In The Loop: 29/07/08

Stolen UK passports worth £2.5m

The Foreign Office admitted a serious breach of security when a van carrying the new passports destined for British embassies overseas was hijacked a short distance from the factory that made them.

3M Security Printing and Systems, one of the biggest security printers in the UK and at the heart of government plans to introduce biometric passports was responsible for the delivery. [Guardian]

Youth crime: how 982 children will save us all £300m

Excellent article by Andrew Sparrow on the importance of improving the quality of youth’s lives rather than the capacity of prisons. [Guardian]

I replied to the thread, writing:

Many thanks for trying to connect the dots of policy making and trying to jog peoples minds about what long-term decision-making looks like.

I wish the people in charge saw that pulling the weeds from the root is a more effective than merely pruning the leaves.

Too many people talk about the need to increase prison places to fit an ever growing population but they rarely raise the need to spend money on making sure that youths dont get to the stage where they are caged before they are even adults.

I heard a figure saying that to convict somebody costs around £120,000 and £80,000 per year to keep a person incarcerated. Now why havent frothing right wing groups such as the Taxpayer Alliance not directed their venom at such subjects of criticism? It seems to me that even one person bypassing prison through whatever intervention could allow for tax money to be spent on more productive things. Improved housing? New school facilities? New railways or roads? Less taxes? An extra trident missile? Or maybe punishment, prevention and enforcement is just too profitable?

Ryanair: still cheap, but less and less appealing

Gwyn Topham comments on the declining profitability of Ryanair. [Guardian]

Click here for an introduction to Mr Grimsdale, King Heron and Mobius