Boateng didn't give up. His ego sufficiently pampered, Heffer agreed to his soulmates' request, a Home Office spokeswoman confirmed. Britain's average daily prison population has gone from 45,000 to 66,000 in 10 years. We have the highest proportion of people in prison in Europe, and, indeed, out-perform the tyrannies of Saudi Arabia and China. Such achievements are only the beginning.
Drug users are to be given orders to stay off the hard stuff or be jailed.
A Bill before Parliament will instruct magistrates to impose mandatory sentences of three months on defendants who breach their probation conditions twice. These two measures will add about 50,000 to the 125,000 who pass through prison gates each year, according to estimates by Harry Fletcher of the probation officers' union. Coming up too is a Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Bill, which will remove all benefits from people alleged to have broken the terms of their Community Service Orders. I emphasise the 'alleged' in that sentence. No court will decide whether to present suspects with the options of thieving or starving.