On probation

Its moments like these which should turn the tide. The incompetence of the Probation Service and the ineffectiveness of our weak, liberal law and order regime is exposed again and our political elite bathe in the mire of sleaze and impropriety.

Law and Order is now the single most effective attack zone for the Tories. EVERYONE now has the perception that the law is weak, the police are weak and the criminals come first in a system that now regularly allows convicted men to commit more crime when they should be tucked up nicely out of harms way.

So what ideas and policies come from Whitehall today? That's right - a new law to prevent loans to political parties and a determination to make policing worse by regionalising it. I ask you. The blind leading the mute.

I think it is shameful that we live in a society where gangs of kids seemingly routinely abduct and rape women, where guns seem to be freely available to those who look and where the murder of youth by youth is endemic.

If I were Home Secretary, I would have resigned by now. Zero tolerance policing is fast about to become a most popular policy and it should come in conjunction will police leaders directly answerable to their communities.