New projections published by the Government today show that the prison population in England and Wales could reach more than 93,000 by 2015. This could mean an extra cost to the taxpayer of over £380m.
A favourite summer 'silly season' story for the national press is to keep running items on the 'disgracefully' long holidays MP's are having in expensive and exotic locations. Never one to let the facts ruin a good story they of course ignore anything that does not fit their pre conceived ideas. Journalists from national newspapers contacted my office to see where I was holidaying. Upon being told that I was camping on a farm in Devon they carefully left me out of their stories the next day!
I was intending to write something about Wednesday's Planning and Environment Committee. It was cancelled, because of lack of business. So I thought I would comment on a couple of newspaper items that caught my eye.
Brentwood's Liberal Democrats are delighted that the decision has been taken to open the town's Information Centre six days a week, with half days on Wednesday and Saturday and full-day opening on every other day.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is inviting the people of Newcastle to tell him what they think about everything under the sun from fixing the economy to rebuilding trust in politics.