More recently, though, this difference became seen as a fixed psychological essence and moral character. Louts, proposed Prime Minister Tony Blair, could be stopped by the police for being, well, 'louts'. Further, their essence would be literally captured - by a list of names and photos. Ban anyone on the list from buying a ticket, entering a football ground or boarding certain trains. Perhaps they should spend certain weekends on house arrest, their passports confiscated.
Sexual paedophiles are purer candidates for monster status.
The murder of Sarah Payne has proved police monitoring of these perverts is not enough. But all these objections sound irrelevant and self-indulgent compared with the personal tragedies themselves, the true horror of a child's death under any such circumstances and our own primeval identification with victim and family. The critique remains ineffectual as long as it treats with contempt the audience's feelings of horror and insecurity that lie behind the kitsch. Go back, though, to amnesties or early mass releases of political prisoners, whether in Northern Ireland, South Africa or Israel. Liberals expect these publics to show an astonishing degree of tolerance.