Kerry McCarthy is an MP who is not averse to a bit of controversy. She is, you'll recall, the MP that almost ended up in the clink after in a moment of bimbo madness, revealed the results of her seat's postal votes before the election had closed. Rather fortunately for her, she ended up with a caution despite this flagrant breach of electoral law.

So it's no surprise she's causing ripples again.  This time she's suggesting that in order to catch the murderer of Jo Yeates every single man in Bristol should be forced to give a DNA sample.  She claims that most men would understand why they're being asked to do this.

I'm frankly amazed that any elected representative of the people could be so profoundly out of touch and chronically stupid. Giving up your DNA into the state database is not trivial, not least because the state is so reluctant to dispose of it when it no longer needs it. Who knows what the state may decide to do with it later. It's no surprise that many people, contrary to what McCarthy says, are disgusted by her proposal.

We can liken her proposal to the establishment of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.  Given the evidence provided by The Telegraph that so many MPs were prone to embellishing their expense claims in their own favour, what reasonable person could argue against a strong regime that seeks proper evidence that amounts are due before any payment is made?  Well, MPs seem to have found a few causes of complaint.  One, after his (presumably fraudulent) claim was rejected said that he objected to being "treated like a criminal".  IPSA bosses had to warn MPs not to bully their staff.

Yet, remembering McCarthy's wisdom, can't our politicians realise that "most MPs would understand why they're being asked to do this"? That it's entirely right in her view that the many should suffer just so that the few who break the law can be brought to justice?

McCarthy, who has a low expenses record to date, might feel aggrieved at the IPSA regime.  So is it too much to expect her to understand why law-abiding, self-respecting men might not want to have their DNA held for eternity just to prove to the state that they really do not need to be considered murder suspects?

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Filed under: Current issues, Politics with tags criminal record, dna database, ipsa, jo yeates, kerry mccarthy, mps' expenses, twitter