That was the week that was

Apologies for the lack of updates since Monday. I did warn you. Here are some meaty stories that came up during my absence from the blogosphere...

From politics.co.uk:

Former home secretary David Blunkett has admitted that anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) are not working and are seen as a "badge of honour" by some youngsters.

The Sheffield Brightside MP was asked if he still had faith in the measures that, although introduced two years before his time at the Home Office, he championed. He replied: "Not wholly."

From Hot Ginger and Dynamite:

the priority and ordering of the stories on Newsnight last night was bizarre in the extreme. The lead story was a hack job by Michael Crick, along the lines of “On the day that the Tories launch a campaign for more success in the North ... a Conservative activist was found to have sent an email to a Conservative Councillor in Bradford, in which he called the local Labour Party Chair a cripple”. 

This may have merited a story in the Bradford Telegraph and Argus, but to lead Newsnight with it was very curious. To place that story ahead of the dawn arrest of the Prime Minister’s Director of Government Relations in connection with sale of honours, which seems likely to be the greatest scandal of the Labour Government, is shocking.

From Guido Fawkes:

Guido is given to understand that the police have recently discovered an evidential "smoking gun" and that they are now more confident that this will all see the light of day at the Old Bailey. There is increasing confidence that the CPS will be compelled, by the evidence, to bring prosecutions.

The denizens of Downing Street can huff and puff all they like, but their house is coming down...

The photograph at the top was borrowed from the Shropshire Star.