As Ipswich Spy has pointed out Ben Gummer has made his maiden speech. Having been scooped on this I thought I could at least point everyone to the video here of their MP’s speech. It is 19 hours 38 minutes and 40 seconds into the debate, and the text is here. He’s also starting to intervene, as this clever contribution shows.
It’s a far more spiky maiden speech than you would expect, partly because instead of attacking the Labour Party he’s attacking those with reservations about cutting back on short sentences, who are in both the main parties. He says “I hope that those who wish to oppose the reforms that are necessary understand that to do so would be to condemn families, victims, perpetrators and communities to the repeated misery that we now have a golden opportunity to prise ourselves away from.”
I’m not sure that this is the intention of people as far apart as Michael Howard, Ed Balls and David Davis. Prison keeps bad people off the street, something that penal reformers have never really addressed convincingly. When they do they will win the argument easily. And they’ve not been winning the argument.
UPDATE: Conservative Home also have a piece on the maiden speech, with trenchant comments
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