I was listening to a show on radio 4 a couple of years ago and Armando Iannuci was making comments about how Johnating King had written him a letter, and that he had written back saying he wouldn't work with a paedophile - to the delight of the audience. I find it ironic that he was working with Chris Langham at the time.

Chris Langham is in Elmly now. Where will he go from there? I guess there are only a limited number of places with VP units. Maidstone ? Wandsworth ?

Why is that ironic? are you saying he should have known two years in advance that langham would look at kiddie porn?

It is actually interesting though not perhaps ironic, Godiver... I heard the gag and it provoked a very strange reaction. It wasn't funny and seemed to unsettle, not amuse, his audience as though he was revealing more than he intended.

It came because I'd written to him saying what an excellent writer I thought he was. His response was to go on and on about... "but he molested boys".

When the Langham story broke I wondered whether he'd be using his friend as similar comedy material. I suspect he's been rather stung by it all.

I've never liked the smug git! Armando that is. A good writer..perhaps.

Carbon - virtually every prison now has a VP wing; the explosion of sex offenders means it has become the fastest growing area.

Since 85% are decent, law abiding, hard working men who may or may not have done dreadful things but otherwise never even got speeding tickets, these have become the places of choice to work and live.

Very little thieving from cells (that's on "the main"); ditto drug use ("the main"); few muggers or murderers or killers or con men or robbers... just "awful" sex offenders and ex police and informers and those in debt (virtually no gambling on the VP wings - that's "the main" too).

Cleaner, quieter, calmer. Better food.

And an awful lot of innocent men who were unable to prove they didn't do something 40 years ago.

What is a VP unit, and how exactly does a VP unit differ from other units? I cannot find a decent explanation anywhere on the net.

I fully expect to be sent to prison within the next decade. It

Hi, no I mean when I think back about what Iannuci said I find it ironic. Perhaps coincedental is a better word.

I was in Wandsworth VP for a short while then spent the rest of my term in the normal units at Belmarsh, Wayland and finally Hollesley bay.

I have to say that my experience of the fellows in the Wandsworth VP was that they were a very mixed bag from every walk of life. There were quite a few non-sex offenders and also a number of people with mental illness. I found the time easier on the non-vp wings, but that was probably because the two-man cells in Wandsworth are extremely unpleasant and freezing in the winter.

Chris Langham would surely go the VP route because of the offence rather than his high profile. Jeffrey Archer or Aitken weren't VPs as far as I know.

By the way, whenever I got the 'Inside Times' newspaper I always turned to read JK's article - very entertaining.