Bereaved Mum sells newspapers

The press are having a field day with the artist-formerly-known-as-Jon-Venables. Venables, who was jailed for his part in the murder of a toddler in 1993, has sinned again.

It's not at all clear what the fuck he's done this time. Assault? Kiddie porn? Arson in a Naval dockyard? Failed to return a library book? Perhaps he sounded his horn in a built-up area after 11:30.

Regardless, the press are more than happy to rake over all the hideous ashes of 17 years ago.

And, of course, the bien pensants are equally happy to re-visit all of the endless, hypothetical, tedious debates about 'the age of criminal responsibility', and the 'nature of evil. yah?'. Great topics for dinner-party debater and perfect for the Moral Maze morons to agonise over.

And at the centre of this artificially generated storm of outrage and opinion, who do we find? Every time? Denise Bulger, mother of the murdered child.

When the story first broke, a relative told the BBC that the family "did not intend to comment", but that the news had brought her "a whole load of anxiety"

Clearly, this intention was soon forgotten, and Ms. Bulger was soon demanding audience with the Justice Secretary, Jack Straw. A second spokesman informed the grateful nation that Ms Bulger was 'content' - oh, jolly good - after the meeting, having previously been "sick" of having "doors closed in her face".

And now, Ms Bulger has called for the sacking of Children's Commissioner Maggie Atkinson, who had the temerity to have a view on the age of criminal responsibility.  Ms. Atkinson feels that the murderers Venables and Atkinson should not have been tried in an adult court.

Ms Bulger, speaking to the world yet again, does not agree:

"This woman owes James and me an apology for her twisted and insensitive comments. Then she should resign or be sacked"

To which the only response can be, what the fuck has all this got to do with you, love?

Yes, Denise, your child was the victim of a horrendous crime, many years ago. The perpetrators were caught, sentenced and incarcerated.

Now one of them, having served what society judged to be his due time, has committed some other, unrelated crime. He's done nothing to you this time, and nothing to worsen or mitigate what he did all those years ago.

So, again, what the fuck has this got to do with you? You're not an expert in law, in social policy, in sentencing, in criminal rehabilitation or indeed in anything relevant to the current shenanigans.

Listen, Denise, the only reason the media is interested in you and your opinions is that you're the human interest. You're the 'devastated mother'. You make the story interesting and 'accessible' to the slack-jawed imbeciles who guzzle these prurient tales.

This is the media, remember, who decided to call your boy 'Jamie', even though you never did - his name was James - because they judged it made the story just a tiny bit more poignant.

They don't give a shit about your opinion, they just want your sad face at the top of each story.

Don't help the bastards sell their tawdry rags.

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