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It wasn’t all bad
“The Tories are getting tough on crime,” said The Sun, “and
not before time.” Johnson’s announcements have provoked
the “usual squeals from left-wingers”, but they
representawelcome change in direction. Law
enforcement has for too long been hobbled by
“bad priorities, budget cuts and political
correctness”, agreed The Sunday Telegraph.
More transparency in sentencing would be
welcome: it undermines public confidence in
the law whenaserious criminal jailed for, say,
eight years is back on the streets after four.
And building more prison places will also help.
“This strategy worked in the 1990s: when more
people went to jail, the crime rate fell.”Don’t fall for Johnson’s “bogus” promise of
10,000 more prison places, said The Guardian.
It’ll never happen. In 2016, the then justice
secretary Liz Truss promised 10,000 extra
prison places by 2020. That goal was later moved back to
2023, by which time the Ministry of Justice now estimates it
will have created just 3,360 places. As for the plans to extend
stop-and-search, the PM should know better. The power was
akey factor in the anti-police anger that triggered riots during
his time as mayor of London. With this fraudulent crackdown,
the Conservative party “is reverting to its worst traditions”.Boris Johnson sought to restore the Tories’
reputation as the party of law and order this
week by announcingaseries of new criminal
justice commitments for England and Wales.
He promised 10,000 new prison places, better
security equipment for prisons, enhanced stop-
and-search powers for police, and an additional
£85m for the Crown Prosecution Service to help
the agency manage its increased caseload. The
PM also orderedareview into the sentencing of
violent and sexual offenders that will consider
reforming the current practice, under which
most are automatically freed on licence halfway
through their sentences. Johnson said he wanted
to “keep dangerous criminals off the street”
and stop prisons from becoming “factories for
making bad people worse”. Home Secretary
Priti Patel claimed the enhanced stop-and-search powers
would help stopa“knife crime epidemic”.
The raft of new measures, which follows Johnson’s early
announcement of 20,000 more police officers, fuelled
speculation that the Tories were preparing for an early
election. Critics accused No. 10 of knee-jerk politics.
What happened What the editorials said
Patel: criminals should be afraid
Tough Tory justice
Kashmir isa“powder keg”, said the FT. Since 1947, the
disputed territory has sparked three wars between India and
Pakistan as well asabloody 30-year
insurgency. Now Prime Minister Narendra
Modi has inflicted an “act of humiliation” on
the Kashmiris, who fear an influx of Hindu
Indians. To compound the danger, an angry
local population will now be more susceptible
to recruitment by Muslim insurgents backed
by Pakistan, said The Economist. “That
increases the risk of military escalation –
which between two nuclear-armed states is
afrightening prospect.”Scrapping Article 370, the provision
safeguarding Kashmir’s special status, was
“always going to be controversial”, said The Times of India
(Mumbai). “Large-scale protests” are inevitable. Butaheavy-
handed response by the government would simply give
Pakistanapropaganda victory. Instead, Modi should focus
on delivering the economic development he promised would
result from revoking Article 370. Only peace and development
will win over “hearts and minds”.Indian-administered Kashmir remained
under an unprecedented lockdown this
week, subject toacurfew and without
phone and internet links. It followed the
announcement that India’s only Muslim-
majority state would lose its autonomous
status. Article 370 of India’s constitution,
in force since 1949, guaranteed Jammu
and Kashmir the right to make its own
laws in all internal matters, and denied
property rights to non-residents. It was
revoked by Narendra Modi’s Hindu
nationalist BJP government last week.Footage broadcast by the BBC showed police firing live
rounds and tear gas atahuge crowd in Srinagar, the state’s
largest city. More than 300 activists, including two former
chief ministers, were detained. Pakistan’s Prime Minister
Imran Khan accused India of “ethnic cleansing” in Kashmir,
and his government asked for an emergency meeting of the
UN Security Council to discuss the crisis.What happened What the editorials said
Protests in Jammu and Kashmir
Kashmir’s “powder keg”
An American man arrested in
1999 for impersonatingadoctor
–his dream job since childhood
–has finally qualified to work as
one. Adam Litwin, now 47, used
to visit the medical library of
the University of California, and
when someone mistook him
for atrainee, he began wearing
awhite coat and following
doctors on their rounds. Though
he never treated patients, he
was jailed for two months and
given counselling. He has now
graduated fromamedical
school in the Caribbean.
Scientists have declared that
Ebola can no longer be called
an incurable disease, following
adrugs trial in the Democratic
Republic of Congo in which
more than 90% of patients
survived when treated early
enough. Outside the trial,
sponsored by the US National
Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, 70% of
people infected with Ebola die.
The two drugs, REGN-EB3 and
mAb114, used since November,
will now be offered to all
patients in the DRC. Both attack
the Ebola virus with antibodies,
stopping it from entering cells.A28-year-old British
explorer has become the
first person to trek the
entire 4,000-mile length
of the Yangtze River in
China. Ash Dykes, from
Old Colwyn in Wales,
completed his year-long
expedition with his team
on Monday, surviving
blizzards,alandslide and
pursuit byapack of
wolves. It took him two
years to plan the trip from
the source of the river, at an altitude of 5,100 metres, to its mouth
at Shanghai, and to learn Mandarin. Dykes, who is campaigning to
keep the Yangtze clean, has attracted an audience of millions in
China, thanks to two TV documentaries that followed his journey.
COVER CARTOON: NEIL DAVIES©A
SH DYKES; COVER IMAGE: CAMERA PRESS/WATTIE CHEUNG