I'll put this harshly because I must and because it is making me increasingly angry. Lucy Letby is 35 years old. Her former modest life has fallen away into ruins. Her parents are devastated and far from young. 

She has been in custody since long before she was convicted. I believe she has been heavily medicated for much of that time because she is so distressed.

She has been sentenced to a slow death, sinking over many decades into a pale, hopeless misery in a cell. This seems to me much less merciful than the rapid death which hanging used to provide.

Well, if she is guilty, too bad. But is she? There has been much new evidence in the past two years suggesting that she may not be.

The prosecution case has in my view been torn into tiny pieces by some of the greatest experts in the world.

This process has been so persuasive that Lord Sumption, a former Supreme Court judge and one of the most brilliant minds in the law, has felt it his duty to speak out and say she is probably innocent. This is an unheard-of thing for a jurist of his standing to do.

We know from the scores of subpostmasters ruined, driven to suicide or otherwise made wrongly miserable by the state that our courts are not perfect. Why then this messing about?

At 35, there is no time to lose. If Ms Letby is innocent, then now is when she must be freed, not ten years hence after the legal system has coughed and shuffled and mumbled its way to admitting that, yes, perhaps she ought to be allowed to appeal.

Alas Vine & Hitchens: What's the big idea? Get the Mail's new politics podcast, hosted by columnists Sarah Vine and Peter Hitchens - wherever you listen to podcasts now. 

A picture of Lucy Letby in custody that was issued by Cheshire Constabulary 

Yet I come across intelligent people who still resist the very idea that an appeal should take place. They complain about a 'media circus', as if a campaign to reopen a major murder case could take place in silence.

They say the danger of distressing the parents of the babies supposedly killed or harmed by Ms Letby in Chester is so great, she must rot to death in jail – and too bad if we later find out that she did nothing wrong.

This is tripe, marinated in bilge and stewed in garbage. When the police decided that the babies had been murdered and deliberately harmed, and told the parents so, did anyone say to the police, 'You cannot investigate these claims because it will distress those parents'? Nobody did, and nor should they have done.

Justice had to be served then. And it has to be served now. Heaven have mercy on the parents, who may think and say what they wish. But those who now use those parents' grief to silence doubt are not being straight with you. I put this mildly.

And now we get Cheshire Police pretending to have a saintly dislike of publicity. Hands clasped piously together, they intone: 'We have chosen not to enter into the widespread public debate surrounding this case.' They say (citing the parents): 'We have not and will not get drawn into the widespread commentary and speculation online and in the media.'

Ah, that would be the same Cheshire Police who dug up Ms Letby's garden, for reasons still unexplained. Photographers were mysteriously on hand. However did they find out?

It must be the same Cheshire Police who – with the Crown Prosecution Service – held a press conference (isn't that a bit like entering into public debate?) for selected media just before Ms Letby's trial but still won't give me a transcript or recording of it.

Lord Sumption, a former Supreme Court judge and one of the most brilliant minds in the law, has felt it his duty to speak out and say Lucy Letby is probably innocent

Can it also be the same publicity-shy Cheshire Police who made an hour-long web video about their investigation? 

Can it also be the Cheshire Police, of whom The Times reported in August 2023: 'A documentary about Lucy Letby is on the cards after ITN secured access to Cheshire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service. The production company is having early-stage conversations with broadcasters and streaming services about the programme.'

There was also some talk (which seems to have gone quiet) about Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio making some sort of drama about the case. No doubt the Cheshire Constabulary would have rejected any attempt to portray their heroic actions in such a production. But it looks as if they won't have to.

Whether Ms Letby is guilty or innocent, please can we just get on with it and reopen the case?

If the prosecution finally come up with some actual objective evidence she did anything wrong, she can go back to jail and stay there. 

But if not, no man's or woman's conscience should allow him or her to tolerate Ms Letby's living death continuing for a second longer than absolutely necessary.

Are we about to lose the Royal Train? 

The Royal Train is currently powered by vegetable oil in a pitiful attempt to suck up to Greens

Is the Royal Train heading for a museum? The King has barely used it. I suspect the royal faction which walks in constant fear of republican rage is afraid of its cost.

If you appease these people the King will end up riding on a go-kart, and they'll still complain about the expense. The train is the only truly dignified form of transport the monarchy has, now the Royal Yacht is gone.

I am still appalled it was not used to carry the late Queen on her last journey from Scotland down to the capital, or for her funeral at Windsor.

Currently it is powered by vegetable oil in a pitiful attempt to suck up to Greens, who will always loathe the Crown. Stick a coal-burning steam engine on the front of it, use it a lot, and it will draw mighty crowds and strengthen the throne.

The latest green threat 

A row of electric motorbikes spotted by Peter Hitchens recently

The takeover of our streets by electric motorbikes, the favourite transport of the mugger, the phone thief, the drunk and the lazy, is like an invasion. 

When I saw them ranked in this way the other day, I was reminded of the Daleks. But unlike the Daleks, these things have quiet but dogged official backing. When will any political voice be raised against them?