“By abolishing indeterminate sentences, the Government shows how out of touch they are on crime and law and order” screams a press release from Labour’s Sadiq Khan. Something he must know rather a lot about given that this week we learn that a third personal friend has done time in Wandsworth nick – the prison in his very own constituency. Khan used an interview with the Standard to put a positive spin on yet another dodgy connection:

“Shadow justice minister Sadiq Khan was being shown around Wandsworth Prison by the governor when a voice rang out from behind the locked gates: “Saadiq! Saadiq!” Mr Khan stopped instantly in his tracks. Only childhood friends pronounced his name in that way. “I spun round,” recalled Mr Khan, “and I recognised him straight off as one of my best friends from when I was 12 and lived on the Henry Prince Estate in Tooting. We used to play football and cycle round together for hours.”

Was his other childhood friend Babar Ahmed there too?  We are still waiting for an explanation from Khan about his relationship with a chum who just happened to build a couple of websites for Chechen and Afghan insurgents. Silence…

The press release  goes on: “the public want to be protected from serious violent offenders and safe in the knowledge that they won’t be released from prison.”  Is that not a bit rich coming from a man who spent most of his life before parliament trying to get dangerous types freed?  Sadiq wasn’t very tough on crime when he was helping Hizb-ut-Tahrir’s Reza Pankhurst. Then we had his cosy love in with Ali Dizaei, maybe he could become an advisor on policing? Either way he’s certainly “in touch” on prisons…