The Home Secretary’s statement on the deportation of Abu Qatada is a model of its kind. Theresa May conveys steely determination undiluted by any resort to vulgar rejoicing. She is “glad”, but recognises that we still need “to make sense of our human rights laws”. Not the least of the merits of this statement is […]
You might think that only governments can legally print money (or, these days, create it electronically), but you’d be wrong. Anyone with the technical know-how can do it – as long as they do it in a currency of their own invention. Several such private currencies are already in circulation – the best known of […]
By Mark WallaceFollow Mark on Twitter. One sure sign of a successful reform is when the vested interests it is intended to take on start to squeal about it. So it is good news that Chief Constables are getting their knickers in a twist about Police and Crime Commissioners using their powers. Their protests come after the Chief […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Our columnist Jesse Norman asked yesterday whether the market principle should have limits (he believes that it should), and if so where these should apply. Is it right to use shaven heads as cranial billboards, he asked, drawing on the work of Michael Sandel? Should better-off non-violent prisoners be […]
By Mark WallaceFollow Mark on Twitter. The full details of yesterday's horrific murder in Woolwich, and the terrorists who carried it out, are yet to be revealed. With both suspects alive and in custody, albeit undergoing treatment for gunshot wounds, there is a reasonable prospect that we will learn a lot more in the coming weeks about […]
By Mark WallaceFollow Mark on Twitter. In Britain we have a proud policing tradition which has seen our forces of law and order stay more free of corruption than most others in the world. That makes it all the more shocking when an instance of corruption does come to light – and all the more important that […]
City Journal has a fantastic profile by John Buntin of Bill Bratton, whose inspired leadership of the New York Police Department famously restored law and order to America’s largest city. Bratton’s police career began in Boston, where he first developed the ideas that would characterise his approach to law enforcement: “At first, Bratton focused on […]
Russell Brand is not someone you’d expect to find writing for the Spectator, but here he is on the subject of drug abuse: “I cannot accurately convey the efficiency of heroin in neutralising pain. It transforms a tight white fist into a gentle brown wave, and from my first inhalation 15 years ago it fumigated […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Chris Grayling says in tomorrow's Sunday Telegraph that if David Cameron is returned with a majority in 2015, his Conservative Government will scrap Labour's Human Rights Act. He has told the paper: “I cannot conceive of a situation where we could put forward a serious reform without scrapping Labour’s […]
Last year, the Deep End featured a Julie Bindel article on prostitution. In a more recent article for the Spectator, she covers the same issue – in particular the failure of legalisation in the Netherlands – but makes some useful additional points. Advocates of liberalisation – whether of the law on prostitution, drug dealing or […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter The Daily Mail has written up a new opinion poll on drugs policy, conducted by Ipsos MORI. “Just one in seven want drugs laws liberalised and majority say possession should remain criminal offence,” reads their headline – and it’s true. Looking at the full results, only 14 per cent of […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. The vast majority of 15-17 year olds in Young Offender Institutions have at some point been excluded from school at some point. Half of those in this age group are assessed as having the literacy levels to that expected of a 7 -11 year old. Furthermore: A youth custodial […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Today is Chris Grayling's day to star in Downing Street grid – as the afterwash of yesterday evening's welfare vote sloshes through this morning's papers. (No doubt it will also feature in Prime Minister's Questions today. The Daily Mail reports that – "Private firms and charities are to be […]