mail, then you are automatically connected to some kind of police database that will tell you whether the reporter has been arrested or imprisoned for phone hacking or whether, let's say, Trinity Mirror or Associated Newspapers have been involved in any underhand news-gathering techniques.
If you ask me, it's a bit of a knee-jerk reaction and it will be impossible to implement. Reporters will simply use fake names or pretend wire services in Mozambique and carry on as normal. I think we have to persuade the publoc to adjust to the new reality: you simply can't trust anyone who claims to be from a British newspaper, no matter how plausible they seem.
In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen megabytes... [posted with ecto]