Why don't MPs go and vet and bar themselves!

Today I want to talk about the ISA and how afraid I am of the encroachment of the State into all our homes and lives.

First I want to direct you to an article by Jenni Russell that was in the Sunday Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6898212.ece)

I could not agree with her more. There is absolutely no way that risk can be eradicated but unfortunately since the explosion of 24 hour news and the extension of the media into online services as well as newspapers, journalists are under greater pressure to find 'news' to report and to make stories and so everything that happens is blown up by the media creating mass hysteria which then leads to crazy legislation like this. Something must be done and I am desperate to campaign about it but don't know where to start. People's concern for their children's welfare is so great that if they are told there's a bogeyman around every corner they don't want to take the risk - any risk - of their children meeting him. I believe in a free press but until journalists and news corporations take some responsibility for the monster they have created, I fear that the Big Brother society will get bigger not smaller. It is a tragedy for the children who will not enjoy the freedoms of childhood that we enjoyed and it is a tragedy for us parents who are made to feel fear at every turn.

The vetting of parents, volunteers, and indeed anyone and everyone who may come into contact with children and "vulnerable adults" is not only wrong, but it will also be totally ineffective. I care less about the adults who are to be vetted than I do about a whole generation of children who are being deprived of a normal childhood because of the State's ridiculous attempts to make the world a "risk free" place. It is not risk free, it can never be risk free and indeed it should not be risk free. Risk is a part of life and learning how to manage risk is a fundamental part of growing up. The press must stop whipping up fear and the State must stop having knee jerk reactions to every reported case thinking that legislation is what the public wants. I have spoken to so many people about this and not one person I have spoken to thinks that all this vetting is a good idea or that it will even achieve what it seeks to achieve. Without exception, people feel that it will further erode childhood and is a further unnecessary invasion into people's lives.As for how useful it will be - well it would not have stopped Vanessa George!

As the title of my post says - I think that the MPs who came up with this insane idea should vet and bar themselves!!