Nine Years is a Long Time

The late, highly respected Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bingham, made a speech in 1997 that to many of us was a model of informed and civilised opinion about crime and punishment. It is here.

When he made the speech the Labour government had been in office for a few months. Then, the speech seemed magisterial. Today, it would be denounced as soft and woolly. In particular, he makes a point that is in flat contradiction to the Government's intention to bring in prison for drivers who kill by pure accident. Times do, indeed, change, do they not?