Yes prisoners need hope but that should come though education and apprenticeship programs not political influence.

I agree kids need something like scouts to help them feel part of society and learn useful things, but I think dangerous young thugs are going to need something a little stronger..

There is a lot more to the EU thing too, what are they gonna do about CAP for example?
The French wont budge on it.

Seriously, prison is supposed to be a removal of liberty, it is supposed to be slightly unpleasant as a disincentive. You emphasise “and” between punish and rehabilitate but prison’s already not about punishment — without further softening the blow.

It seems to me that the only reason prison may want to be avoided is because of the other prisoners — other than that you’ve a gym, TV, no job to go to and free education and outings. The decline of Butlins etc. as an all-in-one holiday destination has been replaced by HM’s pleasure.

Prisons should be there only to separate those unable to live cordially with the rest of us. I have no problem with trying alternative punishments so as to not harden otherwise soft criminals, but I cannot abide the suggestion that prison should be anything more than tolerable.

As for the rest?

Suicide bombers? No, Tonge said she ‘understood’ the motivation, and was sacked from a front bench role for her pains. Saying you understand something is not to say you support it; I understand anti-EU wingnuttery, but I don’t support it

Votes to people in jail? Yup, there’s a good reason for that, it’s a good idea. Not for lifers, but for those due to be released, as it means they’re removed from but notdetached from society. If we’re not going to lock every criminal up and throw away the key then we have to work to rehabilitate those that have been denied liberty for non-life crimes. That means making sure they’re still humans. That’s one of Paul’s earlier articles, we both got better at writing as we kept blogging.

As for the go-kart lessons, I don’t see a problem. I was fortunate as a kid to be enrolled as a Scout, and that allowed me to learn sailing, rowing, etc. Many kids aren’t given such opportunities, and have no sense of teamwork or personal responsibilities. Teach them useful skills linked to what they like, then perhaps they can be more focused. Perhaps.

There’s never a guarantee of anything of course. But I’m firmly in the punish and rehabilitate camp. Can’t do one without the other.

But also, the Lib Dems support suicide bombers!
House of Dumb Blog post

They want to give votes to people in Jails!

Go-kart lessons to joy-riders. ahem??

Sorry not trying to be insulting I’m sure there are a lot of good things in the Lib Dems, but other stuff I find totally absurd.
Which is a shame because I would really like to see a strong alternative to Labour and the Conservative.

Dave, first define traitor. Wait, if you’re the same Dave now commenting at mine, I know what you mean, so assume you mean Europe, in which case I’ll say that there are few Lib Dems who would disagree with huge amounts of Hague’s stated policy, constructive engagement to reform, democratise and decentralise. Works for me.

Essentially, If you live in a Labour/Lib Dem marginal, can you really live with the idea of 4 more years of NuLab? If you live, like me, in a Tory/LibDem marginal, then the choice is easy. It’s the anti Labour vote we need to mobilise. It was the anti-Tory vote that got Major out in ‘97, it’ll be an anti-NuLab vote in ‘09/’10. If I need to, I’ll vote Tory. That hurts me just as much as it hurts many Tories to even think about voting LibDem, if not moreseo.

Problem is are the Conservatives any better?
I have my doubts!

It’s WP-UserOnline from here I believe. The random header image is quite nice too, and all the stats.

I actually found Blogger easier to style, but I think WP will be more flexible when I’ve learnt it.

My favourite plug-in is the one that counts how many times each link is clicked (in posts). It adds itself as a tooltip.

I’m about to undertake a redesign too… WordPress makes that easy!