Britain has the highest prison population in Western Europe. Almost 160 men and women per 100,000 of the population in England and Wales; a bit less in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The numbers have been rising remorselessly for decades. It’s one reason our jails are bursting at the seams (the other being a chronic failure to match those real-life figures with new prisons).
And yet debate about the length of sentences for the most serious crimes – almost always crimes of extreme violence – is growing. This week we were reminded of the case of Tina Nash. What Tina went through at the hands of her abusive partner in 2011 beggars belief.She woke up one night to find he had rolled her tightly into her duvet and then gouged out both her eyes.
She’s been totally and permanently blind from that appalling, sickening moment. In 2012 her attacker, Shane Jenkin, was jailed for life. Up to a point, of course. The trial judge recommended Jenkin serve a minimum term of... wait for it... SIX YEARS. Six years, for sadistically robbing someone of the precious gift of sight by brutally gouging their eyes out. SIX YEARS.
In fact, Jenkins served 12 before the Parole Board, in its infinite wisdom, recommended he be moved to an open prison. That was last month. So he’s obviously on track for release fairly soon. Many fair-minded, moderate folk would consider 30 years inside for cold-bloodedly blinding another human being to be on the lenient side. Tina is appalled at what’s happening. And she’s very, very, frightened.
“He’s a psychopath,” she said. “He hates me. Who knows what he’ll do when he’s set free?"
Meanwhile the parents of Sarah Everard, the poor girl kidnapped, raped and murdered by policeman Wayne Couzens in 2021, this week launched a campaign demanding longer jail terms for anyone found guilty of serious violent or sex crimes. Men like Shane Jenkins.
Maybe a special new prison, reserved just for types like him? There’s an idea.
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So, Richard and I aren’t the fuddy-duddies I was beginning to suspect we’d become. Yes, we almost guiltily enjoy Noughties and Nineties TV dramas just as much as their modern counterparts (if not more, if only because you can hear what the actors were saying in scenes filmed 20 or 30 years ago compared to today’s all-too often mumbled offerings), but we’re far from being alone.
Viewing figures for new high-profile shows such as Adolescence and Slow Horses are comprehensively eclipsed by re-runs of stuff like Grey’s Anatomy, Prison Break, Lost, and Frasier.
Yes, we may be getting on a bit. But our generation had impeccable taste.
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Loved the story this week about the way so many of us mis-hear and muddle up pop song lyrics. The most commonly mangled line, apparently, is ABBA's 1976 hit Dancing Queen. Instead of: “Dancing Queen, feel the beat of the tambourine,” millions warble: “Dancing Queen, feel the beat of the tangerine.”
My personal maddest misquote goes back decades, and it’s also redolent with royalty – Queen’s Killer Queen. I could never work out what Freddie Mercury was singing in the opening line.
His “She keeps her Moet and Chandon in her pretty cabinet” was indecipherable to me. I heard: “She keeps her mower and brandy in a bitty buy-to-let.” Honestly!
But my favourite national song confusion is Johnny Nash’s “I can see clearly now the rain has gone.” Countless Nash fans hear that as: “I can see Deirdre now Lorraine has gone.”
Works for me!
