Thread by @Barristerblog

I disagree with @barristersecret here. Johnson does appear to intend much tougher sentences, and not just for child murderers. The current whole-life tariff for child murderers is reserved for those with an abduction or a sexual or sadistic motivation.

https://twitter.com/BarristerSecret/status/1173160465813450752

@BarristerSecret For some reason the plan is for killing of 4 year olds to become automatically more serious than the killing of 5 year olds.

@BarristerSecret Non-sexual murders of young children are very uncommon anyway. Some are "baby-shaking" cases where an inadequate parent may snap in a moment of anger. There is good reason why such cases should be regarded as less serious than the sexual murder of children.

@BarristerSecret The sentencing proposals also include a reduction in remission for "violent and sexual offenders." That is very significant. No wonder he also plans an extra 10,000 prison places, he will be needing them. And a great deal of extra money.

@BarristerSecret There is also a "knock on" effect on other sentences. Will sentencing guidelines need to be rewritten to take different release provisions into account? Will the new proposals create new anomalies and disparities? Almost certainly.

@BarristerSecret Is promising to "act as quickly and aggressively as we can" likely to lead to sensible legislation? No, it's a perfect recipe for bad legislation that will make a horrifically complicated area of law even harder to understand.

@BarristerSecret Instead, why not consider implementing the Law Commission's sensible plan for a Sentencing Code?
s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/lawcom-prod-st…

@BarristerSecret One sensible proposal, however, is for the sentencing remarks of all Crown Court judges to be published. But that won't be cheap. We don't yet have widespread or terribly accurate automatic voice transcription in courts.

@BarristerSecret Anyone who's had to pay hundreds of pounds for a transcript of sentencing remarks will appreciate the problem. I don't usually do financial tips, but now may be a good time to invest in Smith Bernal, or whatever their parent company is now called.