The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Prisons festive menu is hardly ‘lavish’
Sir, – Did the Tory MSP Alexander Stewart actually describe the festive menus for Perth and Castle Huntly prisons as “lavish”?
Was he really backed by James Price of the TaxPayers’ Alliance to the tune of prisons “prioritising excessive or fancy foods?”
These two men have clearly been infected or at least spoon-fed with one of the worst verbal diseases of our time, namely the cheap, shoddy soundbite desperately trotted out for the purpose of a wretched headline.
When I read of “lavish fare” and “taxpayers funding treats for inmates” (The Courier, December 14) I expected to see evidence to back it up like starter of oysters (plus a nice Champagne), main course caviar plus sirloin surf and turf (with a choice of red or white wine) then a special penitentiary pudding created by a Master Chef winner.
Instead, we learned Mr Stewart’s definition of “lavish” includes black pudding, sausage and a vegetable burger. Is chicken stuffed with haggis really worth an exaggerated description? As for Mr Price, since when did a jumbo sausage, noodle pack and fruit, alongside chicken fillet and bacon with gravy, qualify as excessive or fancy?
I declare an interest, having been in every jail in Scotland over a fouryear term many years ago (as head of communications at the Scottish Prison Service, I hasten to add!) but my comments are in personal mode.
Prisons on Christmas Day are as sombre a place as you could ever imagine. The nearest equivalent would be a crematorium on a bleak winter’s day.
Prisoners rightly pay the price for their crimes by loss of liberty and of course that bites hardest at festive times. At that time they learn the truth of the maxim “If you don’t want to do the time, don’t do the crime.”
One thing puzzled me – why was it necessary to use Freedom of Information to get the festive menus?
SPS should have been happy to show how much they care for prisoners at potentially a very vulnerable time, and how much effort goes into shaving a few pennies here and there over the year to provide festive food.
Michael Mulford. 82 Hogarth Drive, Cupar.