Keep It In The Family

In 1996/7 John Prescott’s support for Clause IV of the labour party manifesto was seemingly silenced with the offer of the deputy leadership.

Gordon brown was kept happy with the prospect of being PM

Now home Secretary Jacqui Smith has offered a Job to police representative Jan Berry who called for her resignation over a pay dispute.

Can anybody remember a more sleazy, manipulative administration?

A Long Eaton mother jailed before being cleared of killing her son, aged four months, has lost her compensation bid.

Lorraine Allen, 39. was jailed in 2000 but it was quashed after an expert cast doubt on how the injuries were caused.

Her compensation bid was refused by the Appeal Court on the basis it could only be paid where a newly discovered fact established a miscarriage of justice

It seems to me that having a conviction quashed without new evidence (facts) should be more worthy of attracting compensation.

It's time the rules on introducing new evidence and compensation were given a complete overall. And they should start by making sure no convicted criminal receives compensation for any reason connected with his crime, incarceration or other form of punishment.

Jacqui Smith intends to confront violent criminals (people who carry knives) with victims of stabbings.

She rejected demands that anybody caught carrying a knife should go to prison.

She said: "We know that tough community sentences including community payback, supervision and electronically monitored curfews are more likely to stop them carrying knives in future."

These 'tough' community punishments haven't driven the thugs off the streets. It's driven them to carry and use knives because they don't fear the consequences.

Politicians will introduce real penalties when knife-wielding thugs start hanging around Eton and Harrow, threatening and stabbing their children and the children of the people who fund them.