This morning it was announced that with effect from November, Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, plans to introduce measures which will make life more austere for male prisoners. We are told Mr Grayling's plans include requiring prisoners to wear uniform for their first two weeks in custody (we weren't aware that they didn't already) and have to earn the right to perks such as the use of a television by participating in work or education and positive engagement with rehabilitation programmes....

Yesterday it emerged that Iain Duncan Smith, the Work & Pensions Secretary, had expressed a view that “wealthy” pensioners might consider repaying those universal benefits to which all pensioners are entitled. We were not surprised by the consternation and perfectly proper indignation which subsequently issued from several quarters. Such a suggestion invites a reopening over the old debate over whether such benefits should start to be means tested or not. Furthermore we are not aware of a mechanism...

It is our sad duty to record the death this morning, following a stroke, of Baroness Thatcher at the age of 87. If Winston Churchill was the best wartime Prime Minister we could have had, Margaret Thatcher was assuredly the greatest peacetime Prime Minister of the last century. She was Britain's first – and to date – only woman Prime Minister and the first to win three General Elections in a row.


These achievements appear all the more considerable when we pause to consider her...

We have a new Pope! This evening the conclave which assembled on Monday, chose Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, a 76-year-old Jesuit scholar, as the new Pope, and he will be known as Francis I. He is a surprising choice and the first non-European Pope for a thousand years. On account of the new Pope's age alone his pontificate is unlikely to be a long one and, if the precedent set by his predecessor is followed, we have every reason to imagine that it will be relatively short. ...

This afternoon the conclave summoned to elect the next Pope, met in the Sistine Chapel and the first ballot has already taken place. We do not know with certainty how long this conclave will be in session. Theoretically it run on for an indefinite period of time, although experience would appear to indicate that it may be a matter of days rather than weeks. We could, quite conceivably, have a new Pope by Thursday or Friday. Unlike last time, there is no clear front runner on this occasion and the...