The reckoning / The welcome downfall of Russell Brand
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Dennis is having a little holiday with a sitter in Kent because I’m in Italy, a meandering trip from Rome to Florence and then Venice via Chianti. Unfortunately, I realise on day one that I’ve become the sort of unhinged tourist who accosts people with dogs. In Rome’s Piazza Navona, I spot an elderly Parson terrier ambling stiffly over the cobbles and hurry over to its middle-aged owner, chic in her silk neck scarf and quilted jacket. ‘I have the same in London,’ I say, thrusting my phone at her and pointing at the screen. She’s very gracious and we have a faltering conversation in which I learn that her rough-coated Parson is called Lola and she’s ten years old. In a Montepulciano wine bar, I meet a Boxer called Evie.
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The prison early release scheme is already a disaster
Four days after he was released from HMP Wandsworth, Michael Bogle was back inside. The 38-year-old had served 11 of 32 weeks in prison for stealing before he was freed last month via the government’s early release scheme. He strolled out of jail, told reporters he would ‘hopefully not’ shoplift again, then stole from a Sainsbury’s a few hours later. The early release scheme was meant to increase prison capacity. But it isn’t working. Since it began two years ago, 80,000 people have been freed, yet there are just 1,000 extra prison spaces. Last week, the Ministry of Justice revealed that more offenders were recalled to jail in the first half of this year (25,531) than were let out (25,255).
Four days after he was released from HMP Wandsworth, Michael Bogle was back inside. The 38-year-old had served 11 of 32 weeks in prison for stealing before he was freed last month via the government’s early release scheme. He strolled out of jail, told reporters he would ‘hopefully not’ shoplift again, then stole from a Sainsbury’s a few hours later. The early release scheme was meant to increase prison capacity. But it isn’t working. Since it began two years ago, 80,000 people have been freed, yet there are just 1,000 extra prison spaces. Last week, the Ministry of Justice revealed that more offenders were recalled to jail in the first half of this year (25,531) than were let out (25,255).
The good, the bad and the ugly in books, exhibitions, cinema, TV, dance, music, podcasts and theatre.
Whenever I hear the phrase ‘national treasure’ I reach for my shotgun. Take David Attenborough. Yes, he may be impressively old – and modest and charming and sweet, so people claim – but he is also a menace who has probably done more to promote environmental hysteria, devious misinformation and spectacular misallocation of your scarce resources than Greta Thunberg, Al Gore and Prince William combined. The most effective propaganda takes you unawares, when your guard is down. So where better than in the cosy 8 p.m. Sunday slot when you are slumped on a sofa, hypnotised with that familiar soothing voice, manipulated by a score (Hans Zimmer) so soupy it could put Heinz out of business, and mesmerised by some of the most visually arresting images you’re ever likely to see.