Reality television has succeeded where David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, has failed, by turning persistent criminals into law-abiding citizens.

An experiment by BBC2, called Make Me Honest , paired five newly-released prisoners with five well-meaning members of the public and set them the challenge of staying crime-free for six months.
Surprisingly, the project has worked and not one of the persistent criminals has re-offended, even two months after filming ended. In contrast, government statistics show that 75 per cent of young offenders released from custody re-offend within a year.