A long tradition exists of significant public figures using columns in national newspapers to express outrage about public policy and, they hope, to provoke a debate that might change it. Perhaps the greatest example in European history is Emile Zola, the French novelist’s, 4,000 word column published in L’Aurore in January 1898 under the headline J’Accuse. It accused the French state of a grave miscarriage of justice in the conviction and imprisonment for treason of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery officer in the French Army. Sir Ken MacDonald’s evisceration of the government’s policy on criminal justice, published this morning in The Times under the headline “Give us laws that the City will respect and fear,” may not be remembered a century from now. But it deserves to be read by all who care about justice and to have a similar impact on informed opinion.  Go on. Read it.