Liberal Democrats and justice groups have questioned some of the tough sentences handed down to riot offenders after two men were jailed for four years each for attempting to incite a riot on Facebook.
The party's home affairs spokesman, Tom Brake, said sentencing should not be about "retribution". "Clearly there are cases where offenders who have committed very serious crimes should expect very serious sentences and that is what I expect to happen. But there have been some cases where people who have committed petty offences have received sentences which, if they had committed the same offence the day before the riots, they would not have received a sentence of that nature.
"This should be about restorative justice, in other words making people acknowledge the offences they have committed and preferably if the victims want it, actually sit down face to face with the victims so they can hear from the victims the impact they have had, but it should not be about retribution", he told Newsnight.
Tessa Munt, the MP for Wells, told