I scarcely dare say this, but the Jamie Bulger case alone played its gruesome part in derailing such good and resolute intentions as may then have existed in THAT government of the day. We have to cajole, encourage or ultimately DEMAND that our government should behave in a grown up way should any such appalling case again rear its profoundly ugly face. Not to say it will happen but cold feet generated by ANY setback must no longer be the trigger / excuse for a stalled reform programme AT LAST. And no more, please, of the demonisation of youngsters. We surely many of us recall the introduction into everyone’s lexicon of the adjective “feral”, on the part of a Blair regime ( query Alastair Campbell) and for quite a while afterwards we had been unable to look forward. How facile wrong, and self fulfilling we must remember that that proved to be.
Thanks for sharing this. Its all great stuff and lets really hope this government can get the courts and the process of justice back up to the standards we need.
Well spotted, Andrew Turek! In my contention hope is a moral obligation without our having to identify any grounds for it. However, I do believe that here we now have significant grounds for hope. The recent history with our Lord Chancellors has- lamentably, depressingly-been one of that onerous and vital office being viewed as a consolation prize, a short lived stepping stone or a much lower rung on the ladder of ambition en route to a “serious” department of State. Alternatively, the Lord Chancellorship has been used as a bargaining counter in unseemly negotiations with an ambitious potential rival when the Prime Minister of the day has been seeking loyalty by adding the post as a makeweight. All of that HAD to stop and now here we have those grounds for hope. In fact our new Lord (why not “Lady”?) Chancellor/Justice Secretary seems to a number of us to be a meritorious appointment, given her upbringing in the challenging environment of Small Heath just up the road from our dwelling in Kings Heath. In Small Heath she was educated at its secondary school and in part by our daughter, now Professor Corinne Fowler of Leicester University. It goes further for us in that she has also been re-elected as MP for the nearby Constituency of Ladywood. Herein - I say it again- lie the grounds for hope, for the rule of law, due process and- I can scarcely refrain from adding- a sane and constructive approach to our prisons AND SENTENCING crisis. There: I have said it. All sceptics are welcome; cynics need not apply.
I scarcely dare say this, but the Jamie Bulger case alone played its gruesome part in derailing such good and resolute intentions as may then have existed in THAT government of the day. We have to cajole, encourage or ultimately DEMAND that our government should behave in a grown up way should any such appalling case again rear its profoundly ugly face. Not to say it will happen but cold feet generated by ANY setback must no longer be the trigger / excuse for a stalled reform programme AT LAST. And no more, please, of the demonisation of youngsters. We surely many of us recall the introduction into everyone’s lexicon of the adjective “feral”, on the part of a Blair regime ( query Alastair Campbell) and for quite a while afterwards we had been unable to look forward. How facile wrong, and self fulfilling we must remember that that proved to be.
Thanks for sharing this. Its all great stuff and lets really hope this government can get the courts and the process of justice back up to the standards we need.
I agree. As time goes on, my faith that Keir Starmer and his team are going to go flat out to do the right things in the right way is growing.
Well spotted, Andrew Turek! In my contention hope is a moral obligation without our having to identify any grounds for it. However, I do believe that here we now have significant grounds for hope. The recent history with our Lord Chancellors has- lamentably, depressingly-been one of that onerous and vital office being viewed as a consolation prize, a short lived stepping stone or a much lower rung on the ladder of ambition en route to a “serious” department of State. Alternatively, the Lord Chancellorship has been used as a bargaining counter in unseemly negotiations with an ambitious potential rival when the Prime Minister of the day has been seeking loyalty by adding the post as a makeweight. All of that HAD to stop and now here we have those grounds for hope. In fact our new Lord (why not “Lady”?) Chancellor/Justice Secretary seems to a number of us to be a meritorious appointment, given her upbringing in the challenging environment of Small Heath just up the road from our dwelling in Kings Heath. In Small Heath she was educated at its secondary school and in part by our daughter, now Professor Corinne Fowler of Leicester University. It goes further for us in that she has also been re-elected as MP for the nearby Constituency of Ladywood. Herein - I say it again- lie the grounds for hope, for the rule of law, due process and- I can scarcely refrain from adding- a sane and constructive approach to our prisons AND SENTENCING crisis. There: I have said it. All sceptics are welcome; cynics need not apply.
I suppose having both Law Officers come from the same chambers is a special sort of diversity 😀