It’s a good film 
1 Like
How would they know it’s time sensitive if they haven’t read the email?
I didn’t watch but reading up there isn’t anything stunning in there.
I agree with lots of it:
Holocaust Memorial
Licensing Pedicabs (things are a menace)
Banning Smoking/Vaping
Reducing the number of Leaseholds
Supporting Ukraine
Clearly blah to try and keep the red wall voting blue:
Crime and punishment
Immigration bits
Rail networks in the North (would be nice and does make more sense than HS2 but won’t happen)
2 Likes
When it comes to the Holocaust, we do already have a national centre for this. I’m definitely not opposed to having another memorial, but I didn’t like how this was made to look like a new thing.
Pedicabs - I never found them to be much of an issue when I lived in London. Feels like a distraction technique - especially using national legislation to control a perceived local issue. Is making pedicab riders jobless really the best idea right now, given the state of the economy?
Banning smoking - fully in favour. Ban the advertising too please (it’s all over the internet). Bluntly, I’ve put too many relatives in the ground from smoking-related illnesses and hate seeing younger generations taking up vaping.
Reducing leasholds - been spoken about for a long time and at this point, I simply don’t believe they’ll deliver on it. I’m not sure they know best how to.
Supporting Ukraine - 100% backing.
I noticed on the live coverage (yes, I was sad enough to watch it) that the commentators mentioned there were 21 bills but only 16 were discussed. Given this current government’s track record, I find myself concerned about what those other 5 bills might contain.
They are a menace, no regulation, no licensing, no background checks on drivers, they set their own prices for tourists who don’t really understand the currency. That’s before you even consider the standards of their driving.
Aren’t most powers for TFL derived from Central Legislation? The byelaws for example come under the London Transport Act, Taxi Licensing is also central legislation.
2 Likes
You’ve left out “decked in awful garish colours that are almost the bench mark for naff taste playing even worse cheesy music at a stupidly loud volume through speakers that sound like a cross between a vacuum cleaner & DJDave Ford Capri mobile karaoke”
You’re assuming the recipient scans their emails for anything implying urgency. I don’t. If something is urgent I expect someone to tell me, by phone call, instant message, or face-to-face: otherwise I’ll work through my emails in turn (newest first: if something is urgent then it will be chased and that will bring it to the top).
1 Like
We were discussing this great idea to make some criminals serve the entirety of their custodial term, rather than just the half or 2/3rds that most do now.
The consensus was that it would make the sentences so long, that those charged with them would basically have to run the trial gamble everytime, because the credit wouldn’t be worth losing the chance of being acquitted.
This would then increase the trial backlog even further. (It’s already at least a year basically everywhere for a bail case.)
This will likely mean a fall in the conviction rate, as the system will dishearten complainants so much that they’ll drop out before the 12-18 months wait ends. The chances of complainant’s dropping out already are very high, because we have a system which seems presently almost designed to wear them down.
2 Likes
Surely if you are facing the full sentence given having the 1/3 off for a early guilty plea becomes even more important?
I suppose a solution would be to increase the discount for the guilty plea to 1/2 off. Either that or they will just adjust the sentencing guidelines.
It’s a weird sliding scale, the discount needs to be attractive enough to outweigh the risk. At some points it’s irrelevant, when the sentence even after trial is unlikely to be custody, why bother, you may as well roll the die.
When the difference is between custody and maybe a suspended sentence, it’s key.
When the difference is between a long time in custody, and a little less time in custody, the reward isn’t worth it again, you may as well roll the die.
And I doubt they’ll adjust the guidelines, that would defeat the point of this attention grabbing dogwhistle
So reading it further it’s only rapists (and I assume other serious sex offenders they are looking at), in which case one solution would be to fast track those sorts of cases.
I don’t completely buy that the discount isn’t still going to work. If you look at the sentencing guidelines for Rape most will fall into Category 3, Culpability A.
That’s a starting point of 7 years, 4.5 years with your discount is a hell of a lot better than 7 years and I’ve got to say that currently being able to only actually serve less that 2.5 years for rape is disgusting. I suppose you could keep the current system and hike the sentencing guidelines up to achieve the same result.
I’ve just seen the new Police power of entry to recover stolen property and I’ve got to say that is a really good idea. At present using Section 17 of PACE with find my iPhone is a real stretch.
1 Like
It’s not just the sentence though. If we lived in a society where you could serve your state imposed sentence and that he the end of it, (where appropriate) that would be less of an issue.
But we don’t, and the stigma and lasting effects of a rape conviction stretch far beyond the sentence, so credit becomes less of an issue. Which is why we already have so many sexual offences trials.
Look at low level sexual assaults, you almost certainly won’t go to prison, but you will be subject to notification requirements and you will almost certainly lose your job, so you may as well roll the die.
1 Like
You can say the same about lots of things which come with additional elements to the sentence. Traffic and Football being prime examples, I’ve probably been to court for both of those offence types more than any other.
But with that being the case is the changes to sentences really going to be the driving factor of a not-guilty plea, if the drive for people rolling the dice is the additional criteria that comes with a Rape conviction getting a reduced sentence isn’t going to affect their plea.
I would suggest that doing 2.5 years is as likely to cost you your job as 4.5 years.
1 Like
Jobs don’t come into it with custody. That’s only for low level stuff where it might be custody.
The question will be whether the sentence guidelines will need to be changed because in essence the punitive element will have doubled, which is a massive change to sentencing practice, and I hope that the bill does as well as other dogwhistles this lot have put forward and not taken ahead. (Also, does that mean they won’t have licence perioda at all, which are a big factor in reducing risk?)
The fundamental issue is that prison doesn’t work as it should, and all this will do is make prison worse, as capacity will reduce even further.
We were discussing the other day whether making notification requirements a judicial discretion would be a nice sweetener to reduce some trials, we think it would. But it would never fly politically.
We should probably have a separate Law & Order thread rather than boring everyone else.
That’s a very good question that I doubt has been fully considered.
That’s also a very good point and I suspect that they wouldn’t, I would be interested to know how many are recalled on licence without committing an offence? I suppose the notification requirements could replace a lot of the licence conditions in sexual offences.
My understanding was that it was focussed on Serious Sexual Offences, in which case I don’t have an issue. Where it would be a huge mistake as you say is of it went down to the low level and meant that suspended sentences ended up being 3 years inside. Prisons can’t handle all those extra prisoners for a staff and as you say it would then be worth a punt at a not-guilty.
Not a terrible idea, you would need to keep them for serious offenders and I would also say for Stranger offences. But for some of the other offences they probably aren’t a necessity.
1 Like
I ordered some cat car parts yesterday. Just had an email confirming my order is on its way. But it’s being delivered by EVRI. 
Looks like that won’t be turning up then!
Kidneys? Livers?
Brake pads and disks. Error fixed, but also kept for you.
2 Likes