Alexander Baker

On 1 October, Michael Bogle was released from prison, one of 700 prisoners set free that day under Andy Burnham’s early release scheme. Bogle, a serial shoplifter in prison for breaching a suspended sentence for that very crime, proceeded straight to north-west London to engage in some shoplifting. Bogle’s latest crime spree – a weekend of thefts from two supermarkets – is the subject of a leaked letter from a Metropolitan Police borough commander to his local MPs, councillors and other dignitaries. The contents are remarkable. In the letter, Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams announces that a team of officers were forced to spend the entire day looking for Bogle to bring him back into custody.

Andy Burnham has released around 700 prisoners early from Britain's prisons, reducing the amount of time they have spent serving behind bars to just one-third of their overall sentence. This is only the first ‘tranche’ of prisoners set to be released. By the end of the year this number will climb to about 2,500. Burnham is now the second prime minister who, upon entering office, has been forced to take the extremely unpopular decision of releasing prisoners early. Months after his election, Burnham's predecessor Keir Starmer was forced to release thousands of prisoners as prison occupancy levels rose to 99 per cent. You may recall the images of released convicts popping champagne. Britain is in the midst of a prison capacity crisis.

The crisis in the criminal justice system will be the defining domestic policy issue of Andy Burnham’s government. The warning lights are flashing across the dashboard: England’s prisons are full, courts swamped and police forces riven by a mix of bureaucratic zealotry and incompetence. Public confidence in the system is wavering as it becomes evident that the state is struggling to fulfil certain basic functions in upholding law and order. The lack of prison capacity in the country is the most emblematic of these failures. It is very difficult to convince people that the best way out of the prison crisis is to release convicted felons.

Earlier this week, Danny Kruger offered one of the first glimpses of what a national security policy might look like under a Reform UK government. Building on the work that the party has done recently on public accountability and civil service reform, Kruger warned that defence and security policy had also fallen under the remit of unaccountable bureaucrats. Speaking at The Spectator’s National Security Summit, Kruger declared that his party would restore democratic leadership over this critical part of the state.  First, came the facts.

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has pledged £30 million to fund a youth club in every London borough. This latest round of goodwill no doubt came about thanks to last week’s youth-driven public disorder, most visible in Clapham but replicated elsewhere across the country. These events were social media inspired ‘link ups’ with participants largely drawn from a similar socio-ethnic background, where the rioting and disorder were part of the entertainment. The idea that hubs or clubs are somehow responsible for improving behaviour sounds nice, but the evidence is flimsy The idea that this might be curbed by introducing new youth clubs is a tired one.

It’s back. The government is once again attempting to give the police powers to search homes without a warrant. Buried within the mammoth Crime and Policing Bill that is currently making its way through parliament are a couple of clauses that give the police warrantless powers of entry to search and seize stolen goods. Ministers and MPs are clearly desperate to be seen to be doing something about the rampant theft of easily traceable phones, bikes and other possessions, especially across the capital. But while one might see the appeal of the Old Bill being given the green light to kick down doors at will to rescue stolen phones, we should recognise that doing so has serious consequences for personal liberty and privacy.

Your phone has been stolen. In the bustle of the crowd there’s no way of telling who took it and how far away it is by now. Luckily, you’re with a friend and can use any number of tracking apps to quickly pinpoint the exact location of the stolen phone. You bound over to the nearest policeman to report the crime and location, only to be met with a shrug and perhaps a crime reference number.   For those of you who spend too much time on X, the above story may sound familiar. It tends to do the rounds every couple of months, usually related to a stolen phone, laptop, or bike, and accompanied by a photo of GPS coordinates marking the stolen goods and a rant about ineffectual policing.