If Hodges accepts that people granted asylum need to be informed that the rape of children, women or vulnerable pensioners is illegal — because some of them allegedly do not already know this — then the policy of reckless dispersal into hotels and HMOs in ordinary villages and towns is indefensible. Residents there do not expect elevated risk of sexual violence simply by sitting on a bench, walking in a park or taking children to the swings. A government that knowingly places such people, unguarded, among an unsuspecting population shows a treacherous disregard for public safety that borders on the appalling. A journalist who lacks the instinct or curiosity to confront this reality, and instead offers only polite caveats, acts as a stooge for power rather than a critic of it. Neither that government nor that style of journalism deserves recognition or tolerance as genuine government or genuine journalism.