SNP Government latest crackdown on knife crime is branded 'pointless', 6 people in 5 years get maximum sentence, Kenny MacAskill, a drowning man out of his depth!

Dear All

After a disastrous few weeks of increasingly bad press the SNP Government yet again fail to score when presented with an open goal.

Instead it’s another own goal!

Where?

Well, it Kenny MacAskill, Scotland’s inept and incompetent Justice Minister department, in trying to get himself some good PR, he and his ‘crew’ decided to raise the maximum sentence for carrying a knife from four years to five years.

And guess what, the max sentence has only been dished out a miserable six times in four years.

To add insult to injury, the few punters who were slung away, got let out after serving only half of their time in the pokey!

At this point, let’s have a quote from the washed up leader Alex Salmond:

“My problem is that I have too many talented people and not enough Cabinet positions”.

What a load of wank!

What he should have said was:

‘I can’t turn my back without some halfwit pissing up their brief against the wall’!

Unsurprisingly campaigners weren’t overjoyed when they heard the news and said it would be better to ensure the courts used their existing powers to throw the book at knife thugs.

John Muir, who has been fighting for automatic jail sentences for knife-carriers since his son Damian, 34, was stabbed to death in Greenock in 2007, said:

“They would be better off keeping the sentence at four years – and actually implementing it. There should be no compromise. If you are caught with a knife, you should be hammered by the courts.”

Here is my opinion what MacAskill should be doing.

If you stab, slash or cut someone with a knife once, ten years in prison.

If you stab, slash or cut someone with a knife multiple times, minimum fifteen years in prison.

If you murder someone with a knife or similar, twenty five years one wound, before being considered for parole.

If you murder someone with a knife or similar, multiple cuts, thirty five years, before being considered for parole.

Once a few people get sentenced, the ripple effect will cut knife crime drastically.

And the tariff would also include that any additional charges don’t run at the same time, once you finish that sentence, you automatically start paying for the next charge.

Yes, the ‘fun’ aspect of knifing people would soon ‘die a death’!

In trying to appear tough on crime to get some good PR after the paedophile fiasco which shows how dysfunction Justice is under his watch, the latest attempt at populism is rather weak at best and at worse, incredibly dim witted.

Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary Lewis Macdonald MSP said:

“Sentencing policy has to be crystal clear and send a message that it is never acceptable to carry a knife on the streets of Scotland.”

As long as I can remember the Labour Party has fought each by-election with a phoney knife crime campaign, where is their private members bill?

Scottish Conservative chief whip John Lamont welcomed the maximum sentence increase but said automatic early release for prisoners should be scrapped.

This is incomplete thinking and distinctly unoriginal from Mr. Lamont on the lines of ‘tough on crime’, hardly going to get a revival of Conservative fortunes talking like that.

Scottish Lib Dem justice spokeswoman Alison McInnes MSP said the Government should concentrate less on sentencing and more on diverting youngsters away from carrying blades.

Ms. McInnes could sorely benefit from someone have a quiet word in her shell like ear.

This latest 'stunt' is meaningless tat but is what the people of Scotland have come to expect from a lame duck like Kenny MacAskill.

The option to sack him remains with Alex Salmond, he should exercise that option, Justice is an ominshambles under the lightweight that is MacAskill.

Failure to address the issues at all levels.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University