Critics of the 10-year Covid jail sentence are right, but out of touch

Not for the first time, metropolitan-based commentators and MPs have proved themselves to be out of kilter with the wider population. But there is an especially interesting disparity over the government’s proposals for ten-year jail sentences for travellers who try to conceal they have travelled from one of 33 ‘red list’ countries in order to avoid hotel quarantine.

The proposal caused outrage among Conservative MPs as well as legal commentators such as Jonathan Sumption. Sir Charles Walker, vice-chairman of the 1922 Committee, accused the government of going ‘full North Korea’. To wide astonishment, however, a YouGov poll has suggested that more than half of all adults think that a ten-year jail sentence for transgressors is ‘about right’, and 13 per cent think it ‘doesn’t go far enough’.

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Ross Clark

Labour is out of its depth with electric cars

While many of us might agree with Sir Charles Walker, the Brexit-supporting MP for Broxbourne might find himself short of sympathy among constituents who would normally be his natural supporters.