Aitken: poacher turned gamekeeper

The big story this morning is that "disgraced former Cabinet Minister" (as the Guardian describes him) Jonathan Aitken has been asked by the Boy Cameron to lead a study on penal reform on behalf of the Centre for Social Justice, which advises the Conservatives on matters of policy.

"Don't send posh chaps to jail, that's where the lower orders belong, what what!" Jes' kiddin'. Still, nice to see that Davy's taking the issue of rehabilitation of the criminal classes seriously - maybe next week he'll invite a recovered heroin addict from Rotherham to advise him on the problem of chronic drug misuse. Hmm. No, maybe not.

Little Matty D'Ancona meanwhile examines the Gord's Achilles heel: The Rage. Yup, the old red mist descends and Brown is left shaking and incoherent with anger allowing the teenagers on the opposition benches to howl with laughter so much that Oliver Letwin is fast resembling a man on the brink of apoplexy. Westmonster wonders if there's enough in the Labour Party coffers to send the Gord on some sort of management course where he can learn yoga, bond with his inner child, and drink gallons of mint tea or whatever it is that such places do?

On a related topic, Martin Ivens in the Sunday Times advises Brown that he needs "big beasts" in his Cabinet to face down the resurgent Tory front bench. Westmonster read the headline as "big breasts" and perused the article initially out of curiosity as to what larger norkage could bring the Gord (arf!). However, one such big tit - according to the whispering campaign within the FCO - is Lord Malloch-Brown who has been dubbed "Bollock-Brown" by officials for his inability to stay on-message. Who needs enemies when you've got civil servants like these, eh?

Andrew Rawnsley contends that whilst things aren't going great for Brown, Cameron suffers from the same lack of vision that he accuses the Gord of being afflicted with, and Simon Jenkins has a few thoughts about the role of Miliband the Younger in the situation in Pakistan.

LibDem leadership update: concentrate! The Sunday Telegraph reports on the Scottish hustings.

Bob Roberts in the Mirror reports that the Government is going to allow a free vote on the provisions of the upcoming embryology Bill. Roberts reports that the scourge of the Abortion Industry (TM) - Nadine Dorries - is already organising an amendment to the legislation. "All women," she says, "are entitled to my opinion." Yeah, we made that quote up, but you get where we're going with this.

And finally, Henry Porter celebrates Sunday with his usual paint-by-numbers article on liberty: police state ... Orwell ... rule of law ... plz 2 construct yourselves.

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 11 Nov 2007 11:56 AM. Permalink