Thursday 30 July 2009

Cup Cakes and Commonwealth

Day off so a chance to pop down to Brixton Market to stock up. This is a superb market and Brixton is one of the more vibrant and lively parts of London. I particulary recommend Julies - a glorious cafe where Julie makes the best cup cakes in London.

It's good to see that my neighbour, Paul McDowell, has been appointed as the new CEO of Nacro. He is currently Governor of Brixton Prison but takes over from the superb Paul Cavadino at the end of the year. Nacro has a long and distinguished history and is now closely involved in delivering services in prisons and outside. I'm glad to see that the absurd complaint against Catch 22 and Turning Point has been dismissed by the Charity Commission. If we are to properly tackle crime we need to invest in rehabilitation and to have a radical new approach to how we run prisons. The third sector's role in running prisons is one good way of ensuring a new approach and I'm sure Paul will help develop this aspect of the work of Nacro.

I guess there is no such thing as a "day off" for a CEO as I rush back with the shopping from the market to take part in a teleconference call across the Commonwealth. I'm a member of the Commonwealth's Civil Society Committee and we are planning for the People's Forum which takes place at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Trinidad and Tobago in November. One of the issues I am arguing we must press strongly is the discrimination against gay and lesbians in many Commonwealth countries. Trinidad and Tobago have vicious anti-gay laws - 25 years in prison max sentence. So we are looking to see how the Committee ensures the Ministers meeting talks about this. That should be interesting!

1 comment:

Term paper said...

It’s quite appreciable that such information is being shared through a huge network. Keep it up.