Some men are not as guilty as others

A few days ago I wrote about Nicholas Robinson, a twenty-three year-old electrical engineering student from south London who was sentenced to six months in prison because he stole a crate of water worth £3.50 from a Lidl store in Brixton. He had no previous convictions but the magistrate handed him the maximum penalty for his part in the "chaos". However it is worth noting that following the parliamentary expenses scandal in which hundreds of MPs were named and shamed by the Telegraph, none of the parliamentarians that have been convicted so far, received more than a sixteen month prison sentence. Indeed two of the criminals that were sentenced for twelve months made false accounting claims of £11200 and £6000 each. It seems patently unfair that an individual with no criminal record and whose only role in the riots was to pick up a crate of water, received half the sentence of a parliamentarian who had hoodwinked the British taxpayer for a much larger amount and over the course of several years. Perhaps you disagree with me. Either way, it's worth thinking about.