But instead of welcoming the appointment, the Government has been lukewarm, Mr Prescott referring sneeringly to 'some guy Ken wants to bring over from America'. Presumably he would prefer a lawyer or an accountant, someone like Lord Falconer whose approach would not be prejudiced by detailed knowledge of the nuts and bolts of the business. There is a famous Charles Addams cartoon of a cinema audience every member of which is overcome with grief, except for a bald man who looks up at the screen, his face wreathed in a maniacal grin. The joke is a reminder to people who set out to frighten us into good behaviour, that there are people who get a kick out of watching unpleasant scenes. That is partly why it used to be considered counterproductive to use shock tactics in this way.
Governments continue to believe the opposite.
And as usual, they will be spending thousands in the run-up to Christmas on shocking TV ads to stop drinking and driving. At the same time schools are bombarded with information about the Holocaust as a warning against racism. Despite the fact that anti-semitism has never been a major problem in Britain, as it has been on the continent, and that British Jews were not killed in the Holocaust, the Government is going ahead with a special Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January 2001.