As if it didn’t strain credibility sufficiently that “Cruella” Braverman insisted that sleeping rough was a lifestyle choice, I was quite surprised to discover that despite her hasty departure from government, measures against people who sleep rough are still included in the Criminal Justice Bill currently making its way through Parliament. Specifically, allowing the police to “move on” rough sleepers, which is a slightly odd idea in itself, but then also to enable them to be fined up to £2,500 or even imprisoned.
Quite where someone who is sleeping rough is supposed to be able to find up to £2,500 I’m not really sure. Perhaps the Tories can’t imagine the idea of not having a few hundred thousand in the bank, even if the clothes you stand up in form almost the entirety of your worldly possessions.
And how is a creaking Prison Service supposed to cope with an influx of people who may have all sorts of mental and physical health issues, possibly including not being able to cope wth being in enclosed spaces? Being locked up in a prison cell is really going to help with that.
I just can’t see that there’s any logic to it, though with the current government that doesn’t seem to be any kind of requirement when it comes to drawing up legislation. I’m rather more tempted to believe that the measures are more about “playing to the gallery” of far right-wing nutjobs and trying to demonstrate that, despite admitting in Parliament to being willing to break the law, making laws that they themselves break almost immediately, lying about it and laughing in our faces over it, they are in fact the “Party of Law and Order”.
Somehow I rather think that boat sailed quite some time back.
