The Aftermath

And now to the aftermath of one of the worse weeks I can remember for our country.

Once again the country is split, this time over punishment and court action for the criminals who ran amoc in our streets.

I think we can debate this all day long when actually only the courts know and understand who is in front of them, what they have done and whether they deserve a second chance. I respect everyone's opinion but I know the majority back my view that this needed swift and tough sentencing. And impressive it has been.

justice must do 3 things:

Act as a deterrent
Punish the individuals
Rehabilitation

And proportionality is subjective depending on whether you are the victim, the perpetrator or supporters of either. The court has to be unemotional for proportionality to exist.

I have been totally comfortable with all the sentencing except perhaps the 4 years given to the 2 men who tried to incite the violence. However they may very well have succeeded had the police not taken down their Facebook pages. it is for the courts to decide with the evidence they have.

What I am really disgusted with is the comparison of the rioters to hackers and bankers. Violent gratuitous animal behaviour resulting in murders, bodily harm and loss of businesses of innocent people should be looked at as a stand alone debate otherwise we could forever misdirect by using previous examples. It is comparing apple with pears.

I am also dismayed that the views of the right are practically vilified by the left in a nasty spiteful way that shows they are not prepared to listen to what the majority of the people want. We all have a voice and while we need to find out all the reasons behind the riots, it is absolutely obvious that it was not down to cuts. Again the majority of the public do not believe it is as simplistic as this and yet predominant labour MPs are politicising the events for their own agenda. Shameful, unhelpful and transparent.

What we need now is appreciation of the good that will come out of this, a celebration of the majority of good people that live here, helping each other through the bad times, and to work towards what we ALL want-safe streets, jobs, living within our means, stable economy and empowered people who take responsibility for their actions.

And to the hero Tariq Jahan who showed us all wonderful words of wisdom, dignity and forgiveness in his great loss. May those who lost thir lives never be forgotten.