The argument for hard labour
I NEVER thought I would say this but I find myself wishing that we still had the concept of “hard labour” in the penal system.
By that I do not mean anything cruel but simply that some sentences should specify that the prisoner must work while incarcerated all day every weekday throughout the sentence with just the standard four weeks rest each year.
Instead Mick Philpott will now spend at least the next 15 years doing what he has always done – mostly idling at the taxpayers’ expense.