Harriet needs to wake up

The current investigation into the Ipswitch serial killer has unsurprisingly prompted the government to make comments. Harriet Harman, minister for something, has suggested that men who use prostitutes should be targeted. I didn't realise it, but it is in fact not illegal to pay someone for sex here. Ms Harman thinks this should change. Apparently it is illegal to kerb crawl and to procure a person for sex. I'm not sure if there is a firm definition of kerb crawling. If one drives slowly down a street looking for a particular house number, is it kerb crawling?

Ms Harman is making the assumption that the killer is a user of prostitutes and that he is deliberately targeting them. It could be that he is not a user and that he is simply targeting women. It's just that lone women on the street in the hours of darkness are easy targets, especially when they are willing to get into a car with you.

The more I consider the problem of prostitution, the more I think deregulation is the answer. Prostitution is really not much of a problem in itself. I can understand why people don't want street walkers in their street, but the real problem is the other crime that always accompanies it. The way to deal with it is to tolerate prostitution in specific, non-residential areas. The pimp element vanishes and it's easier to police. It's been tried successfully in several places in Britain. I'm guessing the problem is that no government wants to be the one that puts forward the legislation.

A man has this morning been arrested on suspicion of murdering the five dead Ipswitch women. This is quite a breakthrough. If the police have the right guy, that's very quick work. We shall see. They are not releasing any information. If they have the wrong guy they're going to ruin his Christmas. Actually they'll ruin his Chriustmas even if it's the right guy, but we don't care about that.

The government is in a slightly embarrassing position over an internal memo that suggests they are a shambles. The PM's office is distancing itself from the situation, and the Deputy PM seems to be unaware of the source of the report. No one seems to be denying that the report exists, or that it was internal, which seems to confirm the content, ie the government is a shambles. They are currently also attempting to deal with the problem created when they stopped the probe into the Saudi arms deal, which had nothing to do with economic pressure of course, and the cash for peerages row, which seems to be gathering pace again. Downing Street have been accused of trying to pervert the course of justice over the investigation.

This morning I read that the government is proposing that medical records should be made available on line. I would be worried about this if I thought they had even a remote chance of getting a monster project like that to work. I take much the same view of id cards, though the fallout when the id card project goes wrong frightens me far more.

In other news...

I finally got around to watching the film Amelie this weekend. It's always been a problem in my household because it's in French. I need English subtitles and the Dragon needs Chinese. However it turned up on Film 4 channel with English subtitles on Saturday so I watched it. I've promised that we will come back from our next Taiwan trip with a DVD with Chinese subtitles. I think I can watch it without subtitles now that I've seen it once. It's really good, very imaginative. Definitely worth a watch.

Our next oriental expedition will be in February I think. The organisation has already begun. It really is a nightmare task bringing a 9-month old half way round the world. The Dragon's father seems to think that simply packing a bottle of milk and a spare nappy is all that is required. I started making a list of things to take in hand luggage today and it's already looking frightening. There's no way we will be bringing anything other than baby stuff into the cabin.