Muammar Al Khadafi

In the wake of the riots, and with many more rioters still to be detained and sentenced, the prison population of England and Wales has hit another record high, with 85,931 prisoners in custody.

That figure is drawing perilously close to the total prison system capacity, which stands at approximately 88,000.

Given the huge scale of the riots which brought carnage to the UK, if the promised harsh punishments are delivered to all those apprehended, England and Wales could fast approach a situation where there are quite simply not enough prison places.

On numbers arrested so far, the Mirror tells us that "A total of 2,275 people have been arrested in connection with the riots". Those 2,000 prison places remaining no longer seem such a safe cushion.

Since the total rise on prisoners since last month is 353, it is highly unlikely that most, or even many, of these new prisoners are a result of the riots, we may well face seeing the prison population reach breaking point once all of the rioters are rounded up and jailed.

In relation to prison populations, it may be fruitful ground for further research to consider that there appears to be a close correlation between the acceleration of immigration to the UK - with the percentage of non British here doubling between 1991 to 2008 according to Migrationwatch - and the near doubling of the prison population during the same period.

In 1990 the prison population stood at 45,600 - compared to the current record level of 85,931. In 1980 there was a prison population of 42,200, prior to the advent of unfettered immigration it was showing only a gentle rise decade by decade.

A recent exchange in the House of Commons saw James Grey, Conservative for North Wiltshire, say that "It is laudable that the total number of foreign nationals in prison has gone down since Labour left office from 11,000 to 10,000, but does the Minister agree that that is 10,000 too many? Is it not time we sent the whole lot of them home?".

There's 10,000 of our current 85,931 prisoners there. And, of course, that's just the foreign nationals, how many more of the prison population are people that successive moronic governments have decided to hand a passport and thus make them Britains problem?

We may currently be reaching the ceiling for available prison places - a situation which will only grow worse when (or if) a large amount of the rioters who have brought carnage to Britain are sent down - but, without foreign prisoners we would be nowhere near the limit, we'd have a surplus of prison places.

There'd be no more prison overcrowding, and the savings to the taxpayer would be immense, if the UK were not shouldering the burden imposed by foreign criminals.