There are currently 21 places left in Britain’s jails.  Twenty One.  No really.  So what are we to do about this clearly absurd situation?  Well it’s obvious isn’t it!?  If you don’t have enough prison places you just stop sending criminals to prison; or at least that’s what Jack Straw is urging magistrates to do.

Now you might be thinking to yourself, ‘shouldn’t we be building more prisons?’.  Well, apparently not.

I’ve argued on numerous occassions for the use of non-retributive responses to crime when appropriate.  Time and time again practice has shown than restorative justice works; it cuts rates of re-offending by forcing criminals to confront their actions and the effects that flow from them.

But just because restorative justice works in certain circumstances does not mean certain criminals shouldn’t be put in prison.  Moreover it’s not enough to urge magistrates to impose non-custodial sentences when the non-custodial sentences currently available consistently fail to achieve anything of worth.  At the end of the day tokenistic non-custodial sentences are about as effective in terms of restorative justice as a prison without walls and doors is in terms of retributive justice.

I’m all for non-custodial sentences, but only when they do the job.  In the meantime we need to build more prisons.

From one of my regular readers John Sheffield:

This last week all we have heard from Hilary is the desperate “Xerox” plagiarism allegations, but after night she’s guilty of worse: HYPOCRISY!

Bill Clinton 1992: “The hits that I took in this election are nothing compared to the hits the people of this state and this country have been taking for a long time.”

Hillary Clinton Last Night’s Debate: “You know, the hits I’ve taken in life are nothing compared to what goes on every single day in the lives of people across our country.”

John Edward’s the December 13 debate:

“What’s not at stake are any of us. All of us are going to be just fine no matter what happens in this election. But what’s at stake is whether America is going to be fine.”

Hillary Clinton last night’s debate:

“You know, whatever happens, we’re going to be fine. You know, we have strong support from our families and our friends. I just hope that we’ll be able to say the same thing about the American people. And that’s what this election should be about.”

Pots, kettles?

Once again the cheap alcohol debate rears its head, and once again the call is for government intervention to force retailers to raise their prices on alcohol.  Who’s leading the charge this time?  The Labour Party?  Nope (or at least not directly), instead it’s Tescos.

One of the biggest retailers in the country has come out to argue that people can’t be trusted to make decisions for themselves.

There are very few people who would argue that we don’t have a problem with alcohol abuse in this country.  Anyone who’s been in a town centre on a weekend can attest to the level of the problem.  But when it comes to the purchase of alcohol for excessive use the issue consistently gets turned round to price; essentially that people drink so much because the alcohol is so cheap, and that if it were more expensive people would drink less.

Ok, fair enough, if alcohol were more expensive I don’t doubt that people would drink less.  However the reality is that people don’t drink to excess because alcohol is so cheap, they drink to excess because they want to (cheap alcohol just helps them in their endeavour).  The bigger question, and the one we consistently fail to address, is why people want to drink to excess?

Gavin Whenman has a fantastic post looking at the legality of Kosovo’s declaration of independence. I completely agree with Gavin’s legal analysis, although I generally subscribe to the Melian principle when it comes to international law; essentially that law can say what it likes, but ultimately the result will depend on what the powerful want.

So Ming’s autobiography will be on the shelves on 6th March.  I imagine its release will generate about as much excitement as his ‘leadership’ did.  Then again with a snappy title like ‘My Autobiography’ I’m sure it will shoot straight to the top of the bestseller list… seriously ‘My Autobiography’, how long did it take to settle on that title (and what were the other options!?)?

Personally, my vote would have gone for “Ming Campbell: Wakey Wakey“.

Once again the story of employers being hurt by employee sick days has raised its head, and once again I find myself asking who’s really to blame. When reported the issue of sick days tends to paint employees as the ones in the wrong, and to be fair there’s a large element of truth in that. But one question that’s never adequately asked is why people want to take sick days? Or more specifically, how much blame can be laid at the doorsteps of employers?

For example a good friend of mine works in a call centre on inbound calls, and the job is laced with rules upon rules. If you’re late by more than five minutes you have a meeting with HR who put a note on your file which after three such notes leads to a verbal warning. However if you’re on a call at the end of the day that runs past the end of your working day no note is made that my friend or his colleagues put that little bit extra in and should be rewarded. In the same call centre the junior managers range from the very nice to the very nasty. The very nasty, as you might expect, take every opportunity to abuse their positions of relative power. Oddly enough these factors and others serve to create an atmosphere that isn’t entirely conducive to employee happiness and as a result a lot of people take ’sick’ days.

Should they take sick days? No. But are they entirely to blame for taking sickies? No.

Perhaps before putting the blame entirely on the doorstep of employees it might be worth asking why employees want to take sickies?

Perhaps Alan Johnson should give that some thought.

Kerron Kross has posed an interesting question.  A great deal has been made about Kosovo’s declaration of independence (with good reason), but one crucially important issue, perhaps the most important issue, has been overlooked.  What might that be?  An issue involving the greatest institution in Europe: Eurovision.

As Kerron points out Eurovision will take place in… wait for it… Belgrade, Serbia!

Rarely does cheesey europop pose a threat to world peace, but with Eurovision a mere three months away the questions must be asked: if Kosovo intends to enter the competition, what mix of electro-pop, folk, and synchronised dance will Kosovo employ to ensure peace and stability in the region!?

Hat Tip: Guido

I’ve just been to the post office to set up a redirection service for my post.  Naturally I brought along a letter to prove that I am Shane Greer formerly of X address; the letter I chose was one from HMRC.  I was informed at the post office however that a letter from HMRC did not meet the criteria and that I should instead bring a bank statement, or credit card statement.

So there you go, even the Post Office doesn’t trust HMRC to keep its records right.

A blog that’s well worth a read.