Jon Venables - Can People Just Get A Grip

I've been astounded at the media reaction, but not entirely surprised, in the wake of the Jon Venables arrest on charges very uncertain. I say charges, he hasn't actually been charged with anything yet.

The cry that has gone up is that of 'We must know', yet everyone I have talked to has reacted with 'Why do we?'. We simply must know what the accusation is because...?

The crime originally committed is a stain upon our nation and will be remembered for generations. It was disgusting and shocked the British people to their core. However, what must never ever be forgotten is the primary reason for that - the media and one Anthony Blair. That original case literally made Tony Blair, it gave birth to 'Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime', it triangulated Major and we have felt the effects on our criminal justice system ever since.

The actual horror of the crime must be put to one side to gain perspective, which isn't easy. The Bulger killing was not representative of society at all, it was the awful vicious murder of a toddler by two completely warped children, children whose lives had been hell on Earth for their ten short years. A similar claim was tried by Cameron some months ago, because he isn't like Blair at all....

But that didn't stop the media fuelling the public with, similar to the current situation, cries of 'We must...' and 'Something must...', as if a Bulger incident was waiting to happen on every corner of Surrey. This led to the whole 90s obsession with peadophiles lurking behind every tree, summed up sublimely by Brass Eye and Chris Morris.

All of this sold copy. Moreover, it made New Labour and it made Blair. The next big thing was Diana, another national outpouring fuelled by a zealous media and politician who knew no shame.

The difference now of course is that Brown doesn't want this, Labour don't want this. Indeed, the Tories have been fairly quiet on it. The only people who do want it are the media.

They love it. The Sun this morning had led with the bizarre header of, out of 5, how bad the alleged child porn that is alleged to have been the cause of the crime that has so far not been charged. It was a 4 by the way.

Jack Straw has been desperate to point out that this is a unique case and the revealing of even the smallest detail could lead to identification and the impossibility of a fair trail, should it go that far. The 'public' reaction through the media has been further outrage, because they must know. Nobody knows why they must know, but they must. The very definition of mob mentality stoked by the tabloid press.

It also ties in with the whole fear culture being created. The Metro this morning the utterly weird front page about a man in Sussex who caught burglers robbing bikes in the middle of the night from his pub. He pulled out his shotgun and told them out the window that he had done so. They pleaded innocence saying they thought it was empty, put it all back and left. The whole story involved the man repeatedly saying how he would have killed them.

The issue? The police took 50 minutes to turn up. As the police pointed out, the man phoned them after he had scared them off and they had put everything back, that is, there was no actual crime taking place when he phoned them. Apparently this is disgusting.

The media are desperate to stir up fear. They have been for 20 years.

Jon Venables is undoubtedly guilty of a terrible crime. Yet when he did it he was 10, the comments on websites and phone-ins would lead one to conclude that the British public are happy to hang a child, which they seem to think is a lesser evil than the murder of Jamie Bulger. However, it should be no surprise that he has drink and drug issues, anyone would in such circumstances. Not that I have any real sympathy.

The current episode is one of complete speculation with a government trying to keep a grip of events in the light of no charge being made and a fair trail at risk. The media smell blood and demand it.

The irony is that Straw is now being subject to the exact same forces he and Blair and New Labour unleashed all those years ago. They played to the mob, and now they are in their debt.

The other irony is that the Bulger killing led to the unravelling of our justice system due tot he demands of the public and the media, now they attack it for a perceived lack of action of the Venables. Attacking the very system they created with same actions that did so.