On Sunday I was fortunate enough to be in the live audience for the Politics Show debate at the Labour Party Conference. John Prescott and Charles Clarke were the heavyweight (no pun intended) politicians on the panel, accompanied by Polly Toynbee from the Guardian, who - being a liberal - sat well and truly on the fence throughout the debate and did a good job of plugging her new book. Having spoken at length with the shows producer earlier in the week, he obviously saw fit to plonk this born and bred labourite in the back row in case I was in any danger of spouting left wing propoganda from the front row. I didn't get to heckle Charles Clarke for sounding like a Tory, but I was fortunate to be sat next to a proud dad who had driven his 16 year old daughter to Manchester from Northampton that morning to support her in her love of politics. After spending the last 3 years working with a mixture of dissassociated youths and angry-at-the-system prisoners it was hugely refreshing to speak to this passionate young woman who undoubtedly has a bright future ahead of her. It was also refreshing to watch John Prescott bare down on a Daily Mail journo in the front row (complete with flimsy flop haircut and rah rah rah accent) for mentioning the current employment situation. A quick rebuttal from good old John on 3 million unemployed under the tories seemed to do the trick. It's good to see a politician with some gruff passion, others might call it aggressive and uncouth, I call it ballsy and true. Maybe its just the way we do things in the North.
In other news, I must congratulate my friend Greg Holt. After three years of hard slog he has at last signed the lease on his first office/studio and will be tackling the TV industry head on as a camera operator/editor in the months and years to come under the banner of Bridgewater Media (if he hasnt changed his mind on the name yet). On a similar vane, I am hereby appealing for a new drinking buddy, applications on a postcard please.
Thursday 25 September 2008
Tuesday 16 September 2008
Justice at its best?
As a young man in Blackburn I used to knock around with a lad called Anthony Rigby. As teenagers we rode our bikes to Darwen Tower. We went swimming together at the Disco night in the baths in Blackburn. Anthony helped me get my first ever kiss from a girl who bore the radiant smell of cigarettes and Lemon Hooch at the West End Community Centre.
On the morning of January 7 2002, aged 18, Anthony was shot in the back of the head in his own apartment. Four days later he died in hospital. Mark Harrington was the man responsible for the crime. He too was someone I was familiar with. I had asked him to join the college rugby team because we needed the players. Little did I know he had a long standing history of paranoid schizophrenia and the tendancy to be violent. Soon after my encounter with him he was expelled from college for intimidating fellow students. He was sectioned, then released, then he wrote a "death list" which featured several of my friends. Anthony was at the top. Luckily the police caught up with him before he could do any more damage.
Harrington was found guilty of manslaughter through diminished responsibility and was taken into custody indefinately. 6 years on, an old school friend informs me that Harrington will soon be back on our streets and I am struggling to understand the logic behind the decision to let this man walk free.
A man serving time for murder once told me that prison is "a university where you can get a degree in crime. Rehabilitation is a figment of the politicians' imagination". It worries me that such a short period of time may not be enough for someone who never showed any remorse for his actions. When teaching in the prison system I met two former soldiers who had both served three tours of Afghanistan before coming home and stealing a cab drivers car keys and putting them down a drain because of a discrepancy with the fare. They were both sentenced to two years in jail and were dishonorably discharged from the armed forces. I remember that they were frustrated at the length of their sentence in comparison to a sex offender who was sentenced to six months for indecently assaulting a child, and I agreed with them.
I have recieved comments on my previous blogs about making prison a more severe place to be. Im not sure whether I agree with that, but one thing is for sure, and its that a real and practical review needs to be made of the sentencing and parole policies in our justice system. I will be in the audience of the politics show this weekend in Manchester, maybe its one of the issues I will throw at the politicians while I am there.
On the morning of January 7 2002, aged 18, Anthony was shot in the back of the head in his own apartment. Four days later he died in hospital. Mark Harrington was the man responsible for the crime. He too was someone I was familiar with. I had asked him to join the college rugby team because we needed the players. Little did I know he had a long standing history of paranoid schizophrenia and the tendancy to be violent. Soon after my encounter with him he was expelled from college for intimidating fellow students. He was sectioned, then released, then he wrote a "death list" which featured several of my friends. Anthony was at the top. Luckily the police caught up with him before he could do any more damage.
Harrington was found guilty of manslaughter through diminished responsibility and was taken into custody indefinately. 6 years on, an old school friend informs me that Harrington will soon be back on our streets and I am struggling to understand the logic behind the decision to let this man walk free.
A man serving time for murder once told me that prison is "a university where you can get a degree in crime. Rehabilitation is a figment of the politicians' imagination". It worries me that such a short period of time may not be enough for someone who never showed any remorse for his actions. When teaching in the prison system I met two former soldiers who had both served three tours of Afghanistan before coming home and stealing a cab drivers car keys and putting them down a drain because of a discrepancy with the fare. They were both sentenced to two years in jail and were dishonorably discharged from the armed forces. I remember that they were frustrated at the length of their sentence in comparison to a sex offender who was sentenced to six months for indecently assaulting a child, and I agreed with them.
I have recieved comments on my previous blogs about making prison a more severe place to be. Im not sure whether I agree with that, but one thing is for sure, and its that a real and practical review needs to be made of the sentencing and parole policies in our justice system. I will be in the audience of the politics show this weekend in Manchester, maybe its one of the issues I will throw at the politicians while I am there.
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