Farage is right, criminals should feel some fear

FROM sending prisoners to El Salvador to recruiting tougher police officers, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is right to suggest criminals should be more fearful of falling foul of the law in this country.

- Tim Newark

Too many low-level offenders currently escape without any punishment at all with the result that shoplifting and other antisocial crimes that make life di ficult for the law-abiding majority are rampant across the UK.

‘As Farage rightly put it in a well-received speech earlier this week, a little bit of “fear” is needed in order to maintain respect for law and order. And I'd add that we need more punishment, not less — not only to deter criminals but to satisfy a sense of fairness among the wider population.

It’s not fair hard-pressed families should watch as shoplifters carry out bags of goods when they have to work hard to afford their food bills. And it adds insult to injury when these prolific offenders are, occasionally, brought to justice and then let off with community sentences. Neither is it fair that illegal migrants should jump the queue into our country and end up being funded by taxpayers, while some of them brazenly commit crimes, from working illegally to more serious incidents.

AND it’s not fair career criminals can be let out after serving just 40% of their sentences, while first-time offenders like Lucy Connolly have to serve their full sentence — having been jailed for a social media post, albeit one that was highly unsavoury.