Judicial Independence? Pah!

There is an article in today's Sunday Times complaining that there is no mechanism for disciplining judges:-

There is no red card system or judicial sin bin for blundering judges who time after time let serious criminals off too lightly. There should be. Repeat offenders should be banned from the bench — by their own colleagues in the Court of Appeal — for extended periods.

Curiously, the writer makes no complaint at all about judges who sentence too heavily, and have to be put right by the appeal court - her indignation is reserved for those bewigged old softies who feature so often in the tabloids.
I got to the bottom of the article, and I found:-

Katherine Raymond is a former special adviser to David Blunkett

Now why does that not surprise me?