It wasn’t me, Gov

Sometimes I tear my hair out and gnash my teeth at the complete failure of our media to actually disseminate information. Other times I just get depressed and go back to bed. Did you know that Munir Hussain never relied on self defence or diminished responsibility, but instead claimed to have never been involved in beating the burglar with a cricket bat?

Since he quite obviously did beat the man, and as he failed to avail himself of the defence the law provides for people in his situation, he was clearly responsible for his own guilty verdict. Did you also know that part of the reason for the original sentence is that because of the lock ’em up brigade,  we have minimum sentence guidelines for violent offences, rather than letting judges…..what’s the word…..judge cases on their merits?

If you didn’t, then I dutifully direct you to Five Chinese Crackers, who has dug out the relevant facts, while the commercial media are jabbering about an imagined case, and politicians are busy making policy off the backs of it:

On one level, it might seem that Cameron has played the tabloids cleverly here, and in the short-term he probably has.  He’s promised nothing that will make any difference and he’s getting praised to the rafters in return – and all in the lead up to an election.  In the longer-term though, he’ll find out about how the tabloids have narratives they need to push next time this issue comes around, which it inevitably will, and the tabloids accuse him of being soft on crime, which they inevitably will regardless of what he actualy does.  He might regret giving them this inch right now instead of using his platform to explain what the law is currently and why it’s fine as it is.  He obviously does think that, or he’d be proposing something more than replacing ‘unreasonable’ with a synonym.

Empty politics at it’s best.  A proposal that does nothing practical in response to papers that got things wrong in the first place, and a total waste of everyone’s time.  I love the news media in this country.  I love the politicians that allow them to pull their strings even more.