'Andy Burnham is right to keep notorious killers inside jails and block their early release'

'Andy Burnham is right to keep notorious killers inside jails and block their early release' "Prison overcrowding is a real crisis - the answer is tougher management of the system, not letting dangerous offenders out before justice has been served." There are crimes so grave that the public rightly expects the punishment to mean what it says. That is why Andy Burnham was right to step in and block some of Britain’s most notorious killers from being freed early. The prospect of those convicted of manslaughter in horrific cases benefiting from the government’s early release scheme caused revulsion. The Prime Minister has heard that anger and acted. He deserves credit for moving quickly, even though this was his own party’s policy. Governments are judged not just on the decisions they make, but on whether they have the courage to correct them when they are plainly wrong. The families of victims, though, should never have had to fight this battle. Mr Burnham is also right to promise more prison space by deporting foreign criminals who have no right to remain here. That should be accelerated. Prison overcrowding is a real crisis. The answer is tougher management of the system, not letting dangerous offenders out before justice has been served. Healthy move A seven-minute finger-prick test at the local chemist could help save thousands of lives. That is the promise behind the NHS's plans to offer quick cholesterol checks to people aged 40 to 84 without the need for a GP appointment or a laboratory test. Almost half of adults have high cholesterol, yet many have no idea they are living with a condition that can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Taking these checks onto the High Street makes sense, particularly in poorer communities where access to healthcare can be harder, and health inequalities remain stubbornly wide. The NHS is under huge pressure. Smart prevention like this can ease that burden while catching problems before they become emergencies. If a simple test can spot a ticking time bomb in minutes, it should be available as widely as possible. Spot on, Kylie Kylie Minogue has spent four decades proving that perfect pop never goes out of fashion. Now Can’t Get You Out Of My Head has passed one billion Spotify streams, more than 20 years after it conquered charts around the world. La la la indeed.