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
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