Let’s hear it for Jack Straw

Right, let’s make one thing clear. I don’t give a flying fuck what Jon Venables might have done to land him back in prison, and there’s not one single plausible reason why it might be in the public interest for me or anyone else not directly involved to know. The popularity of the campaign to have his identity released to the public is a sign that something is deeply, profoundly wrong with our society.

The murder of James Bulger was a horrific crime. No one’s denying that, and no one should deny it. But Venables was ten years old when he killed Bulger. Ten. And he was tried as an adult (pretty ethically dubious in itself), convicted, and imprisoned. Then, some years later, (after Michael Howard caved to tabloid pressure and tried to summarily raise their sentence, only to be slapped down and told where to stick his noxious populist authoritarianism by the courts) he was released on parole, because he was judged to have been rehabilitated. Now he’s been re-imprisoned, because he breached the terms of that parole, apparently pretty seriously. So yes, maybe he shouldn’t have been released. And maybe nor should the other 47 convicted murderers released on parole who were convicted of further serious offences in the past 6 years (though bear in mind that’s only 6% of those released, which is frankly pretty low). But whether or not parole boards make the right calls isn’t the issue here. The issue is that like anyone else, Thompson and Venables have the right not to live in fear of lynch mobs for the rest of their lives, and revealing why Venables was sent back to prison is going to serve no purpose other than to make life very easy indeed for every wannabe vigilante in the land who wants their heads on a pike. Indeed, judging by the sickeningly gleeful tone in which this article in Friday’s Sun talks about ‘tough-nut lags [who will be] certain to know the notorious murderer is among them’, that seems to be exactly what a lot of people want to happen.

It shouldn’t even need saying, but let’s be very clear; this isn’t how punishment works. Revenge isn’t justice. We have laws, and we don’t allow individuals to wreak whatever vengeance they feel like on people who do wrong, because we’re better than that. So as long as Jack Straw and the rest of the Government refuse to listen to The Sun or anyone else calling on them to reveal anything that could compromise Venables’ identity, they have my whole-hearted support.