UK: Former Supreme Court Judge Supports COVID Fine Amnesty

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Facts

  • Former UK Justice Secretary, Sir Robert Buckland, has called for the government to expunge the records of the more than 29K people who have so far been convicted of violating COVID rules.1
  • Former Supreme Court Judge Lord Jonathan Sumption agreed with Buckland's proposal, arguing that people were convicted under 'absurdly draconian' laws and now face potential hurdles to finding a job due to their criminal records.2
  • Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak were among the nearly 30K people penalized for pandemic rule violations — receiving fixed penalty notices by police while serving as prime minister and Chancellor, respectively.3
  • 29K people reportedly paid a total of £26M ($33M) in fines, with those in their 30s paying £6.9m (8.7M) and those in their 20s paying £3.3M ($4.2M). Of a subset of cases reviewed by the Crown Prosecution Service, 29% of convictions — 839 total — were ruled 'incorrect.'1
  • Violations ranged from attending prohibited gatherings to arriving at the airport without a proper COVID test, with the average fine being £6K ($7.6K). While Boris Johnson was fined just £50 ($63) for attending a party of 30 people, others were reportedly fined up to £10K ($12K) for similar offenses.4
  • Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said that if such amnesty were to occur, it should not apply to Johnson or Sunak, who he accused of 'breaking the rules that they put in place.'4

Sources: 1Independent, 2The Telegraph, 3The Mirror and 4Guardian.

Narratives

  • Right narrative, as provided by The Telegraph. In an ambiguous, draconian manner, the government imposed absurd laws on the British people with little explanation and unclear science to back them. People as young as 18 were turned into criminals for simply hosting New Year's Eve parties and traveling to visit family. If the government has any real sense of justice, it will expunge these records immediately.
  • Left narrative, as provided by irishnews.com. While a case could be made for some amnesty, those like Johnson and Sunak — who put safety measures in place and then violated those same rules — shouldn't be forgiven. As UK residents were suffering from the virus, these politicians chose to put society at risk by ignoring laws that they had applied to society as a whole.

Predictions