Women in prison

I had my doubts about the promotion of Simon Hughes from the back-benches to a post in the Home Office, seeing as a means of muzzling the then deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats in the Commons. They were dispelled by his performance in front of a select committee chaired by Sir Alan Beith yesterday morning. Flanked by Rachel Halford of Women in Prison, Juliet Lyon of the Prison Reform Trust and Michael Spurr of the National Offender Management Service, Simon demonstrated not only that he was a complete master of his brief, but was also determined to make positive changes in the treatment of women offenders in the short time that he had available to him before the 2015 election. One trusts that this is one person that Nick Clegg will leave in place when the LibDem side of the reshuffle takes place around conference time.