The post What anti-Trumpism is missing – MSN first appeared on The Trump Investigations – trumpinvestigations.net – The News And Times.
Day: July 9, 2024
The post Trump is just a con man from New York – Al Jazeera English first appeared on Trump And Trumpism – The News And Times.
July 9, 2024
The new parliament better reflects a modern Britain that politicians have ignored for too long
Seeing a Labour prime minister speak from the dispatch box in parliament sealed an electoral coup executed in the quiet of the country’s polling booths last week. The proceedings in the House of Commons on Tuesday revealed the scale of the revolution that Sir Keir Starmer led. Out of 650 parliamentarians elected, 335 have never been an MP before.
Parliament now looks more like Britain. The Commons is the most diverse ever in terms of race and gender. Black, Asian and ethnic minority lawmakers will make up about 13% of the total, up from 10% in 2019. There are a record 242 female MPs, 22 more than after the last election. The Labour leader pointed out that the Commons now has the “largest cohort” of LGBTQ+ MPs of any parliament in the world. It was heartening to see Sir Keir break with convention to praise the mother of the house, Diane Abbott, Britain’s first black woman MP, who was almost blocked from standing as a Labour candidate. It may be a trick of the light, but the nation feels a better place.
A strong emphasis on rehabilitation is what the justice ministry and Prison Service need
The appointment of James Timpson as prisons minister is a hopeful signal that Labour plans to take a socially liberal, reformist approach to criminal justice, placing more emphasis on rehabilitation and less on punishment. That would be very welcome. Mr Timpson runs what he calls a “paternalistic family business”, the Timpson group of shoe repair and key-cutting shops. About 10% of his workforce are former prisoners, and Mr Timpson appears eager to get stuck into the huge challenges of overcrowding, high reoffending rates and failed reintegration.
There is no argument about the severity of the current crisis. Jails in England and Wales are 99% full, and release dates have been brought forward repeatedly to relieve pressures. In May, the governor of HMP Wandsworth resigned following a highly critical inspection. Last year a prisoner escaped from Wandsworth; more recently a prison officer was charged with misconduct in public office after a video appeared to show her having sex with a prisoner in a cell.