A justice system only works if it is respected by the people it affects and is seen to be fair.
By and large, British justice is revered around the world and is free of the political interference we see in many other countries. Sentences are sometimes questioned for being too lenient or too severe, but in a free country, we’re all entitled to have a view on sentences and express it.
Yet we always have to bear in mind that we weren’t in court, we didn’t hear all the evidence, so our conclusions are often based on very little apart from gut instinct and our own prejudices.
On Monday, a 25-year-old woman, Victoria Thomas Bowen, pleaded guilty to an attack on Reform UK leader Nigel Farage in Clacton on 4 June during the general election campaign. She approached him in the street and threw a cup of milkshake on him.
The formal charge was “assault by battery and criminal damage”. At the time, the attack provoked much mirth and hilarity among Farage’s critics, but it will have sent a shudder down the spines of every single election candidate, whichever party they represented.
Political protest has always formed an important part of our political scenery, but in recent years it has taken on a sometimes sinister form. Two members of parliament have been killed while carrying out their constituency duties. Dozens of others have had to take action to protect themselves, their families and their homes due to threats made against them. It is against this background that politicians walked the streets during the general election earlier this year.
Farage had no clue what kind of liquid had been thrown at him, just as John Prescott did not know what the liquid running down his face and neck was when he had an egg thrown at him during the 2001 election campaign. He instinctively assumed it must be blood, so he hit out at his attacker, landing a punch.
Farage receives threats against his life or of some sort of violence every week. He has a permanent security detail and goes nowhere unaccompanied. He hates it, but it’s a price he has to pay for being who he is. Frankly, it is a disgrace that he has to.
His opponents will say that if he wasn’t such a controversial character and if he watched his sometimes incendiary language, he wouldn’t receive such threats. These are people who have no concept of what free speech actually means. I hold no candle for some of the views Farage has expressed and have taken him to task on many occasions, but no one deserves to live in a semi-permanent state of fear, as Farage does.
On Monday, Thomas Bowen was given a 13-week suspended sentence, 120 hours of community service and exemplary costs of £450 with a fine of £17.50 to cover the cost of cleaning the suit of Farage’s security guard.
Farage has criticised the sentence, saying: “We now live in a country where you can assault a member of parliament and not go to prison. The latest example of two-tier justice.”
I think what Farage is getting at is to highlight the exemplary sentences that were handed down to people during the summer riots. There’s nothing wrong with making examples of people, and the prison sentences meted out certainly deterred others from carrying out similar offences.
I don’t think Thomas Bowen should be in prison though. She easily could be. But surely our criminal justice system has to find other ways of punishing people than sending them to prison, especially if it is clear to see they are unlikely to reoffend and are not a danger to society. Short sentences do not aid any form of rehabilitation and can often have counterproductive consequences.
I understand Farage’s frustration with the sentence, but he is wrong to reach for the “two tier” canard. It’s a dangerous road to go down, and plays into the hands of those who are determined to undermine our society and our judicial system – the very same people Farage would want to oppose until his last breath.
Iain Dale presents the Evening Show on LBC Radio, Monday to Thursday, 7-10pm
