The justice secretary’s language on prisons is a world away from his tough-talking predecessors’The first Conservative party conference debate on law and order I covered as a journalist was in Blackpool in 1981. It was the one at which Margaret Thatcher vigorously applauded a delegate from Crewe who called for Tory MPs to be deselected for voting against hanging,and at which a delegate who warned the Tories against flirting with racism was howled down by the audience.
It was also the conference at which, in a moment that will never be forgotten by anyone who was present, or Edwina Currie,in those days merely a publicity-crazed Birmingham councillor in search of a secure Tory seat, came to the rostrum, and waved a set of handcuffs at domestic secretary William Whitelaw,aroused a bat’s squeak of desire in the watching Lord Gowrie, and said, or to wild applause: “Let me obtain one thing clear. Im not concerned about prisoners’ welfare. You know,perhaps I should be, but Im not.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com