Julian Brazier MP’s excellent Bill to allow greater oversight over the British Board of Film Classification (the BBFC), see http://cornerstonegroup.wordpress.com/2008/02/27/why-i-want-to-legislate-against-video-nasties-by-julian-brazier/
Didn’t get a second reading, unfortunately, as not enough MPs showed up to support it, but I am sure that efforts to tighten the regime surrounding games will go on.
Julian during the discussion of the Bill, and at Prime Minister’s Questions in February talked about his concerns over one film, “SS Experiment Camp”, and asked “What possible justification can there be for the (BBFC’s) decision to release into British high street outlets videos and DVDs such as which shows in voyeuristic detail women being tortured to death by SS camp guards?”
The BBFC isn’t the only problem, it turns out. Even when a game is found to be distasteful by them, there is still an appeal right. The new “Manhunt 2″ has been condemned by the BBFC for allowing “sadistic violence”, but has been allowed onto our streets after an appeal. See yesterday’s Mail on Sunday http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=534170&in_page_id=1770
In its original decision, the BBFC said that Manhunt 2 had “unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone” and that the game “constantly encouraged visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing”.
It continued: “There is sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed.”
Who sits on this Video Appeals Committee? A Google search reveals the names of nobody.
Have you seen the news today? Where Julian Brazier and Cornerstone go others follow. Well done Cornerstone, the voice of true Conservatives across the country.