martyh

I think the government are going to fuel a lot of resentment over the way they are handling this .If we are going to get tough with criminals then we need to get tough on all criminals .At the moment there is a lot of anger in Britain over the riots from people who have lost everything and that is very understandable and their feelings should be taken into account ,but should not be the basis for a whole new sentencing structure which the government have now created .
The basis of our justice system is proportionality and fairness and at the moment the sentences given in some cases are way out of proportion to the crime and more importantly to similar crimes and sentences given out a week before the riots .What is going to happen when all this is over and some bored youth smashes up a bus shelter ,will they be treated as harshly or will it go back to wrist slapping liberal punishment .David Cameron has to be very careful from now on if he takes his eye off the ball then he will look like a knee jerking idiot ,plus he's going to have to build a lot more prisons