Reassuringly for the Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells tendency, Ms Truss assured Mr Davies that she wasn’t “entirely in favour of the Danish approach.” By which, I think we can safely say, she means that there will be no officially-sanctioned nookie for cons on her watch, a position she shares with her unlamented predecessor but one, Chris Grayling who railed against the idea of any sex in his prisons (including masturbation, which he effectively banned in 2013). On this occasion he enquired of Ms Truss whether her views on prison reform extended to emulating “the Danish model” in which serving inmates are permitted to enjoy conjugal visits with their partners? Perish the very thought. Sex in prisons seems to be one of Phil the Punisher’s personal fixations and this is not the first time he has raised the issue.

However, I do want to explore one particular exchange between Ms Truss and Mr Davies on the subject of conjugal visits for prisoners. I’ve already written a pretty scathing review of her appalling performance for .uk (read here), so I don’t propose to repeat myself. Last week the new Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, Liz Truss, appeared before Parliament’s Justice Committee and made a complete nitwit of herself. I rarely have anything positive to write about Mr Davies and his grim obsession with punishment and trying to imprison virtually anything that moves, but on this occasion he has proved helpful, albeit unintentionally. I’d like to thank Philip Davies MP for providing the inspiration behind this blog post.

Conjugal visits victorian prisons