Oi! Yob! Blunkett wants your mobile

Mad, bad and dangerous to know (and that's just the home secretary)

By John Oates • Get more from this author

Posted in Mobile, 22nd March 2004 09:31 GMT

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David Blunkett, the increasingly angry home secretary, is calling for "lifestyle punishments" to shape Britain into a less violent society. He wants the power to confiscate mobile phones and ban people from football matches. He is also wants to counter the "increasing portrayal of violence" on television. Which sounds like censorship.

The home secretary believes "lifestyle punishments" such as a mobile phone ban will be a more effective deterrent than traditional punishments. Blunkett met culture secretary Tessa Jowell but she rejected his proposals as "unenforceable" and a breach of human rights, according to the Sunday Times.

One unhappy source at the Home Office told the paper: "These proposals are disproportionate, unenforceable and criminalising and do not go to the heart of the cause of these problems. But Blunkett will not be deterred.”

Perhaps luckily for mobile phone-owning yobs (i.e. all of them) Blunkett is currently busy trying to get cabinet support for compulsory identity cards. ®