it seems i need to re-learn the meaning of words...

a little fuss has developed after it emerged derbyshire police refused to issue photographs of two convicted murderers who are on the run. they claimed doing so would breach their human rights! well the lord chancellor appears to have brains as he overturned the decision and released the pictures - wanted posters which pictures, now there's a novel idea.

they seem nice chaps, actually. one stabbed a youth in the chest as he lay unconcious on the street whilst the other absconder dropped a slab of concrete on someone's head... they both got life in prison, or did they? i read the following in the times newspaper...

"[they] ...were near the end of life sentences for murder and had been given day release and allowed home visits."

how does one near the end of life sentences? by being close to death? seems not, it also seems that life does not mean life but a few years spent watching sky tv in a comfortable pad at her majesty's pleasure. i actually thought it was a mis-print so i checked with mother beeb.

Both men were approaching the end of life sentences for murder, given in 1996, and had been given day release and home visits before they absconded.

anyone else thinking this is stupid? am i not understanding the meaning of life sentence or something? it's a good job the government is taking abscontion seriously... actually, they're not. phil wheatley, the director general of the prison services, has just announuced that they have absolutely no idea how many people have absonded from jail.

juliet lyon, director of the prison reform trust, says that we shouldn't be "panicking" about abscontion, nor should we be "berating" the prison service and instead we should be "demanding" to know what the home secretary is doing about "reconviction" rates. what? reconviction rates? what the bloody hell does reconviction rates have to do with prisoner abscontion you stupid women? go away.

so we're not allowed to know what murderers look like and we're not allowed to complain that prisoners don't stay in prisons whilst life sentences' do not mean life! so much for labour's promise to be "tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime". and what has the home secretary said about all this? nothing, zilch, zero, bugger all. the man who once described the home office as being "not fit for purpose" has proved himself 'not fit to govern'. cup of tea anyone?

picture from www.labourdonotdo.com