Mark Andrews: Justice becomes a joke, Meghan's name change, and train company tackles sex inequality

Mark Andrews takes a wry look at the news and events of the past week

Published
Last updated

Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565

From next month, sentencing judges will be advised to consider treating convicted criminals differently, depending on their ethnicity, sex, or sexual orientation.

So blatantly iniquitous is this latest guidance, that even Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood - hardly a pearl-clutching, reactionary culture warrior - was said to be 'incandescent' when she heard about it. She has written to the Sentencing Council, the body which drafted this ridiculous advice, asking them to withdraw it.  

This all begs the question of who are the people who come up with such perverse thinking. And looking at the list of the great and the good who sit on the Sentencing Council, there was one name that stood out: a Justice of the Peace, called Jo King. 

Yes, Jo King. You really must be.

*****

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood

The other thing this episode highlights is the high-handed arrogance of the legal establishment in this country, and the impotence of successive governments in tackling it.