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David Batty
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Posts by David Batty
Bulger killers should never have gone on trial, says youth advocate
Mar 13th
Children’s commissioner Maggie Atkinson intervenes over Jon Venables, arguing that 10 is too young to be branded a criminal
The killers of James Bulger should not have been prosecuted for his murder, the children’s commissioner for England has said in a call to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12.
Maggie Atkinson, who was appointed to the post last autumn, said children under 12 should not be prosecuted for any crime because they were too young to understand the full consequences of their actions.
A civilised society should recognise that children who commit offences should be treated differently from adult criminals, Atkinson told the Times.
Her comments come after James Bulger’s mother, Denise Fergus, met the justice secretary, Jack Straw, this week to discuss the return to prison of one of her son’s killers, Jon Venables.
Earlier this month it emerged that Venables – who was given a new identity and released on licence in 2001 – had been recalled to prison following “extremely serious allegations”.
Media reports have suggested that Venables, now 27, had his probation revoked over child pornography allegations, but Straw refused to confirm the details of why he was returned to prison.
Atkinson said politicians should put the needs of children first and not allow themselves to be so influenced by the views of victims’ relatives.
“The ‘we are too worried about the parents’ issue is something that runs like a thread through a number of cases. My constant song is ‘listen to the children and young people’,” she said.
Calling for the age of criminal responsibility to be increased, the commissioner said even the most “hardened” of children who had committed serious crimes were “not beyond being frightened”.
“The age of criminal responsibility in this country is 10 – that’s too low, it should certainly be moved up to 12; in some European countries it is 14,” she said.
“In terms of knowing what the full consequences of your actions are, you are into older childhood or adolescence.”
“In most western European nations they have a completely different way of intervening with youngsters who have committed crime. Most of their approaches are much more therapeutic, much more family and community based, much more about reparation than simply locking somebody up.”
Atkinson said the James Bulger killing was a “dreadful thing” and Venables and Robert Thompson, who were 10 in 1993 when they were charged with the two-year-old’s murder, needed to be in a contained environment like a youth justice facility and given programmes to help them turn their lives around.
Venables’s breach of the “life licence” under which he was released should help to force a debate on the effectiveness of the current system, she told the Times.
“Youngsters are usually tried in a youth court, [Thompson and Venables] were tried in an adult court. What they did was exceptionally unpleasant and the fact that a little boy ended up dead is not something the nation can easily forget. But they shouldn’t have been tried in an adult court because they were still children.”
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Cameron rejects timid charge as Tories urge vote for change
Feb 27th
David Cameron says his policies are ‘bold and radical’ as Conservatives gather for last conference before election
David Cameron has rejected criticism that the Conservatives’ election strategy has been too timid, amid growing fears among senior Tories that they will struggle to win an overall Commons majority.
As party members gathered in Brighton for their last conference before the general election, Cameron insisted his policies were “bold and radical” and offered “big change”.
His comments came as the party unveiled its election campaign slogan – Vote for Change – and pledged “immediate and real” action in six key areas: dealing with the budget deficit; boosting enterprise; shoring up families; backing the NHS; raising standards in schools; and cleaning up politics.
Cameron has faced questions from senior Tories as to why he has not yet “sealed the deal” with the electorate, despite Britain suffering the worst recession in 60 years and renewed questions over Gordon Brown’s character and fitness for office.
A series of polls have shown the Conservative lead over Labour narrowing from around 20% to as little as five points, and the Tory leadership is holding emergency meetings to try to revive their campaign. In a sign of Tory fears that they will struggle to win a clear victory in the election, Cameron has established a team to plan for a hung parliament.
Defending his strategy in a video posted on his WebCameron blog today, Cameron said: “I defy anyone to look at our plans and call them timid, because the truth is they cannot be timid if we’re to confront and defeat these problems.
“So we have made our choice. The Conservative party is a modern party and it’s a bold, radical party – and that’s the way it’s going to stay.”
He went on: “With Gordon Brown this country is going in the wrong direction and we need big changes to turn things around. And frankly there is an urgency to this work. We need change in our economy, backing aspiration and opportunity for all. Britain has been crying out for a modern alternative to this government that’s failed so badly … We have answered that call.”
The shadow chancellor, George Osborne, admitted the Tory leadership had been making it “too easy” for Labour recently.
“Since the New Year, we are the party that has been setting out the new policy ideas that will change Britain,” he wrote in the Times. “Perhaps that has made it too easy for the Labour party to simply attack us while escaping scrutiny themselves.”
Osborne is due to tell the conference in Brighton today that a Conservative government would act quickly to cut business tax in a bid to rejuvenate the economy. He is expected to pledge to rebuild the “solid economic foundations of a Britain that works for all”.
“Our country stands at one of those forks we come across as we travel the roads of our history – and we have to make our choice,” he will say.
“We can either continue down a path of decline and fall, a path with rising debts, higher interest rates, ever rising taxes and high unemployment. Or we can change direction – tell the difficult truths, put debt and taxes back on a downwards trajectory and create the solid economic foundations of a Britain that works for all. That is the Conservative path.”
The shadow foreign secretary, William Hague, made a rallying cry to the party faithful in his speech to the conference. He accused Brown of “dithering and vacillating” over when to call a general election, adding that only the Conservatives had the vision to put the UK back on its feet.
“I believe the choice for Britain is as stark as this: it is change or ruin,” Hague said.
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Lib Dem frontbencher Jenny Tonge sacked over call for Israeli soldier inquiry
Feb 13th
Nick Clegg asks health spokesperson to step down after she called for inquiry into organ-trafficking allegations in Haiti
The Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, has sacked his health spokeswoman in the House of Lords after she called for an inquiry into allegations that Israeli soldiers were involved in organ trafficking in Haiti.
Clegg described Baroness Jenny Tonge’s remarks about Israeli troops sent to the earthquake-stricken country as “wrong, distasteful and provocative”.
It is the second time Tonge has been fired as a Liberal Democrat frontbencher for making controversial comments about Israel.
The latest row followed accusations in the online Palestine Telegraph – of which she is a patron – that members of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) had been harvesting body parts in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake.
She subsequently told the Jewish Chronicle: “To prevent allegations such as these – which have already been posted on YouTube – going any further, the IDF and the Israeli Medical Association should establish an independent inquiry immediately to clear the names of the team in Haiti.”
Fellow Liberal Democrats were said to have complained to Clegg about her comments.
In a statement last night, the leader said the peer “apologises unreservedly”.
“Following discussions with the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, Lord McNally, I have decided that Jenny Tonge will stand down as Liberal Democrat health spokesperson in the Lords following her unacceptable comments suggesting an inquiry into highly offensive allegations against the IDF humanitarian operation in Haiti, Clegg said.
“The comments were wrong, distasteful and provocative and I recognise the deep and understandable distress they have caused to the Jewish community.
“While I do not believe that Jenny Tonge is anti-semitic or racist, I regard her comments as wholly unacceptable. Jenny Tonge apologises unreservedly for the offence she has caused.”
Tonge was a Lib Dem MP between 1997 and 2005 and then became a peer. She regularly ran into controversy for her critical stance towards Israel.
In 2004, she was sacked as a Lib Dem spokeswoman on children’s issues after suggesting she could consider becoming a suicide bomber.
Then leader Charles Kennedy dismissed her after she told a pro-Palestinian meeting in Westminster: “If I had been a mother and a grandmother in Palestine living for decades in that situation, I don’t know, I may well have become one myself.”
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