Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: The Lebanese Army is continuing its investigations and will later announce any information that does not affect the confidentiality of the investigation
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: It has not yet been determined whether the detainees belong to ISIS or another organization
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: Around 10 people of different nationalities, including Lebanese nationals, were detained
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: The Lebanese army arrested a number of people in the Matn area of Mount Lebanon with possession it has not disclosed
Gaza Civil Defense spokesman: We have strong indications that there are martyrs, injuries, and trapped people in the Salah al-Din area
Gaza Civil Defense spokesman: Citizens should avoid Salah al-Din Street because anyone who approaches it is at risk of being directly targeted
Gaza Civil Defense spokesman: Reality is that there is a very limited retreat of the vehicles, with the occupation forces providing cover undeer fire up to Salah al-Din Street
Gaza Civil Defense spokesman: Claims that the Israeli occupation has withdrawn from areas in the neighborhoods of al-Zaytoun, al-Tuffah, and al-Shujaiya are false
Hamas: The two delegations stressed that any negotiations must lead to the achievement of our people's goals and aspirations, foremost among which is ending the war and the complete withdrawal of enemy forces
Hamas: A delegation from the Hamas leadership, led by the head of the leadership council, Mohammad Darwish, met with an Islamic Jihad delegation, headed by its Secretary-General, Ziyad al-Nakhalah

News from Nowhere: Use of Force

  • Alex Roberts Alex Roberts
  • Source: Al Mayadeen English
  • 18 Sep 2023 19:40
  • 1 Shares
5 Min Read

The UK urgently needs to tackle its culture of managerial complacency, indifference, and inaction in certain areas of the public healthcare system by displaying both moral conviction and political substance; sadly this is something it currently lacks.

  • x
  • Rishi Sunak’s administration has this month announced plans to give judges additional powers to compel criminals to attend their sentencing hearings, even through the use of force. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Mahdi Rtail)
    Rishi Sunak’s administration has this month announced plans to give judges additional powers to compel criminals to attend their sentencing hearings, even through the use of force. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Mahdi Rtail)

People across the UK were shocked, deeply shocked, last month by the news of the conviction of a former nurse for the murders of seven babies in her care.

British people have also been outraged by reports that hospital managers had ignored repeated concerns expressed by the nurse’s medical colleagues. In response to significant public, media and political pressure, the government has established a statutory inquiry to investigate this case.

Further public outrage was stoked by the country’s most notorious child murderer’s refusal to attend court to hear the judge read her sentence and statements from the families of her victims. This has resulted in calls for such attendance to be made compulsory.

Laws are already in place to allow judges to view such refusals to attend sentencing hearings as acts of contempt of court and to penalize such transgressions by adding further time to custodial sentences.

The threat of extra time inside would, however, probably have made no difference in this particular case: the convicted nurse was already going to be sentenced, as had been expected, to remain in jail for the rest of her life.

Rishi Sunak’s administration has this month therefore announced plans to give judges additional powers to compel criminals to attend their sentencing hearings. Those judges won’t only be able to increase prison sentences by two years for failure to comply with a court order to attend, but will also be empowered to compel prisoners to attend court (either in person or by video link) through the use of “reasonable force” on the part of custody officers.

In a national atmosphere of heightened anxiety over this horrific case, there have, thus far, been remarkably few concerns raised as to how this approach might work in relation to human rights and what a reasonable use of force might constitute under such circumstances.

Related News

News from Nowhere: The French Connection

How MI6 helped HTS seize Syria

Indeed, far from resisting this policy, the opposition Labour Party has berated the government for its apparent caution in this matter, with the Shadow Justice Secretary accusing the government of having “dragged their feet” rather than taking immediate action.

It's generally understood that force may be used by agents of the civil state in order to preserve life and to prevent harm, crime, and flight from justice. Its use must take place within legal and ethical frameworks and must be subject to mechanisms of accountability. It must also be proportionate, reasonable, and necessary.

The use of force to compel compliance outside those functions might be thought to constitute an act of torture, as prohibited by the European Convention on Human Rights – an international agreement which those on the right of the Conservative Party would dearly love to see Britain quit.

The degree of intervention permitted and required in order to physically force a convicted criminal to attend court or to face a screen in their prison cell may well eventually prove to be the subject of extensive legal wrangling. It may also be that the populist fervor arising from this terrible case will end up being mobilized by ultra-conservative elements in UK politics to push the government towards a referendum on the country’s departure from the ECHR.

This could of course have far-reaching impacts, not only upon domestic society and civic freedoms, but also upon the perception and position of the nation in the European arena and upon the global stage. It could transform an appalling tragedy into a national catastrophe.

The British public are rightly horrified to hear reports in the news of the killing of children. Last month alone, headlines featured the suspicious deaths of a ten-year-old girl in the southeast of England and a two-year-old boy in the northwest. But potentially degrading acts of judicial retribution offer poor restitution for those devastating losses. Indeed, they may eventually compound the cycles of violence that they’re intended to expose and oppose.

This month, a British terror suspect briefly escaped from custody by strapping himself to the underside of a delivery van. The prison officers’ union blamed government cuts to the staffing of the country’s overcrowded jails. There are those who’d suggest that for reasons of national security, such concerns should represent a rather more immediate priority for the Ministry of Justice.

Meanwhile, with news reports of the police opening a new investigation into infant deaths in the maternity units of another hospital trust, it seems clear that the government also urgently needs to tackle what appears to be a culture of managerial complacency, indifference, and inaction in certain areas of the public healthcare system.

Yet to do so would require an administration committed to something more than cosmetic policies, one able to display both moral conviction and political substance – and sadly, that’s something which the UK currently lacks.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Mayadeen’s editorial stance.
  • Lucy Letby
  • UK prisons
  • United Kingdom
  • Britain
Alex Roberts

Alex Roberts

Journalist, author, and academic.

Most Read

All
How is it that the Western regimes, which claimed to support the fake revolutions of Lebanon, Libya, and Syria, waged constant war against the actual Ansar Allah-led revolution in Yemen? (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

Understanding Yemen 1/2: The Revolution

  • Opinion
  • 30 Jun 2025
Why Netanyahu is on the ropes

Why Netanyahu is on the ropes

  • Analysis
  • 4 Jul 2025
Ukraine’s Corporate Carve-Up Collapses?

Ukraine’s Corporate Carve-Up Collapses?

  • Analysis
  • 11 Jul 2025
Africa’s top university’s ‘Gaza Resolutions’ outrages pro-'Israel' lobby

Africa’s top university’s ‘Gaza Resolutions’ outrages pro-'Israel' lobby

  • Analysis
  • 4 Jul 2025

Coverage

All
War on Iran

More from this writer

All
News from Nowhere: The French Connection

News from Nowhere: The French Connection

News from Nowhere: You Turn If You Want To

News from Nowhere: You Turn If You Want To

It's not an exaggeration to suggest that this is starting to feel like the end of the world. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

News from Nowhere: Welcome to the end of the world

News from Nowhere: No expense spared

News from Nowhere: No expense spared

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS