Michael Gove’s agenda lives on in prisons

There’s a good reason ministerial conference speeches are often so achingly dull. Because such occasions are inevitably party political – featuring punchy attacks on Labour and so on – civil service policy experts and departmental speechwriters aren’t allowed anywhere near them, for fear of breaking various Whitehall codes. So the speeches are stitched together by the minister, his or her special advisers, and nervous party apparatchiks who are mainly focused not on policy announcements or the department’s agenda, but on making sure the Prime Minister’s team is kept happy.

But though there was a faint whiff of that about David Lidington’s speech earlier today, the justice secretary made a few points that are worth picking up on. First, he is absolutely determined to hammer home just how much he gets his role as Lord Chancellor. Those in the hall may have been mystified as to why he banged on so much about the rule of law and our ‘living constitutional principles’ – but he was really talking over their heads to any listeners