Published by The Daily Mail (July 29th, 2021) The Ken Clarke brand of politics — his straight-talking and dis-hevelled style —has, for many decades, provided a welcome relief […]
Health / Policy
Blood on their hands: the worst disaster in NHS history
Published by The Daily Mail (1st May, 2019) Steve Dymond and I never met. But over the years we developed a warm relationship via email and the odd […]
Europe / Politics
My Tory Brexit friends should hang their heads in shame
Published by The Guardian (7th February, 2016) Ken Clarke has been in superb form since becoming the only Conservative MP with the bottle to vote against the Brexit […]
Crime / Policy
To get really tough on crime, we must help prisoners
Published by The i Paper & The Independent (8th February, 2016) For many years ministers privately complained that even the most carefully chosen chief inspector of prisons rapidly […]
Drugs / Policy / Politics
High time to end this immoral drugs war
Published by The Independent (30th April, 2014) It is 43 years since Richard Nixon, in need of a public enemy to shore up support for his snarling style […]
Crime / Policy / Politics
One step forward on probation, then one giant step back on jails
Published in The Guardian (January 11th, 2013) According to the latest figures there are 83,632 locked up in English and Welsh prisons. This is an obscenely large number […]
Crime / Policy / Politics
Could Chris Grayling be the ultimate Tory moderniser?
Published in The Independent (September 22nd, 2012) So here we go again: an apparently hardline new justice minister throwing red meat to the baying wolves. Chris Grayling, having […]
Crime / Policy
Don’t mock ‘hug a hoodie’. It was, and still is, the right message
Published in The Guardian (June 1st, 2012) Like so many famous political phrases, David Cameron never actually said that anyone should ‘hug a hoodie’. No matter. For it became a […]
Disability
Disabled are at the mercy of ministers and media
Published in the London Evening Standard (February 7th, 2012) What would you think if you heard the Home Office was colluding with newspapers to fuel hatred against gay […]