Jailhouse Rock

THE prisons overcrowding quandary received further unwelcome attention following the release of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons’ critical annual report last week. Of the crisis report author HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers, whose unfavourable review of the Harmondsworth Immigrant Removal Centre last December sparked a widespread riot, commented that:

‘It is normally considered good practice to build an ark before the flood rather than during or after it. This means long-term planning and planning which in my view should have happened a long time ago.’

Of course, New Labour are to long-term planning what the ‘travelling community’ are to soap (anathema, in case you didn’t guess). Indeed, if one were searching for an appropriate term with which to characterise the formulation and implementation of the majority of this administration’s chaotic domestic policies, then knee-jerk would certainly be it.