The next sewing project

As I said in my last post, I want some more formal dresses. To achieve this aim I've bought Simplicity pattern 3673 and am planning to make view C. In an attempt to look a bit more like a well-dressed sophisticated adult rather than a Grayson Perry wannabe, I'm going to make it in plain black rather than some of the much more exciting fabrics available at John Lewis. I'm thinking that I'll make it out of black cotton sateen and use black cotton lawn to line the bodice.

Does that sound like a good plan for making a sophisticated little black dress?

The criminal justice system

People often talk about criminals' and defendants' rights and victims rights as being in opposition. Actually, I think that are a lot of things which could make things better for both victims and defendants or make things better for one without being to the detriment of the other.

I get the impression that the courts are overloaded. This leads to long waits before things come to trial and that's bad for almost everyone. Firstly, memories get muddied over time so the chances of getting the correct verdict is decreased. The victim has the case hanging over her for month, during which time she can't really get closure and move on. The defendant also has the case hanging over him and bail restrictions. The only people who benefit from the delay are criminals who hope to scarper or harass witnesses into not testifying and sadistic bastards who want to use the court to string out the suffering of their victims. I don't think that we should be running a justice system for their benefit.

Even of we have to manage with overloaded courts, they could at least communicate better with the people involved in cases. Expecting a victim of a serious crime to just call up the court listings everyday to find out if her attacker's case is going to start the next day does not seem reasonable. Not bothering to tell her that it definitely won't start for a couple of days because the defence barrister is busy with another case, also not good.

I think a lot of victims of crime, rather than wanting longer sentences, just want their lives not to be even further fucked over by the trial process and not be treated as an inconvenient peripheral figure in the trial of their attacker.