I wrote this poem the day after Renee Good was murdered - it’s about how the media and politicians immediately dehumanised her. I have had a few people ask “who wrote it?” So I am putting it up again - written in anger

Watching Robert Jenrick badmouth all his mates and fall like a shot pheasant into Nigel Farage’s bulging game bag brought plenty of cheer to a dreary January afternoon ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1cLk

Reform told you reducing council tax was easy. They just had to slash Woke policies, and a billion or two would be saved. They wouldn't even need to close care services. They promise you that. And then every single Reform-led council cut care services and increased council tax.

She's right... and it comes down to money. SCS salaries are down 20% in real terms since 2010. You have directors on less than £100k. The main reason we still have a functioning SCS is Stockholm syndrome.

Excellence in Delivery Award – BOLD Programme – North Essex Probation Delivery Unit Case Information Dashboard, Ministry of Justice

Fergus McNeill, Professor of Criminology and Social Work at the University of Glasgow, gave this year’s Howard League Lecture, with the title ‘Rehabilitation and Penal Reform’. Read the lecture here: https://howardleague.org/blog/the-2025-howard-league-lecture-held-in-memory-of-lord-parmoor/

These decisions…"imply cutting ‘other’ departments (including local government and justice) by £6.4bn in real terms between 2028-29 and 2029-30".

As research reveals families feel informed about what’s happening in school, but not always listened to or understood, here are key lessons from trusts with strong reputations for building positive relationships with parents schoolsweek.co.uk/5-lessons-fr...

So worth a watch / listen…

Good appointment www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Are you interested in working for a more humane and effective response to crime? We are looking for a Development Officer to join our busy team. https://howardleague.org/about-us/vacancies/development-officer/

“We find it extraordinary that contracts were awarded to both Serco and AUEM despite being found by the Serious Fraud Office to have been dishonestly misleading the government while providing EM services,”

The issues at #Medomsley have been known for many years. This 2012 report is (warning) very distressing and gives a glimpse of the horror. www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/apr/...

The #Medomsley history is devastating. Will the personal characteristics of the serial perpetrators make them less subject to public condemnation & will those of the victims less the focus of public concern? The answer - also devastating- is probably yes These children were served up to perpetrators

The Communications Director @nationaltrust.org.uk is definitely one of the organisation’s treasured assets.

I just love how supporting the National Trust and the RNLI now makes you a dangerous radical.

Restores my faith in personal agency that RT2021 who describe the nature of their business as, “Activities of other membership organisations not elsewhere classified” (Companies House) have again failed to succeed at NT council elections where they were relying on mass voter apathy from members.

“Rebuilding the system requires a revitalised multi-agency partnership to set strategic direction, improve working relationships and provide a clear set of principles and priorities to galvanise activity across the system.” Valuable report here. www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

Appreciative of @nationaltrust.org.uk for their inclusion of a mesmerising film showing the (still surviving) industry upon which the wealth of the household was based. “Haunting” is the perfect description.

Gotta love Private Eye. Always cuts through the crap.

There are just 7 days left for you to make your voice heard in our Annual General Meeting: buff.ly/LcZhyeO Cast your vote before midnight on 31 Oct.

This reminds me of the joke, “People used to laugh at me when I said I wanted to be a comedian. Well they're not laughing now.”

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

VIDEO: Probation under pressure Thank you to everyone who attended our Spotlights event on probation. If you missed it, or want to hear the discussion again, head to our YouTube channel to watch the recording. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29E6DBzA8GY

Government plan to further alienate offenders from their community. Probation Officers (who are now civil servants) have no choice but to comply. www.theguardian.com/law/2025/sep...

Reform’s immigration plan falls apart on hard contact with evidence, economics and any form of engaged brain. Never be afraid to stand up for this country and its decency and future by giving them short shrift.

What’s the difference between a Will and a Power of Attorney? Full help in the new ‘Grown Up Stuff: (Free) Wills & even more important Power Of Attorney’ Martin Lewis Podcast available on BBC Sounds bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/..., Apple, Spotify & all the usual pods

Now that it’s the time of year when the obscurely-funded right wing Restore Trust, a private company, try once again to take over the National Trust, my annual reminder of what they want to do with our history & heritage. blogs.sussex.ac.uk/snapshotsofe...

MoJ COO James McEwen has been named chief exec of HM Prison and Probation Service:

“If culture eats strategy for breakfast, then community power eats national strategies for lunch and dinner.

“Every minute, every second, has to be spent with one’s device clutched in one’s hand.”

….yes

Meta might be secretly scanning your phone's camera roll. Here's how to check and turn it off 👀

Gavin Newsom is exactly right, Trump is doing everything we told you he would do and more. It's time to wake the hell up, America. Authoritarianism is here.

Very succinct WSJ summary of the staggering migration shock that successive Tory governments inflicted on Britain as they tried to mitigate and hide the economic consequences of the Brexit disaster

“Pledges to build more prison places risk simply making a dysfunctional system even larger and even more dysfunctional again.” Read our response to the Independent Review of Prison Capacity by Dame Anne Owers:

This piece hits the spot. High quality Pre Sentence Reports should return to be the key quality product of a high performing probation officer. Focus on courts and communities not prisons.

Leaked report shows 10,000 gap in probation staff

All staff to get "secure, enterprise-grade AI assistants" by December www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/...

the other thing it has done has made increasing sentences cost free for successive Home Secretaries. @davidlidington.bsky.social told @instituteforgovernment.org.uk #Insidebriefing that he thought that was a contributor to sentence inflation

An excellent report led by the highly respected expert Dame Anne Owers.

“..when we reflect that every fact, figure and chart reflects what is happening to individual people and their families, it’s hard to overstate their seriousness.”

"That any prison would report such poor standards is shocking, but to read of such standards in an institution holding children is inexcusable." ➡️Our latest blog from Legal Director, @gemabbott.bsky.social, on failures at Werrington and why PAVA is not the answer: howardleague.org/blog/pava-wi...

Master of the audacious rhyme - as in the concluding line here. …..and there are so many more :)

“As things stand, HMPPS remains a top-heavy, inflexible, and overly bureaucratic organisation. It is failing to show the change leadership, flexibility, and innovation that is desperately required. Whether it is fit for purpose is open to question and remains to be proven.”

Out of court resolutions bring justice to victims @transformjustice.bsky.social report finds victims focused on preventing other victims as priority. www.russellwebster.com/out-of-court...

Always decline the invitation to play this smarmy grifter’s game of outrage. Another thoughtful piece from @benwildsmith.bsky.social