There are crimes where "life imprisonment" should mean exactly that!

There are times when you watch TV and your blood boils. For me, one such instance occurred today with the news that two men convicted at Edinburgh High Court of the most heinous of paedophile offences may see the light of day as free men despite their headline sentence being "life imprisonment".

These two men have been found guilty of a string of child pornography and abuse crimes, including sexual assault of a three-month old baby. Neil Strachan is to serve a minimum 16-year term and James Rennie a minimum 13-year term before they are eligible to be considered for parole.

I thought long and hard about posting on this issue because it is no longer politically correct to talk about jailing people for life without the possibility of parole. I disagree and it is time we had an open and honest debate about the way sentencing policy in Scotland's courts is failing the test of public opinion.

For me, that our criminal justice system seems incapable of sentencing criminals to prison terms that enjoy public support suggests our legal system has not kept pace with the changing world in which we live. There are some crimes and some criminals for whom life imprisonment should mean they never see the light of day as free men or women again.

Police killers, some murderers, serial rapists and paedophiles capable of this sort of systematic abuse of defenceless children should all know that there crimes could enable Judges to pass down life imprisonment terms that mean they will spend the rest of their lives in jail.

I concede this will not stop the most determined criminal from committing these crimes but it will serve as a deterrent to some and as a guarantee to the rest of our society that once caught the most serious of criminal will never be free to hurt them, their families and their friends, again.

The prosecutors of Strachan and Rennie are to be commended for having successfully convicted these beasts but it beggars belief that they are quoted as saying the "severity" of the sentences would "act as a warning to others" when I believe most ordinary Scots would have hoped they would have been sentenced to life imprisonment without the prospect of parole.

So let's have an open, honest and constructive debate about the failings of our criminal justice system, sentencing policy and when life imprisonment should mean convicts never walk our streets again. In a mature democracy this should be something we do as a matter of course but in today's Britain I fear the human rights of the criminal will be put ahead of those of the victim.

I for one am not prepared to allow this to go unchallenged and I know, from my experience of listening to local people on the doorsteps of East Renfrewshire, so many people feel the same.

Release of al-Megrahi set to cost East Renfrewshire dear!

The release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds has split opinion across Scotland in two, although across the rest of the free world it has largely brought condemnation.

Scenes of the Saltire being waved on the tarmac at Tripoli Airport, in celebration at Mr. Megrahi's return, were sickening to me particularly as Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill MSP, confirmed in his statement that Mr. Megrahi had expressed no remorse or compassion for the 270 victims of the bomb he was convicted of planting on Pan Am Flight 103.

These scenes brought shame on our national flag

More conceerning to me is the revelation that East Renfrewshire Council are now expected to monitor Mr. Megrahi while he is in Libya to ensure he adheres to the terms of release that have been agreed. Our officials are to receive regular medical reports and are reported to be establishing a satellite link to Libya to maintain communication.

That the hard pressed Council Tax payer of East Renfrewshire is expected to pay for this is completely unacceptable to me and the SNP Scottish Executive who took this perverse decision must immediately indemnify us against any loss.

As equally unacceptable is the silence of our local MP, and Secretary of State for Scotland, Jim Murphy. Scotland's name is being dragged through the mud internationally and the man empowered with representing our country through our UK national parliament remains silent.

His own constituents face the prospect of financial loss simply because we had the good grace to host Mr. Megrahi's family while he served his term in Greenock Prison - and that is completely unacceptable to me. Despite the difficult circumstances under which the Megrahi family came to live in Newton Mearns they lived in peace and were accepted by our local community. That we are now open to financial loss as a result is unacceptable.

In the modern day when most politicians have blog sites and/or Twitter it is easy to register what you believe on any issue, even if the media do not report what you say. Jim Murphy's blog remains as silent as his burgeoning press office on an issue that affects Scotland as a whole but more particularly his constituents in East Renfrewshire and that is an abdication of responsibility for which he must be held to account.

Time to get tough on CRIME!

Our justice system is out of control! Let me tell you why.

1) A man has just been sentenced to two weeks imprisonment for entering a drug dealers home, threatening the drug dealer (who has hooked one of his family members on heroin) and for taking the drug dealers heroin and flushing it down the toilet.

What an outrage! The gentleman in question admits to being no angel but if the police and procurator fiscal are unable to get drug dealers off our streets no one should be surprised if members of the community take matters into their own hands.

2) Sex beast John Cronin absconded from a probation hostel earlier this week and is now in the custody of West Midlands Police on suspicion of fraud. This man was sentenced to (and wait to you hear this) Life Imprisonment in 1992 for attacking a woman in her Edinburgh home, only to be released from prison in 1996. LIFE - someone is having a laugh at the expense on the safety of our public.

Since his release Mr. Cronin has been in custody in Sweden, Ireland and England for a string of offences and he remains a danger to the public wherever he goes. It was the Scottish justice system who let us down first when they released Cronin after just 4 years and it is surely time he was incarcerated for LIFE to protect people all over the world.

The PC Brigade will cry foul and point to the human rights of both the drug dealer and John Cronin. I say that as both have chosen to take NO responsibility for their actions they have no right to expect compassion from society given the threat they pose to us all. It's time to get tough on crime and that means stiffer sentences for those that are the causes of crime!

Justice Must Serve Society!

With Barlinnie full to bursting, SNP Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill is suggesting we put prisoners out to work on major infrastructure projects, including build programmes associated with the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Restorative justice is something I would normally support, however I suspect today's announcement has more to do with a complete failure to deal with prisoner numbers and not a tough new approach to what criminals should be required to do to pay for their crimes against society.

I believe criminals should be put to work for the communities they have offended, but nor if this puts people into communities who fear their involvement. Building sites can be dangerous places with dangerous tools and equipment and the thought of letting prisoners out on day release with access to potential weapons is something we need to guard against.

If this proposal is indeed about finding ways to reduce the prison population I have news for Mr MacAskill. The Scottish people want its government to stand up for them and to build new prisons if that is what it takes to make prison a deterrent to crime.

Court sentences should mean what they say! One year should mean you serve one year; Life should mean you serve life etc. And if this means prisoner numbers rise in the short term as we keep dangerous people incarcerated while we educate them not to re-offend then we should build the prisons necessary to keep our law abiding majority safe.