Today (20th January 2015), MPs will debate the future of the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons system. Those who speak in favour of renewing Trident, at a cost of almost £100 billion, will no doubt say Trident is essential to protect UK citizens at some point in the future. Yet last week, those same MPs voted to commit the next Parliament to austerity, which is killing UK citizens here and now.
Californian prison authorities have breached international human rights obligations by punitive measures against prisoners on hunger strike, says Amnesty.
Government plans to build Britain’s biggest prison are a "titanic waste of money that will do nothing to cut crime", says the Howard League for Penal Reform.
Prison reformers have expressed dismay at the determination of the majority of Westminster MPs to defy a legal ruling against the ban on prisoners voting.
To all intents and purposes, last Wednesday was a normal day. I dropped my husband, Chris Cole, in Headington and watched him walk away in the darkness to the London bus, as I often do. Then I headed back home for the usual morning routine of breakfast, sandwich making, and the school run.