Apparently, the arch-twit of the Labour cabinet (a competitive title, but well-deserved), Lord Falconer, has said that there are some people who should die behind bars because 'people expect that'.
This sort of thing infuriates me. Why do we bother having a professional judiciary if people are going to be sentenced by calumny in the media! Why do we bother employing Lord Wolff and others if Rupert Murdoch is going to decide how long our prisoners are going to stay in jail. The fact is that if we did what the majority of people 'expect' then this country would have gone to the dogs a long time ago.
The laws of this country are far too complex and well thought out to be subject to mob rule and the manipulation of the press who, let's face it, have something of their own agenda. People are far too easily whipped-up into a self-richeous frenzy to be allowed to decide something so important. Has anyone watched the scenes outside an American jail as a prisoner is about to be executed? The sight is absolutely chilling. The problem is that it is those who have sinned who are particularly fond of casting stones.
I realise that there are people out there who have done horrible things and that people would like to see them punished, but even criminals are humans and are subject to human rights and the laws of the land. The fact is that people are the product of the society in which they are brought up, and these demonstrations of public outrage are nothing more than humiliating displays of self-flagellation in a society that has failed itself.
And if we should allow this new form of public trial, I would imagine that Lord Falconer would hope that selling peerages is not the next crime to capture public outrage
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