There is something deeply disturbing to find oneself living in a country which, in addition to mounting problems in its public services generally, neglects its prisons, creating cruel and inhuman conditions in which vulnerable human beings are incarcerated. This is surely a mark of a country suffering appalling incompetence of governance? How we got here is a sad and sorry tale about dogma, outsourcing, quangos and austerity. And about losing touch with our values and our standards.
The good news is that times are changing. No longer is all this nonsense acceptable and sooner or later it will be swept away in an electoral tide of reform and renewal. The sooner the better.