The law is no longer an ass, it’s a clown show on a cliff edge

When saying a terrible thing results in a more severe sentence than doing one, something is seriously wrong.

I was thinking recently about something my mum used to say.

Maybe yours said it too.

That’s right;

“If someone told you to jump off a cliff…… I hope you’d check it was a trusted source.”

I jest, but the point I make is no joke.

You DIDN’T JUMP off the cliff no matter WHO said it.

Why?

Because common sense kicked in.

And should you have been faced with such a dilemma, you’d have rightly said “No”or something stronger.

’Cause we used to have this thing……what was it called now……oh yeah, that’s it…..

AUTONOMY.

Personal accountability.

An ability to think for ourselves.

If YOU did something YOU took the rap.

Not the person telling you to do it.

Yes, certainly the person encouraging you would be acting irresponsibly, but THEY could not be blamed for YOUR actions.

So, I dunno…..if someone told you to……um…..…..burn down an immigration centre or hotel housing refugees, you’d think

“Hang on…...no, because I’m not an easily provoked, gullible idiot full of hate.”

Likewise, if HUW you decided to…..um…..I dunno…..look at some illegal, highly disturbing images of kids and NO-ONE told HUW you to, it would all be on HUW you.

Old school, I know.

I feel the need to say this in the light of the heavy sentences being doled out to those posting tweets that have allegedly incited violence, and how they contrast with those of dangerous sex offenders.

You know, people who actually DO evil stuff instead of just SAYING it.

Whilst I do not condone those wishing death upon others and making other abhorrent suggestions, how can it be right that gobbing off merits greater severity than actually doing heinous stuff?

Answer: IT ISN’T RIGHT.

But hey, this is Hurty Word Britain, isn’t it?

Britain, where blame is routinely shifted like a hot potato.

Britain, where ‘mental health’ is no longer a card played but rather, our national sport.

And maybe that’s the desired outcome. To cement the belief that people are weak, programmable vessels. Because, if we buy into that, give up the notion of having our own brain, then how easy for ‘trusted sources’ to then hijack that blank slate in the name of ‘good’?

That’s one take away. Another, is that these show trials are to remind us to censor ourselves, watch our own mouths.

Or else….

Circumstances may mitigate but flurries of hot-tempered words must never out-sentence concrete actions. And if when they do, we have to call it out as wrong.

If someone told me to burn down a hotel, I wouldn’t do it. You wouldn’t do it. Just like we wouldn’t jump off a cliff either.

Doesn’t matter how persuasive or direct the argument may be.

Unless someone is frog marching you down town with a petrol can and the other arm behind your back, then sorry, it’s nowt to do with them.

Alternatively, if someone is viewing indecent images of children, they are actively, financially supporting an industry that profits from children being harmed. Demand feeds that supply.

And let’s not forget that as ‘sentence bingo’ plays out every day, we are continually reminded there are ‘not enough places in our prisons’.

Yes, the same broken record that I think was made by that band who did

‘not enough NHS beds’.

Hm…..can’t think of their name now……Couldn’t have been ‘The Tories’, could it?

Oh wait a minute, I remember….

It was the

‘They’re all the fucking same’s

If there aren’t enough prisons, get some built. Leech a few quid from funding wars or summat.

And if we have to play jailbird swapsies in the meantime, sorry, ‘make tough choices’, then I believe I speak on behalf of most when I say I’d much prefer Rita The Angry Tweeter on my street than some creepy Uncle Nobby checking out my 7 year old.

We shrug, we hashtag #Clownworld but this is now a full blown circus of horrors. We each walk the tight rope with our words as the ringmasters whip and goad us like whimpering, performing animals.

But we cannot grow indifferent.

We must remember our personal power.

Remember to call out right from wrong.

Remember to highlight and question inconsistencies.

Because if we don’t, it won’t be long before we won’t have to be told to jump off the cliff.

We’ll all be begging to.

Huw bet.