Pluto will always beat prisons when it comes to tax money | Simon Jenkins

Stephen Hawking's right: we explore because we're human. But those who shout the loudest will get the most money, regardless of the social dividend

The two headlines were next to each other. "Prisons worst for 10 years", and "Snow on Pluto". The juxtaposition may seem unfair, but how to react? Presumably to the first with anger, and the second with excitement. Compared with the remorseless grime of humans, astronomy offered an escape, a cause for joy, a vision of futurity. Stephen Hawking congratulated the Pluto team. "We explore because we are human beings," he said, "and we want to know."

The trouble is that those baffled by Britain's obsession with incarceration might say the same. Each week we tip more people into prison and treat them a little worse. We know it is a waste and doesn't work, but don't know why or what to do about it.

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