Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Oexmelin]

Looks like as good a moment as any to evoke this

https://youtu.be/pXdVhiOKRB0

[Admiral Yi]

Though really if the world was sane Ed miliband would have won and today it'd be all jet packs and lovely proper burgundy passports

 

[Sheilbh]

Looks like as good a moment as any to evoke this

https://youtu.be/pXdVhiOKRB0

Edit: Incidentally the coronation invitations have gone out - and if this artwork doesn't turn you republican, nothing will


The tweeness of this country

[Josquius]

I'm fine with the art work but that font man.
Nearly as bad as a French children's book.

[Syt]

Had to look up Camilla's CoA top right - seems the right side is based on her father's CoA that he adopted in 2005, which was the year she adopted hers.

Guess it was a case of "Well, gotta get you a proper Coat of Arms now, I suppose ..."

[HVC]

Time to forge a party invite.

[Tamas]

Aaaand Sturgeon fleeing her post is finally explained:

Nicola Sturgeon's husband, arrested over SNP funding investigation
Police Scotland say Murrell 'arrested as a suspect' and searches being carried out at number of addresses

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/apr/05/peter-murrell-nicola-sturgeons-husband-arrested-over-snp-funding-investigation

[Sheilbh]

There have already been a couple of polls that would see Scottish Labour a plurality of MPs. I don't think things are going to get easier for the SNP 

Edit: Pictures of a police tent outside Sturgeon and Murrell's home, the police are also raiding party HQ.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Good news for the Union 

[Sheilbh]

May come to nothing but police searching and bagging several items in their garden, they seem to have gone in with shovels.

Pretty incredible whatever's going on (and the big evidence tents, digging up the garden etc feel very serious).

[HVC]

Shovels? Tin can banks?

[Valmy]

Good news for the Union 

This is all Clan Campbell's doing

[chipwich]

May come to nothing but police searching and bagging several items in their garden, they seem to have gone in with shovels.

Pretty incredible whatever's going on (and the big evidence tents, digging up the garden etc feel very serious).

The found the body of the independence movement that she buried ba-dum-tish

[Sheilbh]

Suella Braverman's constituency is being divvied by the boundary commission as are neighbouring constituencies. This meant Braverman had to stand for selection in a new constituency of Fareham and Waterlooville against another sitting Tory MP - Braverman's old constituency was basically Fareham, the other Tory MP's Waterlooville.

In the end (and Lord Tory branches are moribund ) Braverman won with about 75 votes and the other MP, Flick Drummond, got 55.

There were briefings earlier today that it was going to be quite close, which it isn't - but I suspect that was expectations management by Braverman's team. Even though she won comfortably, I feel a sitting Home Secretary and once and future leadership candidate should probably be doing better than 55-60% in trying to get selected in a new seat.

Drummond was apparently quite popular locally, she's a backbencher and might try her hand at one of the other new or re-designed neighbouring constituencies.

Edit: Incidentally another bafflingly light sentence (again crime committed when he was under 18) which annoys me - there's loads of crimes people shouldn't be jailed for. But I feel like this should. I think even an under 18 should be jailed if they rape a child rather than getting community service and even if he was over 25 I'm not sure 4-5 years in prison (typically half that is served) is enough. I'd note that it also took four years from the attack to trial - that may be because the victim came forward later, but if not that also feels like the sort of delay that is undermining the purpose of the justice system

I'm not sure what the issue is but I think in Scotland and England, the sentencing guidelines probably need a review because it feels like something's gone amiss in the sentencing of violent crimes - especially against women whether it's domestic violence or sexual violence and given the already incredibly low prosecution rate (and add in, say, the Met keeping rape kits in fridges that don't work so they can't be tested) and I think there's a huge problem of institutional misogyny in the justice system:

Outrage as man walks free after rape of 13-year-old girl in Scotland
Judge says Sean Hogg, 17 when he committed the crime and now 21, would have been jailed if he had been over 25
Mark Brown
@markbrown14
Tue 4 Apr 2023 18.11 BST
Last modified on Tue 4 Apr 2023 18.57 BST

Campaigners and politicians have expressed outrage after a man who raped a 13-year-old girl in a Scottish park when he was 17 was not given a jail sentence.

Sean Hogg, now 21, was given a 270-hour community payback order when he was sentenced at the high court in Glasgow on Monday.

The judge, Lord Lake, said he took Hogg's age into account when sentencing him and added that if the defendant had been aged over 25 when he committed the offence he would have imposed a four- or five-year jail sentence.

Court papers state that Hogg threatened his victim on various occasions and raped her in Dalkeith Country Park in 2018.

Rape Crisis Scotland said it was an extremely serious case. In a statement the charity said: "We are shocked that the perpetrator of the rape of a 13-year-old girl has not received a custodial sentence.

"Given the gravity of this crime and the fact it was tried at the high court, this sentence appears to us to be worryingly lenient. Our thoughts are with the survivor of this crime."

The Scottish Conservative justice spokesperson, Jamie Greene, called for a review of sentencing guidelines in Scotland.

He pointed to the Scottish Sentencing Council's guidelines on young people, which advises against custodial sentences for those under the age of 25.

The guidance, which came into force early last year, states: "A custodial sentence should only be imposed on a young person when the court is satisfied that no other sentence is appropriate.

"If a custodial sentence is imposed on a young person, it should be shorter than that which would have been imposed on an older person for the same, or a similar, offence."

However, final decisions are ultimately rendered by judges.

Greene said it was "outrageous and appalling that such a despicable crime" had not been punished with a prison sentence.

"The soft-touch approach to justice taken by the Scottish government is at least partially to blame in this instance."

In a letter to the new Scottish justice secretary, Angela Constance, he said: "I implore you to order a review of these sentencing guidelines as is the Scottish minister's right under section 7 of the 2010 act with a view to scrapping the guidelines so that rapists and other serious criminals do not avoid prison in future just because they are under 25."

Asked about the case on a visit to Aberdeen, the new first minister, Humza Yousaf, said he understood the concerns but that it would be wrong for ministers to intervene in sentencing decisions.

He added that it was "really important that I don't say any more because my understanding is that the crown is considering a potential appeal to that sentence".

In England the Attorney General has the power to refer a case to the Court of Appeal if they believe there's been an "unduly lenient" sentence. It's quite a high bar for the CofA to increase a sentence - basically they have to decide that the sentence fell outside the range of sentences a judge could reasonably consider appropriate. But based on Yousaf's comments it sounds like Scottish law hasn't given those powers to government law officers.

[Tamas]

Probably would have gotten a more serious sentence if he only Tweeted about his desire to rape a 13 years old.