Shop Your Students and Win a Mini...

So, the government doesn't really want lecturers to 'spy' on their students, just be alert to any signs that some might be drifting toward 'extremism'. Pretty much the same thing, if you ask me. But what does this remind you of? Where else were those with 'dissenting' views at risk of being reported to the authorities? Yes, indeed - it was in those old favourites Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, (it probably still goes on in schools and colleges in China and North Korea). Apart from the deleterious effect this sort of thing is likely to have in the classroom, (anybody who has ever taught teenagers, in particular, will know how bloody difficult it can be to get any of the little buggers to say anything in class - imagine what it would be like if they think that any 'unconventional' opinions they express are going to be reported back to 'the authorities'?), there remains the question of whether this would serve any purpose in security terms, at all. I seem to remember that when a student, I expressed some pretty extreme political opinions. Everybody does - it is part of being young. I'd hate to think that exercising my right to youthful protest had, in any way, 'blacklisted' me, or got me marked down as a 'security risk', 'undesirable' or 'terrorist'.

Still, I suppose we should be thankful that the 'moderates' are apparently back in control of the cabinet. Former Home Secretary David Blunkett's diaries are proving to be disturbing reading, revealing him to be even more reactionary, immoral and just plain crazy than I'd ever suspected. Amongst the most recent revelations is the fact that, during the last Gulf War, he'd actually urged Tony Blair to bomb the Al Jazeera transmitter in Baghdad, regardless of the fact that he knew it would have been just slightly illegal. (still, I suppose if you've already participated in an illegal invasion of a sovereign state, a little thing like attacking the independent press is a minor point). That, combined with the claims of the former Director General of the Prison Service that Blunkett had 'screamed at him' to machine gun rioting (but unarmed) prisoners, just reinforces my long-standing opinion that his blindness is clearly not just physical, but obviously moral, too.