Like Blair Before Him...Cameron The Opportunist...

Nobody can help but be appalled by the shocking case regarding the two brothers who were convicted today for their part in a sadistic assault of two young children in South Yorkshire.  Although it has not had the blanket media coverage that other sickening cases have had in the past, such as the murder of James Bulger or the case of Mary Bell before that, it is another shocking example of just how evil some children can be – albeit not helped by the brutal upbringing that they have had.

However, the way that the politicians of this country have reacted to the case is similar to both of the cases mentioned above.  In the aftermath of the Bulger trial, which was the first trial that I can vividly remember, if only for the mob mentality that there was outside Preston Crown Court the evening that those two young boys were led away to spend time in a secure home – what is only being mentioned now is the way Tony Blair, back then the Shadow Home Secretary reacted to the case.

Blair was rightly condemned for getting involved at the time for using the death of a child for political advantage.  The argument that the torture and murder of Bulger by two ten-year-old boys was a symbol of the decline of Britain under the Tories was morally and empirically unsound.  I think the term that Blair used back then was that the murder was "a hammer blow against the sleeping conscience of the nation".  Such attacks take place without reason or pattern.  They are, thankfully, too rare to tell us much about the state of the nation.

So for Cameron to go on the attack for exactly the same reason is somewhat concerning.  Is there anything at all, that politicians have learnt in the intervening twenty or so years?  Highlighting individual cases such as Cameron and Blair previously did does nothing at all to help, in fact it hinders such work.  The hysterical response of the Scum and other tabloids to the death of Baby P led to a social work recruitment crisis that continues to endanger children.

Also there is another point to be made regarding the Bulger case, which is very important.  Regardless of how brutal and disgusting the assault was on those two children – these two who committed this attack are themselves children.  If there is a precedent for the reform and rehabilitation of child criminals publicly assumed to be fundamentally evil and beyond all form of help that the state could give, then it comes in the form of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson.  For in the aftermath after their conviction their abduction and murder of James Bulger, the 10-year-olds were not just deprived of their liberty but put through a comprehensive programme of psychotherapy, education and consistent, strict discipline.

Within eight years being convicted the then-teenagers – equipped with A-levels and an ability to speak fluently about emotions and remorse – convinced parole boards that they were ready to be freed.  The brothers behind the Edlington torture case are the most notorious British child criminals since Venables and Thompson.  As much as Mr Cameron would like to use this for political advantage, and as hard as it might be for their victims' families to accept, it is possible that they could turn their lives around...