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the two men, Jordan Blackshaw, 20 and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, were imprisoned for an offence that some do not even realise is a crime. And while the communities secretary, Eric Pickles, complains that people would be alarmed if incitement to riot had led to "just a slap on the wrist", a four-year sentence goes far beyond that consideration.
If the two Cheshire men had left home and actually taken part in a riot, it is likely they would have been charged with violent disorder. The average sentence passed on the 372 people convicted of violent disorder in 2010 was just over 18 months. The 1,434 people convicted of public order offences last year got, on average, two months inside.
Normally, to qualify for a four-year sentence, a convict would have to kidnap somebody (average sentence 47 months in 2010), kill someone while drink driving (45 months), or carry out a sexual assault (48 months).
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