The recent trial in the US Senate was a stage production more reminiscent of an English pantomime than a Broadway show. With all its synthetic rage and posturing, it had a little bit of ‘Punch and Judy’ about it. Yet these were quasi-criminal proceedings of the gravest constitutional significance, which could have resulted in a conviction with significant penalties, albeit not penal in nature.
The government in the UK has co-opted its own criminal code to indulge in a spot of grandstanding to grab some headlines, announcing a ten-year maximum sentence for travellers failing to declare having visited a ‘red-flag’ country. If the aim of securing compliance with COVID-19 quarantine laws is laudable, the execution is poor and condemnation has been stern. They might as well have announced a 100-year term for all the chance of any sentencing judge paying the slightest bit of attention.
The parallel between the jurisdictions is the alarming willingness of the governments to wield serious
