Always a bit wary of following Sean on one of these threads for fear of looking like knee-jerk liberal lackey, but I think the right-wing perceived "victimhood" of criminals is a bit of a red herring. Surely it makes sense to work out WHY people commit crimes, not so that we can give them a nice comfy sofa in their cell because mummy never loved them, but so that something can be done to try to reduce crime in the future. As for people with mental health problems, erm, yes, they're ill. So you know, we should, like, treat the illness. Or something. To Quids' point about The Guardian's sense of right and righteousness, well yes, there is that. And Quids, I think you're right. But surely there's that in the Times or the Telegraph too..? That's the feeling I always come away with when reading those papers (I read all the papers for work so it's not just the occasional perusal at the folks' house). I do genuinely wonder if it isn't the case that certain papers will grate more than others in their polemic because the views expressed are very much at odds with the reader's own... Or maybe I am just a bleeding heart pinko.