Prison works.
asserted
Prison → work → ?
Michael Howard's famous mantra triggered apoplexy on the liberal Left in the 1990s and has been out of fashion at Westminster for decades.
asserted
mantra → trigger → decades
But if Nick Timothy gets his way, it will be coming back.
asserted
it → get → way
'Prison works,' he says simply.
asserted
he → work → ?
'I use that phrase a lot because prison is there to punish, and it's there to do justice, but it is (also) there literally to take people out of circulation.
asserted
it → use → circulation
'When Michael Howard launched the big prison building programme in the Nineties, what followed was a reduction in half in crime, and that's what we've got to do again.
asserted
we → launch → what
'Crimes like shoplifting have gone up by 20 per cent because there's no message to anybody who shoplifts that there will be a meaningful punishment.'
asserted
who → go → anybody
It is Thursday morning when the Daily Mail sits down with the shadow minister in a cafe in his West Suffolk constituency.
asserted
Mail → sit → constituency
Across the country hundreds of thugs, thieves and drug addicts are slinking out of prison gates under Labour's latest early-release scheme.
asserted
hundreds → slink → scheme
Many are celebrating; one catches the eye by boasting to TV cameras that he is 'going to go stealing again'.
asserted
he → celebrate → cameras
It's disgusting,' Mr Timothy says.
asserted
Timothy → say → ?
'I think people are appalled.
asserted
people → think → ?
People expect crime to be punished, and when criminals are put away, they expect them to serve their sentence.
asserted
them → expect → sentence
'And to see people who should still be inside leaving, celebrating, joking about going out and committing more crimes is disgusting, and it's a state failure, and it needs to be corrected, which is what we're trying to do.'
asserted
we → see → what
Mr Timothy has arrived armed with a shiny new policy committing the Tories to building 50,000 new prison places – a staggering increase on the current 90,000-space estate.
asserted
Timothy → arrive → estate
The £2billion-a-year policy, funded by cuts to foreign aid and Whitehall budgets, would, he says, allow the Tories to scrap Labour's early-release policy and reverse the 'effective abolition' of short sentences for crimes such as shoplifting and knife possession.
asserted
Tories → fund → shoplifting
We need to be able to reverse those two things, and we need to be able to say with certainty that if you commit a violent crime, or if you're a repeat burglar or shoplifter guilty of one of those acquisitive crimes – yeah, you will definitely go to prison.
asserted
you → need → prison
All well and good, but ministers point out that a large part of the reason prisons are in crisis is because the last government did not build enough of them.
asserted
government → point → them
Mr Timothy does not dispute this – but says that is not a reason to give in to the soft-justice campaigners now.
asserted
that → dispute → campaigners
The scale of the cuts to the prison budget during the Coalition years, when he served as an adviser to then-home secretary Theresa May, was 'a mistake' he concedes.
uncertain
he → serve → May
'We didn't build enough, it's true,' he says.
asserted
he → build → enough
'I'm not going to defend or justify the fact that successive governments, going back many years, and before even the Coalition, didn't build enough.
asserted
governments → go → enough
The whole point of this policy is to acknowledge that.
asserted
point → acknowledge → that
Britain has become too tolerant of those who seek to harm society, whether it is criminals, radical Islamists or foreign regimes, he says.
asserted
he → become → society
Too much time has been spent offering understanding to criminals; too little trying to protect the public from them.
asserted
little → spend → them
'I think we've done enough understanding,' he says bluntly.
asserted
he → think → understanding
'We need to return consequences to the criminal justice system.'
asserted
We → need → system
Mr Timothy says he was 'sickened' by the recent sight of Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband shaking hands with his Iranian counterpart just days before what appears to have been an Iranian-backed plot to attack RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.
asserted
what → say → Gloucestershire
'We all know what the Iranian state has been doing to its own people,' he says.
asserted
he → know → people
'We all know what it does in the Middle East, but actually, there's lots more that it does, including on the streets of this country.
asserted
it → know → country
Iran is responsible for more plots involving a threat to life in this country than Russia.
asserted
Iran → involve → Russia
Michael Howard, former leader of the Conservative Party, previously declared: 'Prison works'
'
asserted
Prison → declare → Party
I looked at Ed Miliband and I thought, "You're a mug.
asserted
You → look → Miliband
You're a mug, and you're allowing Britain to be treated like that".'
asserted
Britain → allow → that
He has harsh words too for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, who was recently forced into a humiliating climbdown after handing an 'interfaith award' to a Pakistani cleric who praised Osama bin Laden – on the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
asserted
who → have → 9/11
Mr Timothy, who was instrumental in bringing the debacle to public attention, said it took him '15 minutes on the internet' to uncover the cleric's extremist background.
asserted
it → bring → background
The episode has 'harmed' the Church but is part of a pattern, he says, contrasting the efforts of local congregations to raise money to repair church roofs with 'the Archbishop of Canterbury talking about spending £100million on (slavery) reparations for what the Church may or may not have done hundreds of years ago'.
uncertain
Church → harm → years
'If you talk to local vicars and parishioners here in Suffolk, the church is a completely different institution,' he says.
asserted
he → talk → Suffolk
Mr Timothy is co-chairing a Tory 'integration commission' charged by Kemi Badenoch with finding ways to build a more cohesive society.
asserted
Timothy → co → society
He is not a fan of multiculturalism and the review is expected to come down hard against institutions such as the benefits system offering their services in languages other than English.
asserted
review → expect → English
…and 24 more, not listed.
The Aporia
