I was wrong on riot sentencing

People sometimes ask me, about the stuff I write: ‘Do you ever think that you get it wrong?’ The answer of course is a fervent ‘Yes!’ And even when I don’t actually KNOW that I’ve got something wrong, I’m always plagued with doubt about it.

One thing I got wrong recently was the riots. Or more properly, my take on what happened to the people prosecuted for their parts in the riots. I think I remember being gung-ho for long sentences, sentences out of all proportion to the crimes actually committed, bang ’em up, ne’er do well trash. I suppose, like a lot of people, I was swallowed by a recriminatory mood occasioned by the anger the riots provoked in me.

But it was bad call, a wrong call. The government was surely wrong to demand of the courts that the rioters face tough sentences; wrong to interfere at all. And the courts were wrong to take any notice of the government. If we think that sentencing is generally too lenient for the sort of crimes that were committed, then change the law and alter the tariff. It is a bit late to have reached this conclusion, I know.