h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A583049

It's getting there, but still needs some work. I speak for the author when I say that any critisism will be gratefully recieved, but however grateful he may or may not be for it, please be constructive!

I can see where the article is coming from but I feel that not only should it be 'third person' but also less biased against Thompson and Venables. It is difficult to remain objective over an emotive issue such as this though. Spelling needs some work too.

I would like to offer a few opinions of my own too:

The issue however remains that the boys have been granted a life licence, the debate over whether they should be in or out is over.

Vigilante-ism is a real problem, as only this morning I heard on the news that the parents of one of the convicted had been forced out of their home by vigilantes.

Essentially they have the right to protection having served their sentence to the satisfaction of the judiciary. However abhorrent this may seem, it is their right.

Public opinion is a very fickle thing, when the Guildford 4 and the Birmingham 6 were convicted 'everyone' was convinced of their guilt, there were attacks against Irish families in Birmingham and in London.
Yet they were innocent.

Is it not reasonable to think that as Thompson and Venables are now effectively adults, that they may have regrets about what they did, or feel remorse ? or may not of course ? Along with the majority of the population I did not attend their parole hearings so who is to say ? Unless they are not human beings, what they did will stay with them for the rest of their lives. It is also likely that they will not be able to live normal lives either, a punishment in itself.

Imagine if you will how difficult it will be to form relationships without talking about their past, or getting married, or having children of their own. Who would want children by, let alone marry a child-killer. Then there is also the fear of their children being under threat. Perhaps their punishment is just beginning ?

I also notice that although there has been progress on the Damilola Taylor case, there has not been the attendant outcry that accompanied the death of James Bulger. Child molestors and killers are let out regularly with little of the attendant outcry that has accompanied Thompson and Venables's release. I don't doubt the horror of what they did, but they where also children, and children have a distorted view of reality.

One feature overlooked is that there was no mention of James' mom being remiss to let him wander out of the shop in a busy shopping centre, James was 2 years old. Speaking as a father, you don't do that. In many cases of child abductions/murders etc, these children are unsupervised or unattended. In an ideal world this shouldn't be a problem, but it isn't an ideal world.

I am of course acting as devil's advocate with some of the above comments. Personally I don't know what to say about the whole issue. I feel disgust about the whole incident, yet the sentence, the release and what happens now, is out of my hands.

>>One feature overlooked is that there was no mention of James' mom being remiss to let him wander out of the shop in a busy shopping centre, James was 2 years old. Speaking as a father, you don't do that. In many cases of child abductions/murders etc, these children are unsupervised or unattended. In an ideal world this shouldn't be a problem, but it isn't an ideal world.

I think that as a father you would know that it is imposssible to watch children 100% of the time. As a mother with ADHD my child tries his best to wriggle out of my grasp all of the time, and there have been times where he has run off and hidden round corners. It's nobody's fault, and I hardly think even if the mother had chased him away from her with a big stick it still doesn't give anyone else the right to kidnap and kill the child. Therefore it has no need to be mentioned in this article.

Thanks but im not shure hoe to put this into the entry.

yes, we all know what children are like, but put it this way, as soon as your child is off, you are off after it. As I said... in an ideal world it shouldn't be a problem. But every parent is aware of the dangers, and you take safeguards, whether it is strrapping them into the pushchair,putting them on reins or a wristband, or just not letting go. We are talking about a 2 year old, not 4 or 5.

It was intended as an off-hand remark, but I guarantee that 'I wish I'd followed him straightaway' went through her mind a million times.

I am by no means blaming the parents, you could extend the arguement as to why Thompson and Venables, obviously of school age were allowed to wander the centre in school time, where were the security or the police ? So many questions, which with the benefit of hindsight can be asked.

Harlequin has already said most of what I would wish to say about this Entry. I would just add that I think it might be better titled "The Murder of James Bulger", since it is actually about that dreadful event and its repercussions rather than about James' tragically short life.
Also, whenever I'm writing anything of any length for h2g2, I usually write it in Word, run it through the spellcheck program, re-read it and then cut-and-paste it into the "submit Entry" window. This process only takes a minute, and seems to work pretty well. It might not be a bad idea if the author of this Entry did likewise.

There is also an 'official' site ran by his family, it's his name [URL removed by moderator]That has more infomation on it if you need it.

Since when have the words [URL removed by moderator], constituted a URL?

Anyway, perhaps the jobsworths will leave this one be: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking_point/newsid_1394000/1394456.stm . It's a link to a "Talking Point" discussion on the release of the killers from the BBC News site. Some surprising views are expressed, and I think that if you are going to read the family's site, the discussion might provide some alternative perspectives on the whole tragic affair.

Such cheek! Aren't we supposed to get an email when something is removed? It wasn't even a URL, I'm a Guru you know! And an ACE, I don't do naughty things moderators!
I said it's his name - Jamie not James. Followed by the abbreviation for company, then the abbreviation for United Kingdom. Really, I think that being removed was slightly over enthusiastic!

You're surely not expecting intelligence and consistency from the Moderators, are you, Mina?

Inexplicably I was.

erm ok, so why was the URL removed ?

I don't think that the site was likely to be a threat to anyone or subject to jurisprudence ?

It was removed, Harlequin, because the rules here say that you can't post URLs in conversation forums, unless they're links to BBC sites. You can put them in your Personal Space and in Guide Entries, assuming they're not links to something outrageous, but if I were to copy one of the many URLs that appear on my h2g2 homepage into this Forum, then a Moderator jobsworth would pounce within minutes and delete it.

Now, you may think that makes sense. On the other hand, you might want to follow THIS link : http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A544943 - which leads to a petition some of us have been organising against this sort of ludicrous nonsense.

I agree with Ormondroyd that the article should be changed.
There is another James Bulger (usually known as "Whitey")
who is being sought by the FBI in the United States.
Some people might think the article was about the wrong
Bulger.

I'll try to keep my emotions about the Bulger case and the release of Venables and Thompson out of this because they're not relevant, and indeed to some degree self-contradictory.

I don't think the article can be approved so long as it:
(a) Focuses on the release of the murderers rather than the facts and circumstances of the murder. The murder was and remains the important fact. The release is an ephemeral news event.
(b) Appears to criticise the release of the murderers. Whilst that is an entirely valid and understandable opinion, the Edited Guide is not the right place to express such opinions.
(c) Contains so much that is speculation and hypothesis. In particular the sentence "if they do it again [in the US] they would face the death penalty" makes unfounded and inflammatory assumptions about the rehabilitation of these two young men.

In fact, I'm not sure that it will be possible to write a balanced and objective article on this topic while emotions are running so high. The entire spectrum of opinion, from super-liberals who confuse the criminal with the victim to knuckle-scraping vigilantes, is just too pumped up at the moment.

Maybe we should all come back to the topic in five years.

You're probably right, GVI - and I say that even though I'm in the middle of trying to write about it (with particular reference to those vigilantes) for this week's "Post"!

Right the name has been changed. and a bit edited thatks for the help keep it comeing.

now see if thats better!

"James Bugler`s parents have also expired there fears of forgiven web sights posting photographs of Tompson and venables because other incent boys could be killed who only look like Tompson and Venables thus the killing would be in James name."

Should be:
James Bulger's parents have also expressed their fears of forbidden websites posting photographs of Thompson and Venables because other innocent boys could be targeted.

Does that sound better?

I cannot see that sentences like this have been adjusted, even with the previous remarks.
It was suggested running your entry through a spell-check, could you do this please?

Entry still not ready for recommending - I propose a move to WW.