Panem et Circenses (and stuff the CPR)

Dear Diary,

I have been thinking hard: it is the only way to take my mind off the vision of Mistress Ruthie with her head between another girl’s legs. Yes, dear Diary, a rugby scrum is a positive hotbed of seething physical effort. Certainly, it is all too much for me.

I have positively oscillated between extremes. On the one hand I have considered jury service. Dearest Diary, nothing would thrill me more. After all these years, the opportunity to truly understand what juries take note of and what they ignore; what they think works and what should be promptly abandoned. Were only Mistress Ruthie to be my foreperson I should think I would expire with joy. Of course, some extra soundproofing might be required. To cap it all, one would have the chance to pose a legal question of immense difficulty and complexity if either Judge or counsel showed the slightest sign of being smug or self-satisfied.

Not for me the banning of Police Officers or CPS lawyers. In my view people ought to be trusted to carry out the oath they take. Obviously, matters of geographical proximity and personal knowledge must be dealt with, but they are not excuses not to serve.

On the other hand I have considered, again, the sentences passed on these teenagers who appear to have come across the wrong reading material. Apparently the sentences were supposed to be a deterrent. How? These young men will be released within 15 months. They will believe then what they believe now. They will be martyrs, either further radicalised in prison or full of a sense of grievance. Surely it would be better to offer them the chance to change their views, at the very least as an alternative to prosecution? In a system which passes 15+ Criminal Justice bills per Parliament, it might, perhaps, be possible for the Jackys to fit that one in.

What troubles me is that this sort of prosecution fills everyone with self-satisfaction. The Police glow with having tracked down dangerous radicals. The CPS pats itself on the back for applying the public interest test. The Court prides itself on applying the rule of law. The Government is able to point to successful convictions; indeed these young men amount to 10% of convictions under the Terrorism Acts to date. So they are obviously working. Finally, some very young and not terribly bright adolescents go to jail, for not very long.

Part of the expert report produced for the CPS has both found its way online and appears to conclude that the accused had access to material about suicide bombing and Al-Qaida type operations. That was not the Crown’s case. The Crown’s case was that these men were going to fight abroad. The author of the report is a 28 year-old with no post-graduate degree who cannot speak Arabic. He may have huge expertise, but he has only ever testified for the US and the UK governments. One hopes he has not made the report publicly available as an advert.

Anyway, whilst we continue to make an example of those who know no better, we at least bring the feelgood factor to this windswept and rained-upon land.  Panem et circenses as Juvenal was wont to recommend. Dear Diary, as I keep saying to Mistress Ruthie, the old ones are the best.