Minority Report Britain

According to Patrick West in the Spectator, we can add Philip K. Dick to Orwell and Huxley as the model of modern Britain.

Under legislation that came into force in August, police in England and Wales will now have the power to ban from town centres those who are thought likely to be troublesome drinkers. The ‘directions-to-leave orders’, which last for 48 hours, apply not to those who have drunk anything, but to those who police believe are about to start doing so. Those breaching the order or failing to comply can be arrested or fined up to £2,500.

This is just the latest raft of legislation implemented by a Labour government that, as a consequence of its attempts to invert the principle of innocent until proven guilty in so many spheres of public policy, has now seemingly assumed the power of clairvoyancy. For instance, in June a leaked document from the Home Office recommended that council staff, charity workers and doctors tip off police about individuals they believe might commit a violent crime. Like the ASBO, introduced in 1998, no firm evidence is required for those making the accusation, merely the hearsay or opinion of those doing the snitching. In March the Home Office made the proposal that every child in Britain be screened to assess how likely it is that he or she will become a criminal. The idea is that by taking into account such things as school marks, truancy rates and substance abuse, you can see if an 11-year-old child will grow up to become a murderer. Adults might now find themselves on a government list of pre-criminals. Five London boroughs have already started to use a database that profiles high-risk ‘future offenders’ as part of a pilot scheme for a nationwide database. The aim is to give the police a list of the 100 most dangerous potential offenders, based on psychological profiling.