Conservative backbencher: Stiff riot sentences can open eyes of criminal justice system

Douglas Carswell, Conservative backbencher, suggests stiff sentences are opening the eyes of the criminal justice system:

"The public prosecutors have discovered that cases can actually be brought to trial swiftly. The courts have discovered that the Sentencing Council's softly-softly guidelines can be tossed aside. Offenders are being sent down as a result.

"Imagine if our criminal justice system worked like this all the time?… perhaps if judges, magistrates and public prosecutors had to answer to the law abiding majority all the time, we might start to get effective justice all the time."