Some U-turns are so damaging that they haunt a prime minister for the rest of their career. Others are forgotten almost as soon as they are made. A few are welcomed unreservedly; such is the case with the news that those involved in the killing of PC Andrew Harper are to remain behind bars after all – and that the longstanding injustice of prisoners held indefinitely on “throw away the key” sentences is to end.
These two developments are related because space needs to be found in our creaking jails and low-risk “indefinite public protection” (IPP) prisoners are an obvious answer. Nonetheless, Andy Burnham is to be congratulated on the way he used the power of his office to insist ministers and officials were “turning over every stone” in the search for a publicly acceptable resolution to the prison overcrowding crisis.
