This mugger-hugger knows the truth, just like the 'all mouth and no truncheon' phoney

This is Peter Hitchens' Mail on Sunday column

I agree completely with that awful old wet liberal Ken Clarke. Talking about politicians and crime, he says 'the failure of the past has been to use tough rhetoric and to avoid taking tough decisions that might prove unpopular'.

Quite. I would much rather have an honest, straightforward mugger-hugger like Ken in charge, weeping and snuffling about rehabilitation and similar rubbish, than a false friend of the people like that phoney hard man...