Should David Blunkett be Given an ASBO?

David Green, 30 November 2004

It looks as if David Blunkett has used the trappings of power to impress a female he was attracted to. He admits giving her two first class rail tickets at the taxpayer’s expense and there is little doubt that his official chauffeur-driven car (along with official papers) has been used to give Mrs Quinn lifts to Derbyshire.
Is all the publicity just prurience? Would it be better to treat the scandal as a personal matter best kept private? Or is there a legitimate public interest at stake? It is revealing that Mr Blunkett’s press office has tried to put a spin on the breaches of the ministerial code of conduct by claiming that the couple were in ‘a deep and close relationship’. Was this a unique intervention by the press office, or is it revealing of it’s general mentality?
Unfortunately the Home Office has a habit of putting a one-sided spin on events. Here are some examples of the misleading way it reports on progress towards its own policy targets. The initial report on its flagship alternative to prison for serious young offenders, the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme, was also presented as if a failure had been a success.
Under Mr Blunkett, the provision of public information by the Home Office has been politicised more than ever before and deception has become a habit of mind to such a degree they don’t know when they’re doing it.