More on proper sentences

I wrote briefly on proper sentences the other day. Comments - for which many thanks - concentrated on Guido's death sentence campaign, but I was trying to say there is a wider problem of sentencing, in that instances of light sentencing seem to pop up every week.

Inspector Gadget highlights another one today.

Richard North has been highlighting clunkingly severe penalties for technical offences - the latest here. Yet real crimes such as benefit theft are often dealt with by a slap on the wrist.

We're told they're only following the sentencing guidelines. Yet who writes those? And how visible is the process?

In passing, we notice Charlie Gilmour's mummy says he's finding prison isn't very nice. Actually, dear, we don't care. At all. And she tweets:

I would advise anyone who's thinking of protesting to wear [a balaclava]. Is so unfair that only one side gets to wear armour.

Now I begin to see what people mean about his duff parents.