One Year Since Lord Phillips Became Head of the Judiciary |TODAY|

Submitted by dan. on 2007-03-22 01:15.
Courts | Public Education

Lord Phillips is rated by his colleagues and they say that he is reflecting their concerns: one was “immensely impressed with his willingness to espouse what could be seen as liberal sentencing policies” and alternatives such as community and restorative justice. But, another judge added, he is old-fashioned in believing that “reasoned intellectual argument will be persuasive and lead to politicians and the press taking a more measured view. He’s not a soundbite man.”

His lynching in the popular press did not take long. A sequence of speeches has given plenty of ammunition. Two weeks ago he suggested that killers were serving too long in prison. Last autumn he said that a five-year prison sentence was a “very weighty punishment indeed” and castigated quarters of the media for its lynch-mob mentality in inciting the public “to exact vengeance”. Then there was his stint of community service alongside convicted criminals — well intentioned but predictably drawing fire as a gimmick.

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