The news cycle is very predictable.  First the storm in the front reports section; then the stern comment in the leader columns; then, if the story is deemed to have particularly strong legs, a columnist or two will pick up on the same story a day or two afterwards.  The overcrowded prison's story clearly has legs like Darren Campbells as it just carries on running.  You know a story is getting a little old when the Church of England starts addressing it, and the Guardian's report about the Archbishop of Canterbury's interjection adds little new apart from silly hats.

The Independent clearly feels that it hasn't given the story enough column inches yet though. It adds spice to the narrative by getting Domonic Lawson to point out some of the inconsistencies made by The Independent's own leaders earlier in the week.  He makes some interesting points.  One of his penultimate paragraph's is this: :

"I can understand why many commentators are distressed that we imprison a greater proportion of the population than any other European country save Luxembourg; it does not speak well of us as a nation. The less-quoted statistic, however, is the prison population as a proportion of crimes committed. That paints a more pertinent picture. In England and Wales 12 people are imprisoned for every 1,000 crimes committed. In Spain the figure is 48 per 1,000; in Ireland it is 33 per 1,000. Both those countries have much lower crime rates than ours."

Domonic Lawson, The Independent

Liberal voices, including today the Archbishop, keep saying free up resources from wasteful prisons and use them to track down more crime.  This is certainly a laudable aim with conviction rates so poor. But at some point we need to answer the Lawson's challenge.  Namely if we get to a stage where we do detect and convict more criminals, what else are we going to do with them apart from lock them up?

Also in today's news:

• The Economist's main Leader this week ends with the following paragraph:
  

"If neither party wins an overall majority, the balance will be held by Britain's third party, the Liberal Democrats, led by Sir Menzies Campbell. As the two main parties have scrambled for the centre ground, the Lib Dems have emerged as the real opposition on issues such as Iraq and civil liberties. The last time the Liberals were part of government was during the Lib-Lab pact of 1977-78. At that time a Liberal-Conservative alliance would have been unthinkable. But if Mr Cameron gets more votes than Mr Brown, the Lib Dems will have to put their thinking caps on."

The Economist (NB subscription required)

• It seems the fact that the Lib Dems will will end up with the balance of power is becoming more and more widely accepted.