The columnists are sticking with tried and tested issues.  So much so that when you see the list of topics (poor schooling, poor prisons, poor planning) you wonder if the pieces themselves will be derivative. 

One such piece is Steve Richard's in The Independent ('How the bloggers are making politics more febrile, more fun - and more challenging') In it, he rehearses the rather patronising  political-blogs-are-quite-interesting observation. So do today's columnists put up a reasonable fight?

Education

• Johann Hari in The Independent blends the true life events of Big Brother with the failings of the education system. ('Big Brother and the failed generation')

Prisons

• Camilla Cavendish in The Times uses the news that indefinite detention was attacked by the courts yesterday to launch a full frontal on the lack of direction or vision for prisoners. ('This is your prison scandal, Prime Minister')

• Ross Clark, also in The Times, refreshes the ongoing planning debates with a series of challenges to policy makers ('We've got lots of Countryside. Lets start building')

• Peter Riddell, in the last piece for today from The Times, suggests that it might not be a good thing for the Tories to descend into leadership introspection and civil war ('Get rid of Cameron? Tory mutineers are bonkers')
  

• Lib Dem members are often exasperated by the fact that other people just don't get them.  No doubt eyes will therefore roll when seeing the headline to Alan Cochrane's piece for The Telegraph -  'What are the Scottish Lib Dems for?'.  However, the question is worth while asking following the news that the Lib Dems have sunk to just 4% in the polls since May's elections (see the piece for various caveats on the poll itself)

Steve Richards argue that newspapers are still more influential than blogs.  Given today's interesting crop of opinion (especially the Prisons and Planning stories) the dead tree press is still very much in the ring.

The Scotsman today has a real story on the elections in an interview with Nicol Stephen ("Lib Dem leader insists largest party has authority").  In it he says two things of particular interest. a) He would only negotiate a coalition with the largest party; and b) the top three Lib Dem policies in the negotiation would be more time in the school curriculum for physical exercise, a revolution in renewables and 100 new health centres dedicated to preventative health.

These comments will certainly be recalled shortly after next Thursday.  However, they might also prove relevant after the next General Election.  With a hung parliament more likely now than at any post-war UK election talk of coalitions is bound to be in the air.  Would Ming Campbell agree with Stephen's assertion that:

"The largest party, in my view, has the moral authority to seek to form a government, whether it's a minority or through coalition, and that's a simple, straightforward, obvious position."

And if Ming did, would he say so?

Also in today's news

• If you feel all the talk of elections is cheap and you yearn for some policy (and philosophical) substance, read Dominic Lawson's provocative "Prison works and it is neither cruel nor vengeful to say so" in The Independent.
• If, however, you revel in the cheap election talk there is more available on Scottish elections in this week's Economist ("Oil Slick");
• If you prefer to stick local click to "This vehicle is reversing", also in the Economist;
  
• If you continue to look across the channel for your election inspiration The Times serves up more Sergo vs Sarko in "Socialists fear risky strategy as Royal courts the Centre"
  
• If you are into American Primaries The Times serves up news from the Democrats at "Clinton edges ahead after first Democratic debate" and from the Republicans with the "America's imaginary Law and Order candidate." This covers the Fred Thomson candidacy which we blogged about last week.  It is also the best-written piece of the day:

"The excitement around Mr Thompson reveals not just a dissatisfaction with the available Republican contenders, but a much larger escapism on the part of voters, anxious to flee the present-day horrors of real-life Washington. Barack Obama, suddenly now becoming the leading Democratic contender, may not have acted in any movies but his message of hope and change offers the same idealised blank slate for Democrats disillusioned by their own tired and uninspiring leaders."

Also - we should note that last week we wrongly stated that Thompson wasn't Christian. This was incorrect and we're happy to clear that up long before Mr Thompson's lawyers get hold of us!

No one story caught the FreeThink bloggers' eyes this morning, but there is a smattering of interesting reading that pick up on various ongoing FreeThink themes.

Firstly, Lords reform.  It seems that enough of a consensus will form around the Government's White Paper.  The Independent quotes Norman Baker who feels that their lordships should not just go quietly, but also cheaply

"I don't see why they should pay redundancy. They didn't compensate the hereditaries when they went. Peers are officially paid nothing so I'm happy to give them three years' pay on that basis."

The next item we liked was in The FT. Lord David Owen, now a crossbencher, is quoted as being in favour of a younger generation should take charge of the party he refused to join. 'These youngsters are the party's future, he said, and "many of them are sensible people". Faint praise, indeed.' says the FT.  Especially as one criticism that you can't level at Ming is that has been too radical or silly.

