What are the options that he's presented with? What, what could he have done?

done?It's a numbers game, and he was given, you know, various different options.

One of those options was to look at the length of sentence people have been given.

So for example, anyone who had been sentenced by a judge to more than ten years in prison would not be eligible for early release, but anyone who was sentenced to less than ten years would have been eligible for this early release scheme.

Now, the political problem from that, as far as Burnham was concerned, was less than ten years still included a whole series of pretty nasty and emotive cases of, you know, child sex offenses, of grooming, et cetera.

Um, you know, he could see, see that coming from space in terms of a political problem that was gonna cause him difficulties down the track.

And then this other option that he was given was to exclude specific categories of offenses.

So just explain what's happened there.

What about COVID? Because, of course, that disrupted a lot of government policy.

Yeah, and people do, I think, accept that there has been a sort of series of events, um, that have taken place since Brexit that, you know, has had an impact.

COVID, you know, the war in Ukraine, and the sort of political instability that that has caused.

But what you don't get really is a sense that people have a huge amount of sympathy for their politicians that, you know, these people were trying to govern in really difficult times, that we borrowed a huge amount of money to get through COVID, and then we spent a huge amount of money during the economic bailout as a result of the war in Ukraine and rising energy costs.

There isn't a sense that, yeah, any politician would find it harder.

Um, they just feel that, you know, they haven't had the right politicians.

And it's not on for anyone to do that, even if they live in this country and they're born and bred in this country, it's not on.

And that, and I really hate this phrase, but I can't think of a better one, is, you know, the lived experience of people in those areas, and it doesn't get national headlines.

Just explain why.

It is difficult, and partly because of the sort of specific nature of this case.

Now, the individual who has been charged with this attack, what do we know? We know that he entered the UK in 2023.

He was a Sudanese national who had crossed over first to Ireland.

He arrived in Dublin, and then he went to Northern Ireland.

Now, there are no checks on people crossing between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland because of this thing called the Common Travel Area, which basically allows free movement of people.

Now, what's the problem with this? Well, the people who were in charge of the home office at the time that this individual came in, the Home Secretary was Suella Braverman, the Immigration Minister was Robert Jenrick.

How much is that a factor in all of this?

Just explain why.

It is difficult, and partly because of the sort of specific nature of this case.

Now, the individual who has been charged with this attack, what do we know? We know that he entered the UK in twenty twenty-three.

He was a Sudanese national who had crossed over first to Ireland.

He arrived in Dublin, and then he went to Northern Ireland.

Now, there were no checks on people crossing between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland because of this thing called the Common Travel Area, which basically allows free movement of people.

Now, what's the problem with this? Well, the people who were in charge of the Home Office at the time that this individual came in, the Home Secretary was Suella Braverman.

How much is that a factor in all of this?

What's your, your take on how this is flaring up politically?

I mean, I think it's really exposed some of the pretty raw fault lines in politics, quite beyond the sort of the circumstances of this dreadful case.

You see a very sharp distinction between what Nigel Farage said this morning, um, and Kemi Badenoch's response, and indeed the response of the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, in the Commons this afternoon.

I mean, she was very clear.

She said that this is not a moment to pit white Britons against non-white Britons.

Um, and she also said that there'd been a lot of disinformation and inflammatory commentary, uh, that have made a dreadful situation worse.

And although she didn't directly reference Nigel Farage, I don't think anyone was left in any doubt as to-

And these ministers are treading on eggshells.

What's your, your take on how this is flaring up politically?

I mean, I think it's really exposed some of the pretty raw fault lines in politics, quite beyond the sort of the circumstances of this dreadful case.

You see a very sharp distinction between what Nigel Farage said this morning, um, and Kemi Badenoch's response, and indeed the response of the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, in the Commons this afternoon.

I mean, she was very clear.

She said that this is not a moment to pit white Britons against non-white Britons.

Um, and she also said that there have been a lot of disinformation and inflammatory commentary, uh, that have made a dreadful situation worse.

And although she didn't directly reference Nigel Farage, I don't think anyone was left in any doubt as to-

And these ministers are treading on eggshells.