All British Authors Are Paedophiles

...or so the government thinks, since it's finally instituted the Independent Safeguarding Authority.

This requires every author visiting a school to have their name placed on a database, to be vetted for suitability and to pay £65 for the privilege. Schools not complying with these requrements will be fined.

And, like all the other database shit set up by this governemnt, allegations will remain on the database even when proved to be untrue.

Philip Pullman and other notable children's authors, are refusing to sign up:

Mr Pullman, who stressed he had a "non-existent" criminal record, said he was prepared to give up speaking in schools to make a stand against Britain's creeping surveillance culture.

He said: "It is insulting and I think unnecessary, and I refuse to be complicit in any scheme that assumes my guilt."

Mr Pullman is being supported by several other children's authors including Anne Fine, Anthony Horowitz, Michael Morpurgo and Guentin Blake, who object to their names being on the database.

If the police involved in the Huntley murder case back in 2002 had done their job properly - and with the information they already had - then this ridiculous, draconian system would not have been set up.