Mark Mitchell wants an end to shorter sentences

[Praktica]

Years ago, I owned a book by a criminologist called Allan Nixon, called A Child's Guide to Crime. One of the things that Nixon discussed in the book was offending by ethnic groups. He made the point that in the 1920s, a disproportionate number of those charged with crimes were of Irish origin, a proportion far higher than their presence in the population. He suggested that if these people had green skin, it might have been suggested that there was a problem specific to the Irish. He suggested that the problem was more one of social class - Irish people at the time being mainly working class.