Prison - does it or doesn’t it work?

Well the debate rages on. Michael Howard had his slogan in the 1990s that ‘prison works’ and admittedly since then, with the rapid expansion of prisons and lengthening of sentences, continued by Labour, crime has fallen.

But I knew it wasn’t just about that, despite an article by Daniel Finklestein to the contrary the other day.

I knew that during periods of econmic prosperity crime always falls. More people have jobs, more people have money - why commit crime? Similarly I knew that Labour gave herion addicts methodone subscriptions to keep them off crime and it had been hailed as the secret underlying cause behind the huge drop in crime under this government (still falling - 9% last year).

So I was pleased to see Johann Hari, who provided the information on the methodone subscription argument, comment on Danny Finklestein’s article with his own ideas. He’s actually a fierce critic of the governments policy on prisons and the justice system and I tend to agree.

Have a look at both articles, see which you believe. The truth often lies in the middle with these things and perhaps it does here. Certainly for some criminals they should be locked away for as long as possible. But I don’t truly believe that locking up mentally ill people in a jail for years on end is going to rehabilitate them, which is ultimately the point of a prison.

Interesting tidbit from Kevin Maguire - Another good thing from Gordon

Clutching at straws I may be, but I’ll do it all the same!

Kevin Maguire has written a blog entry about the campaign by the Mirror, with the trade union Unite, to stop the practise where tips for restaurant workers count towards the minimum wage.

Interestingly, it seems John Hutton, Business Sec (and probably the most right-wing cabinet minister) was against the move but is now in the process of creating legislation to stop the practise after being leaned on…by Gordon Brown. Who’d have thunk it eh? Brown doing something good for the workers!

Maguire also informs of a similar incident with the agency workers rights after ‘Downing Street’ leaned on Hutton to give rights for agency staff from three months instead of six.

Of course, anyone can see that the Unions currently have Labour over the proverbial barrel as they fund 90% of the party, but it’s good to see Brown doing the right thing when necessary.

Cameron’s MEP ‘Deep clean’…now there’s a term I’ve heard before

I had to chuckle (or more realistically, raise a cynical eyebrow) when David Cameron announced last week that he wanted a ‘deep clean’ of the EU Tory MEP expenses system to make sure there was sufficient transparency and honesty in it.

To me his use of the term ‘deep clean’, first heard popularly (at least by me) when Gordon Brown announced a deep clean of all hospitals to reduce infection (which worked for MRSA which has nearly been cut in half).

Of course at the time Brown was savaged for it by the Tories saying it was a waste of time and money and wouldn’t reduce infections. Regardless of the effectiveness of the measure when compared to other possible measures the fact Cameron is using the term now suggests an admission that as a political ‘phrase’ it carries some wait.

In some respects then, it could be considered a sort of tacit compliment to Brown that Cameron is using a phrase he coined.

I do hope that ‘deep clean’ doesn’t join ‘fit for purpose’ and ‘root and branch’ as nonsense political terms that people use constantly to imply constant, tough and wide reaching action. The amount of times I’ve heard ‘fit for purpose’ bandied about makes me want to scream. And ‘root and branch’ reviews aren’t much better. Think about it, what sort of review would it be if it didn’t review everything, i.e. the roots and branches. You could just say ‘we’ll be holding a complete review’ or ‘we’ll be holding an exhaustive review’ but no, people (like Nick Clegg when he became leader of the Lib Dems) have to cling to nonsense terms to convince the public of the seriousness of their intent. Yawn!

Yesterday was a good day to bury good news it seems

Read in the papers today that it was announced yesterday that our carbon emissions had fallen 2% in 2007 on 2006 levels. We need drops like that year on year to make sure we even have a chance of meeting our targets.

I was pleased, and also quite surprised. Usually when you have bad weather a lot of the year then emissions rise, as people spend more on lighting and heating bills to counter the cold, miserable weather. Yet despite an absolutely terrible summer our emissions still dropped. Hopefully they’ll drop further this year and we can start to see a speeding up of emission drops as renewable investment picks up along with other carbon-busting measures.

Crime down, MRSA down, soldier compensation up and police red-tape down - A good day for govt!

Police-recorded crime is down by a whopping 9% in one year.

The government has all but hit it’s target (yes it does happen) of halving MRSA infections.

Compensation for army troops has been doubled.

And police red-tape is due to be dramatically slashed under the governments new Green Paper, a move that has been welcomed by the police forces.

Jacqui Smith has also offered a job as ‘bureaucracy champion’ to one of her fiercist critics over police pay, Jan Berry, who is said to be ‘flattered’ at the offer and is seriously looking at taking it. A shrewd move from Smith, who shows a willingness to work with critics and also a keeness to get and keep the police on-side.

So all in all it’s a rare day of positive news for the government. Crime down, MRSA down, red-tape down. A potent combination but we need a few more days like this if we’re to claw back some opinion ratings in the polls.

Updates: It keeps getting better. Drink and drug use among teens continues to fall.

Keep them coming: Tom Watson announces an ICT carbon-footprint slashing plan, parts of which would alone save nearly 120,000 tonnes of CO2.

Has Anatole finally jumped into bed with the Tories?

For the past year Anatole Kaletsky, journalist for The Times, has been bashing Gordon Brown and the government without relent. After Michael White from The Guardian described him as having ‘turned’ on Brown, I wondered if he’d ever supported Gordon Brown (his writing was quite vehement if he had). I presumed he was more right-wing even though he never explicitly endorsed the Tories, but I’ve always wondered.

Praise for Gordon Brown

Well, it’s nice to see him getting (deserved) praise, and it’s not happening often.

Adam Boulton said he has ‘done good at his first G8′ while revealing Brown actually thumbed the table during negotiations over Zimbabwe.

Nick Robinson, who I’m beginning to question re: his partiality, gives grudging praise overall - although he’s singularly failed to mention Brown’s role in the sanctions against Zimbabwe, he does give him credit for not allowing aid commitments to backslide. On aid he was a bit more forthcoming the day before.

The Guardian believe Gordon Brown has enhanced his international reputation with his G8 performance. He does seem to have been the most active of the G8 leaders but then that is obviously viewed through the prism of the UK media.

Andrew Grice in his Independent Blog says that Brown deserves credit over Zimbabwe that he probably won’t get at home.

Brown - Best at his boldest

A rare piece of unadulterated good news today for Gordon Brown. As the Guardian reports he managed to shame the rest of the G8 into condemning Robert Mugabe’s reign in Zimbabwe by showing them pictures of a mutilated body of an opposition supporter.

I can’t think of a similar thing happening before and it must have taken courage to push the other G8 countries in this position, especially given the still-frosty relations between Russia and the UK.

It’s a good example of Brown at his best, pushing for the things he truly cares about.

A new twist on an old classic

A while back I wrote a post for anyone who found my site while searching for ‘cock inflation’.

Well in the best tradition of taking an existing product and making it better in new and exciting ways, someone has now found my site searching for…

It’s never the original accusations that get you in the end, it’s the lies

Well surprise surprise, Ray Lewis has resigned, the day after Mayor of London Boris Johnson defended him fully and denounced the allegations as a conspiracy because he had the guts to go work for Boris Johnson.

However, it’s not the accusations that made his position untenable, but the lies he’s been telling. The key moment came when the Ministry of Justice issued a statement (and I imagine Jack Straw was quite gleeful about it) saying that, contrary to what he says, Ray Lewis has never been a Justice of the Peace. Lewis tried to clarify his comments by saying he’d been ‘considered’, but by that point the game was up.