Fair play to Ken Clarke

And it's not very often you get to say that!

Old suede shoes was just subjected to a light roasting from John Humphries on Today. Not that he didn't hold his ground.

You can read too much into Today's current style - the presenters seem most likely to go for cheap populist shots, and more interested in getting the interviewee to slip up and say something 'controversial' rather than exploring the issue at hand in any real depth - but it was interesting that Humphries essentially parrotted tabloid talking points for most of the interview. The very idea that someone should say prison is not automatically the best option seemed to offend him (or at least offend his presenter's persona). The default stance was 'prison works'.

So fair play indeed to Ken Clarke for standing up to this very strong media meme, and pointing out some of the extremely negative aspects of imprisonment rates 'on the lower slopes of mass incarceration' (as I think David Downes characterised it). That it took a Tory Justice minister to do this should make many on the Labour front- and back-benches hang their heads with shame.