Peter Riddell in The Times writes a commentary on the latest Populus opinion poll which shows that the north/south divide in the Conservatives appeal is still very stark.

Finally, and more seriously, Alice Miles in The Times writes a very sympathetic piece about Fiona Jones, the former MP for Newark who died earlier this week after succumbing to alcoholism.

"She was convicted of electoral fraud in March 1999 and stripped of her seat, before being acquitted on appeal and reinstated. The party hierarchy wasn’t too interested. New Labour was a successful election-winning machine, remember; it had no time for embarrassments or failures."

Alice Miles, The Times

Commentary over the next few months will have an 'end of the age' feelas Blair shuffles off his political coil.  Some will no doubt want to allegorise Fiona Jones' death in that light - spectacular gain in 97, ruined by the sleaze of electoral fraud and ending rather hideously without having acheived a great deal.

Poetic as this might be, it would be inaccurate. If you look at her whole career you see that bickering and splits followed her whereever she was active politically, including as a local councillor before she fought Newark.  The lessons Alice Miles draws are no doubt true up to a point.  But this rather ugly story shows that in order to survive today a politician needs the most adept people skills in order to build loyalty and friendship amongst people who otherwise will neither respect nor care for you.

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.

John Reid's further problems this weekend have forced prisons onto the media agenda again, why we send people there and what prisoners achieve whilst banged up.  Johann Hari in The Independent today rehearses the kind of liberal arguments that most readers of this blog would agree with:

"This waste is being replicated at Her Majesty's sadistic Pleasure across Britain. The Adult Learning Inspectorate has reported that 60 per cent of prisons are failing to provide adequate training, and only 8 per cent of prisoners are doing meaningful work."

Johann Hari, The Independent

More simply put is a very short filler in The Times which merely presents data collected by the International Centre of Prison Studies comparing the prison populations in different countries:

• USA - 738

• Russia - 611
  

• Poland - 230
• Scotland - 149
  
• England and Wales - 148
  
• The Netherlands - 128
  
• Germany - 95
  
• France - 85
  
• Sweden - 82
  
• Irish Republic - 72
  
• Slovenia - 65

The Government contends that the fall in crime is inextricably linked with the record high prison population.  However, many others believe that by following in the footsteps of America we are merely institutionalising crime as a part of our society.

Is this part of the crime debate that the Lib Dems are willing to highlight in their "We can cut crime" campaign?

Also in today's news:

• You Gov's monthly poll in The Telegraph says Lab 31 (-2); Con 38 (+1); Lib Dem 18(+1)
  

The Democrats took the house and might even take the Senate.  Coverage everywhere.  But who are the new Democrats who have won, and what sort of philosophy do they draw on?

There are some interesting 'Conservative Democrat' blogs (here and here) worth investigating, and the New York Times previewed the profile of many Conservative Democrat candidates on 30th October:

Collectively, [conservative democrats] could tilt the balance of power within the party, which has been struggling to define itself in recent elections. The candidates cover the spectrum on political issues; some are fiscally conservative and moderate or liberal on social issues, some are the reverse. They could influence negotiations with Republicans on a variety of issues, including Social Security and stem cell research.

New York Times (requires free subscription)

Also in today's news

• Sacked or resigned?  The Tories have troubles with non-white, non-middle class candidates as reported in The Guardian and The Telegraph.
• John Reid has addressed shortcomings in the probation service in The Independent.  Not much detail - but offers vague hope for those wanting to see much greater reform in our penal system.
  

Yes, Prime Minister has many lessons for any observer of the political world. Every episode was instantly quotable but none more so than the time Sir Arnold, the grand wizard of the Civil Service, advised Sir Humphrey about Politicians' Logic.  It goes like this: All dogs have four legs; my cat has four legs; therefore my cat is a dog. Politicians, Sir Humphrey translated, think: Something must  be done about this problem; this is something; therefore we must do it.

Politicians' Logic is even more prevalent when analysing the causes of problems - such as explaining why our prisons are full.  Much of the comment has been about the impact of tougher sentences, the rise in violent crime and tabloid campaigns to let the punishment fit the crime.

The Economist - whilst acknowledging all these factors - reminds us of one devastatingly simple reason that the Government ought to be crowing about:

"One reason the prisons are full is that there are more police officers—141,000, compared with 122,000 in 2000. They can now go after crimes that are hard to crack but attract long sentences, such as drug-trafficking."

The Economist

That part of the cause is rather obvious when you think about it - and could be presented as a great success to be trumpeted loudly by Ministers.  However, to be wholly logical the Government should also have anticipated such a rise, especially as their own departments predicted it quite accurately.  Maybe then, Ministers would rather keep quiet and hope people's attention drifts elsewhere.