The public will be able to challenge a wider range of sentences given for terror offences under new plans.
Currently, people in England and Wales can challenge punishments given for the most serious terror offences under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.
But under the changes - which come into effect on 8 August - sentences for 19 other crimes will be open to challenge.
I really cannot overstate how much I hate the idea of the public being involved in the justice system to start with. Not in the court side of it - twelve people sitting on a jury is fine, because they hear all the evidence, the witnesses and so on and so forth, and get specific legal direction from the Judge (a person who has, one assumes, a fairly large experience in the matter of handing down legal direction) before making their decision about innocence and guilt.
No - the part I hate is the idea of all the Sun Readers, the bigots, the racists and the general public who get their news from The Daily Mail, The Express and the web being allowed to decide whether a sentence was lenient enough, or whether it should be more severe. To me that just seems to be asking for trouble in the first place.
Because the papers, the news, the internet and so on are NEVER going to report ALL of the evidence and ALL of the testimony and ALL of the legal points. They will report the most salacious and interesting details, and ignore the rest. Or they will report what best fits their side of the story and leave the rest. And while the reporting in the UK is a darn site better than it is in some other countries, it will still be biased to whatever the political agenda of the paper/site reporting it is.
And now, opening this up to let the public decide on "terror related offences", most of which appear to involve people with brown skin (because I have yet to see the government apply the word terrorist freely and fairly to people of all races and nationalities) is just going to give free reign to all the racists, bigots and xenophobes like Farage and his merry men who want to get the foreigners out of here.
Someone once argued that if a law that is not specifically targeted at a given race, or sex, is going to overly affect that race, or that sex, then that law is racist or sexist despite it not appearing so. And I would argue that that is what this law is going to do. (Sorry, change in the law). By allowing the public to weigh in on "terror related offences" it will just breed more hate, more division and more bigotry.
Or am I wrong? Is the government doing the right thing in letting us, the ill-informed public, have our say on judicial matters, and that this can only be a good thing for democracy, peace and justice?