Anyone who knows me would say I am always happy to help at any time. That is provided it is nothing difficult or time consuming. Or costly, or involving a lot of travel. Well, perhaps they would say I will sometimes grudgingly help if I cannot avoid it.
Anyway, I am happy to help out the Government who have had a bit of a bad time what with the riots, economy, demonstrations, and Chagos Island dispute, so have decided to write some new year resolutions for them that will save them the bother.
Resolution 1: Think before you act
Before I move on to my list for criminal justice, here are a few general rules that I strongly recommend. First of all, don’t keep upsetting people, and if you insist on carrying on doing that, don’t upset everyone at once. First of all it was pensioners with the winter fuel allowance. I am not saying it was not right to target money at those who actually need it rather than at all those who don’t, but you did rather just drop it in out of the blue. I am sure even you would agree it has not gone down well. Pensioners never forget and everyone has the ambition to live to be a pensioner one day as the alternative is not very attractive, so they were not the best group to annoy on your first day.
Then you have followed it up by reaggravating the WASPI women (women against state pension inequality) who lost out when the pension age was change. You all supported their cause over recent years but now you are in Government have dumped them. So having annoyed all pensioners over the fuel allowance you went back a second time and annoyed a few more of them again. Try not to go for a hat trick. It is not a good idea.
Most people in this country, brought up on stories of fluffy bunnies in the countryside with woods, trees, sheep, and cattle, love the romantic image of the family farmers in the Haywain, so riling them up over inheritance tax could have been done better. I am slightly confused over this myself because if, as you keep saying, it will not really affect many then it won’t raise much money either. If that is the case, please explain the point.
From the size, and noise, of the protests over all these moves it would appear that you have riled quite a lot of the country, so I suggest you leave that sort of thing behind. Therefore my first resolution is to be a bit more careful in future. Now on to important things.
Resolution 2: Make a real difference on criminal justice
The justice system is a mess, I think everyone knows that now. Well, perhaps apart from the previous Government ministers who made it so bad in the first place. You have set out to improve things and while we know the early release scheme you implemented would have happened anyway it did temporarily ease the crisis. Nor did it trigger the end of the world as we know it in the way predicted, and probably desired, by elements of the press.
You have genuinely committed more funds to prisons, and they are absolutely necessary so keep pressing to get the work done properly, efficiently, and speedily. But, and it is a big but, stop building giant prisons. They are already running into difficulties in some places. With all the good intentions in the world and wonderfully spacious workshops, they are in fact giant monstrosities, cold and bleak. When the Victorian prisons were first built, they were considered innovative, but that did not last long because as quick as you build them, you fill them, so the problem of overcrowding does not end, it just shuffles around and switches locations.
Better instead to focus on the Sentencing review. Some of the words coming from David Gauke are encouraging when he talks about extending the use of open prisons to move people out into the community towards the end of their sentences as happens in Spain, and use of Tagging in the way Spain does too. The Prisons Minister suggested he was travelling to Spain to look at their systems which he also says are positive and effective.
Ignore the wailing and howling from reactionaries who want longer and longer sentences even though they make no difference to crime but do choke up the prisons. You know what actually works. Do not let anyone distract you from doing the right thing in an effort to win a few votes from the lock ‘em up brigade. You cannot out flank the reactionaries by getting more reactionary yourself. They are better at that than you are. The further you move in that direction, the further they will push you.
The fortunate things are that you have a Prisons’ Minister who truly understands what is required plus the commitment to deliver it and have chosen a good Chair for the Sentencing review. You eased the prison capacity crisis. You have done OK so far. Your resolution must be to continue down this road, and ignore the loud voices of the ignorant. If you must upset people, don’t annoy pensioners. Irritate the ignorant.
Resolution 3: End two injustices
Here is the real test. Have you the integrity and courage to end the two major injustices that have been shaming this country for years, Joint Enterprise and Imprisonment for Public Protection? You know they are wrong. Many of you now in the Cabinet previously and publicly said they are wrong. Yet none of you have so far said you will scrap them.
The Supreme Court condemned Joint Enterprise in 2016. They said it had taken a wrong turn decades ago and was being used to sweep up people who were not involved in crimes but on the periphery of groups where others were, which was never the aim. There were expected to be a large number of successful appeals. It didn’t happen. The law needs changing, the current DPP Stephen Parkinson is undertaking a review of those currently awaiting trial because it is used in a discriminatory way against young men from the Black and minority communities. Lord Tony Woodley is chairing a Westminster Commission, set up by Kim Johnson MP and other members of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Miscarriages of Justice, to find a way to end it. Change it.
Then there is Imprisonment for Public Protection which Parliament ended in 2012, but did not make retrospective. The previous House of Commons Justice Committee undertook a major investigation and recommended two actions. First that the licence after release be changed so that it was not a ten year burden after people were freed. That has now happened. However they also proposed that all those in prison on IPP who have all been there for well over 12 years, some on short tariffs, be resentenced and that a process be established to deliver that. This was not agreed by the previous Government, and has not yet been agreed by you. You express concern for those in prison under IPP, and recognise the stress they suffer, but do nothing to stop it.
There is a Bill, proposed by Lord Tony Woodley, passing through the House of Lords to set up a resentencing scheme, but so far it has not been accepted by your Party. This is the only way for justice to come for those still in jail. However what will be required is the political courage to make the changes needed.
What is even worse is that Lord Timpson told the new House of Commons Justice Committee that the right way to see those on IPP released is for them to go through the various stages, get a Parole board to recommend a move to Open Prison, and demonstrate that they are ready for release. Not a resentencing exercise. We now learn that your Justice Secretary is still rejecting almost half Parole Board recommendations for people to move to open prisons. So much for leaving it to the Board. You are destroying hope, as even when Parole have studied the cases and suggested the move you say no. That is just plain wrong.
So my final proposed resolution is that in 2025 this Government will find the guts to change Joint Enterprise back to what it was meant to be, and to resentence all on IPP. That you will have the strength to stand up to those who will claim it will make the streets unsafe and declare people have a right to a second chance. And to replace unfairness with justice.
And if I can add an interim fourth resolution, stop vetoing Parole Board recommendations on moves to Open conditions, and do that one on January 1st. The others can take a few weeks more, but do not make it too long.
By the way, with some misgivings, happy new year.