just spent two days at the Conservative Party Conference talking, walking, listening and connecting.   I went to a number of high level fringe events, well attended by key ministers which is encouraging.  Inevitably I remain sceptical – rhetoric does not often convert into real action but the underlying feeling I came away with is one of cautious optimism but it is absolutely critical that we, as a sector, don’t let up for a minute  - we have got to keep talking to the shadow minister of justice and his team to ensure that their desire to make tough and honest choices  is rational and workable – that is, building your way of out the prison crisis won’t work and that the only sensible and economic choice is to divert money away from new prison places into more tough alternatives to custody for appropriate offenders.     Only then can we start drip feeding the money down to where it is really needed – away from criminal justice into families and early support.

The Conservatives need to look tough for the voters  - it is what they do should they get in that matters and we need to be sharing in that discussion.

07.10.09

I’ve just spent two days at the Conservative Party Conference talking, walking, listening and connecting. I went to a number of high level fringe events, well attended by key ministers which is encouraging. Inevitably I remain sceptical – rhetoric does not often convert into real action but the underlying feeling I came away with is one of cautious optimism.

However, it is absolutely critical that we, as a sector, don’t let up for a minute  - we have got to keep talking to the shadow minister of justice and his team to ensure that their desire to make tough and honest choices  is rational and workable – that is, building your way of out the prison crisis won’t work and the only sensible and economically viable choice is to divert money away from new prison places into more tough alternatives to custody for appropriate offenders.

Only then can we start drip feeding the money down to where it is really needed – away from criminal justice and towards families and early support.

The Conservatives need to look tough for the voters  - it is what they do should they get elected that matters and we need to be sharing in that discussion.

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