I can't contribute to this debate ("so why is he wasting our time?" I hear you cry) but a line from a song came into my head:
"Hard case, hard case
Hard cases galore
But the hardest cases in the world
Are the "screws" upon Dartmoor".
Where does that come from ?Liverpool Spinners?Critics?Ewan MacColl?
RtS (the reference is to fearsome gentlemen, suggesting those fine officers in the Prison Service at one of our exemplary penal establishments fit the bill as the superlative example. (ahem) )(IRONY ALERT)