Revolving Doors
Ken Clarke's head and his heart are both in the right place - when it comes to government policy over the criminal justice system.
The UK justice secretary is rightly focused on the need to reduce the levels of re-offending - which means that for far too many prisoners - prison just becomes a revolving door.
In pursuing this objective Clarke has cross party support - which makes it all the more disappointing that the Labour leader - Ed Miliband - should seek to 'monster' Clarke for his poor choice of words over rape.
All the justice secretary was saying - or trying to say - was that there are aggravated forms of all kinds of criminal behaviour - from breach of the peace to murder.
Clarke is not soft on crime - nor is he an apologist for criminals of any kind - of that there is little doubt.
But he is trying to find a new way forward on sentencing - and for that Clarke deserves the support of other parties and party leaders.
The Scottish government's justice secretary - Kenny MacAskill - ran into the same kind of knee-jerk Labour response recently - in trying to promote new and better ways to tackle re-offending rates north of the border.
The challenges of doing so are enormous - particularly when government coffers are bare - but that should not stop the politicians and policy makers from trying to tackle the depressing cycle of offending and re-offending.
Cross-party agreement and consensus is not possible - or even desirable - on every political issue.
On crime and sentencing you would be hard pressed to get a prisoner's cigarette paper - between Ken Clarke and the Labour front bench.
Yet what we get from Ed Miliband is just Yah Boo politics, faux outrage and a worrying tendency to fire his guns - at all the wrong targets.
The UK justice secretary is rightly focused on the need to reduce the levels of re-offending - which means that for far too many prisoners - prison just becomes a revolving door.
In pursuing this objective Clarke has cross party support - which makes it all the more disappointing that the Labour leader - Ed Miliband - should seek to 'monster' Clarke for his poor choice of words over rape.
All the justice secretary was saying - or trying to say - was that there are aggravated forms of all kinds of criminal behaviour - from breach of the peace to murder.
Clarke is not soft on crime - nor is he an apologist for criminals of any kind - of that there is little doubt.
But he is trying to find a new way forward on sentencing - and for that Clarke deserves the support of other parties and party leaders.
The Scottish government's justice secretary - Kenny MacAskill - ran into the same kind of knee-jerk Labour response recently - in trying to promote new and better ways to tackle re-offending rates north of the border.
The challenges of doing so are enormous - particularly when government coffers are bare - but that should not stop the politicians and policy makers from trying to tackle the depressing cycle of offending and re-offending.
Cross-party agreement and consensus is not possible - or even desirable - on every political issue.
On crime and sentencing you would be hard pressed to get a prisoner's cigarette paper - between Ken Clarke and the Labour front bench.
Yet what we get from Ed Miliband is just Yah Boo politics, faux outrage and a worrying tendency to fire his guns - at all the wrong targets.
