Some crimes are so vile that those who commit them deserve a very long stretch behind bars.
Such a crime led to the heartbreaking death of Baby P. And such a criminal was his vile mother Tracey Connelly, one of three people involved in the little boy’s tragic end.
Connelly was allowed out on licence once, but she misbehaved and was returned to jail. The Parole Board ruled she should be let out again, to public outrage.
Dominic Raab responded to that outcry by opposing Connelly’s release. So far so predictable.
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Now the Sunday Mirror has learned that it was an official in Mr Raab’s own department who approved the Parole Board’s action.
Mr Raab did not tell MPs that when he stood up in the House of Commons to denounce it.
We now smell not just a whiff of hypocrisy but an overpowering stench of it. And as so often with the Tories, they talk tough on crime, only to go weak on the causes of it. Just look at the mess they have made of the Met.
Sources close to the Justice Secretary say he was not aware of what his official had done until just before he was due to speak in the Commons.
That does not wash. As Secretary of State, the buck stops with him.
Honour brave Tom & Amani
The Wanted singer Tom Parker was upbeat and courageous to the last.
He bonded with law graduate Amani Liaquat as they both battled terminal brain tumours.
Amani was frightened she was dying. Tom kept assuring her she was not. Tragically, they both died – Armani in February and Tom last week.
But during that last year of Amani’s life, it was Tom who brought her the joy of true friendship. And when she died, Tom suffered the loss of a true friend too.
Amani’s family have the comfort of knowing what a difference Tom made to her final days. The disease that killed them both was an aggressive brain cancer known as glioblastoma multiforme.
Tumours like it kill more children and adults than any other cancer, yet only 1% of research money is allocated to finding a cure.
The best legacy Amani and Tom could wish for is for the Government to agree to provide much more financial support.
Darwin a loser
We tracked down canoe fraudster John Darwin to the Philippines, where his wife told us he will make nothing from a new TV drama about his extraordinary fraud.
Darwin played dead for five years in a £250,000 life insurance swindle after pretending to have perished in a canoe accident.
He may think he is getting a raw deal by being denied money for his oar-deal. But after the scam he tried to pull off, surely he deserves to be up the creek without a paddle.
