Wow – the Electoral Commission decided to do a bit of a clampdown on fraud by cross checking the electoral roll with other public data sources and – guess what – 5% of “voters” in Bradford appear to have vanished into thin air….

The new, more secure system requires people to register to vote individually, rather than allowing one person to sign up an entire household, and was designed to clamp down on electoral fraud.

Of course those “ghost voters” didn’t boost the numbers for Bradford’s two MPs Lib Dem David Ward & Respect’s George Galloway, both well known for their anti Israeli views……

Why farmers don’t need watches……

Please Note….no donkeys were harmed in the making of this video….

Interesting post at Conservative Woman by Nicholas Booth helpfully deflating the Al Murray balloon and – shock/horror – questioning his motives in claiming that he will be standing against Nigel Farage in Thanet South.

I doubt Al Murray (or his alter ego, The Pub Landlord) will be doing any door stepping in the constituency but, if he did, what sort of returns would he get? How likely is it that even one householder would suddenly be convinced that Ed Miliband is the best man to bat for Britain on the international stage? So, what can Al Murray’s motivation be?

Here’s some news just in. His publisher – Random House Penguin – is launching a new Al Murray product to coincide with the election publicity campaign. Given the long gestation period of a book, this must have been months in planning.

Murray is a moderately amusing one trick pony entertainer. His background, of course, is very “posh” but, unlike James Blunt, he covers his origins up with with a mockney accent (in character, natch) and has fashionable liberal/left views. Above all his alter ego is constructed to caricature and demonise the white van men. Thus, naturally, he escaped the sneers of Chris Bryant re posh boys/girls dominating our cultural scene.

While he remained merely a marginal showbiz celeb very few of us gave him any thought. But the move into “politics”, while probably a very shrewd PR move by his managers and agents in terms of media coverage, has made him a legitimate target for criticism – and he doesn’t like it. A man who makes belittling and embarrassing individual members of his audience a big part of his act appeared to be very sensitive to such slings and arrows when they were fired at him on Twitter (see @almurray) complaining of name calling etc.

For people like Murray satire is very much a one way street…

But the prize for the biggest Murray blooper must go to former left wing Daily Mirror hack Tom McTague, now slumming at at the Mail. After a well researched in depth investigation into UKIP ace reporter Tom came out with this gem about Farage

His election bid was also dealt a blow after stand-up comic Al Murray announced he would stand against Mr Farage as his TV character ‘The Pub Landlord’.

I’m sure the man who duffed up Nick Clegg and is making both Labour and the Tories very nervous is shaking with fear at McTague’s revelations….

Can somebody please help me out here because I am so confused.

It’s this Ched Edwards thing.

For as long as I can remember it’s been the “accepted wisdom” (i.e. the pronouncements of the BBC, The Guardian and our moral betters from the Great and the Good) that PRISON DOES NOT WORK. Not only does it not work because prisons become “universities of crime” but it is based on the false premise of “punishment”. Punishment, we are told, springs from the quaintly old fashioned concept of “revenge” – and revenge is not good….it is so…uncivilised to just lock someone up and keep them outside society.

The only true path for the law breaker is reform and redemption. Prison will make him or her depressed, morose and undervalued and these feelings will be drivers of further incidents of unco-operative behaviour.

No, far better to use procedures such as community service or probation or electronic supervision, helping the law breaker to re-engage with society.

Hence murderers, terrorists, burglars, thieves and those who violently assault and maim others are only made worse by imprisonment – the longer they are inside the more dehumanised they become. Hence very long prison sentences…20 years, 40 years, real life….are pointless. So many murderers are back on the streets after seven years or so.

The victims? Who the hell cares? They need to move on even if they can’t forgive or forget.

So what’s my problem?

It’s simply this. If PRISON DOES NOT WORK for murderers, thieves etc. why does it work for rapists, homophobes and racists? What is it about these people which makes them unqualified for redemption/reform but prime candidates for solid old fashioned PUNISHMENT?

I think we should be told……..