Posts Tagged ‘David Cameron’
“No More Obvious Waste” Than UK’s £19 Billion War On Drugs
A Wise Lady
In the House of Lords on 15th June 2010, Baroness Meacher announced a “radical shift of policy” from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The UN’s “war on drugs” has been an abject failure creating an illegal trade worth £320 billion and financing civil war in South America for the last 25 years. British soldiers die almost every day in Afghanistan fighting an enemy financed by the illegal opium trade.
The UK spends £19 billion annually on the costs of drug law enforcement.
According to Baroness Meacher there is “no more obvious waste” of public money. When will our leaders have the courage to grasp this nettle, to liberalise our pointless, self-defeating laws and free up billions of pounds of our money for more sensible purposes?
In addition, expert research indicates that a legalise, regulate and tax regime could contribute at least £6 billion annually in additional tax revenue. How can we afford to ignore these huge sums of money which we could make available to the country at little more than the stroke of a pen and with only a beneficial effect on the health of the nation?
Dying For A Stupid Law
Five years ago, while campaigning for the Tory party leadership, David Cameron called for “fresh thinking and a new approach” towards drugs policy and said that it would be “disappointing if radical options on the law on cannabis were not looked at”. Nick Clegg has promised to repeal “illiberal, intrusive and unnecessary” laws and to stop “making ordinary people criminals”. There can be no better example of this than the laws against personal use and cultivation of cannabis, particularly for medicinal reasons.
The coalition government’s new Your Freedom website launched only this morning is already inundated with proposals to legalise cannabis and to end the futile war on drugs. The site is crashing under the strain of a massive outcry from British people for the state to back off and give us back our freedoms.
We don’t just want our freedom back. We want our money back too.
The Bloody Sunday Inquiry
A dreadful set of conclusions. An appalling injustice. A masterful performance by David Cameron. It goes a long way to restore some faith in British justice after too many examples of it failing miserably.
Where from here? Justice must be seen to be done which means that the families of those who were murdered are entitled to expect charges to be brought. They are also entitled to damages from the British government.
Murder
This makes me ashamed of those who lost control on that terrible day 38 years ago. It also makes me proud of my country that, eventually, justice has been done.
Truth is often best revealed through art. I have always thought that the film “In the Name Of The Father” illustrates so well some of the evil and injustice that was perpetrated on the people of Northern Ireland.
In the end, Northern Ireland is a wonderful story of the triumph of good over evil and hope over despair. Bloody Sunday is a terrible episode in this story. Today those who fought for justice are vindicated and triumphant. Those who died are heroes and martyrs to the peace that we now enjoy. God bless them.
Cameron Stumbles Over Kerb Crawlers
Oh dear! Here comes the first knee-kerk reaction. Next thing we’ll be hanging and flogging them. The law against kerb crawling is of very dubious value or common sense anyway. It’s the oldest profession. Men want to pay women for sex and women want to sell sex. It’s been going on since time began and silly, pointless little laws aren’t going to change it.
Can I Put You Down As A Researcher?
Fair enough, stop drivers kerb crawling in residential streets and harrassing your daughters but if you don’t pair such laws with legalised brothels or designated red light districts you are just making the problem worse.
I understand David Cameron’s desire to want to do something to declare his horror at the Bradford murders but I thought we were supposed to be past this sort of politicking now? I thought legislation was now going to based on a rational, properly researched approach to problems.
What we need to do is make it safer for women who want to work as prostitutes and call a halt to the pressures that force women into prostitution. That means some sort of regulated sex industry and the legalisation and regulation of drugs.
It’s not rocket science. It’s common sense. It means you may have to face down the self-righteous, moral crusaders so it takes a modicum of courage but I thought that’s where we are now. This is the first crack in the veneer. Let’s hope it’s quickly mended.
Eenie, Meanie, Minie, Mo – Drugs Policy? That’ll Be Lib Dem!
Only now is the depth and breadth of David Cameron’s coup becoming clear. He has swept aside all the old politics and we voted for exactly what he has given us. Hail to the Chief!
It’s true that now he can dump those old Tory policies that no one really wanted and we can take the good ones from the Lib Dems –
God's Herb
none more so than their drugs policy.
The Lib Dems are very, very close to the Transform Drug Policy Foundation which, however it describes itself, promotes a radical right wing solution to the drugs problem – legalise, regulate, tax.
This might seem a second tier, lower priority issue until you consider that most organised crime and virtually all street crime is caused, promoted and maintained by the illegality of drugs.
Legalise all drugs, regulate and tax their supply. You pull the rug from under organised crime and you take away the need for nearly all street crime. You massively reduce the harm caused by drugs. You take perhaps £10 billion out of the black economy. You save several billion more on law enforcement costs.
It’s a no brainer for anyone who has the courage and common sense to think about it. I hope Theresa May is listening – and thinking.
There Can Only Be One Choice For Clegg
If Nick Clegg chooses Labour then he will be consigning this country to disaster and his own reputation and integrity to the dustbin.
Stop Dithering!
There can be no other choice than the Conservatives. David Cameron is clearly the prime minister that the country wants. The country has rejected Labour and the mathematics of a Lib Dem/Labour coalition simply do not work.
Clegg now needs to stop dithering, push back the sandals and socks soft socialists in his own party and choose the future that the country needs.
Tories Need Electoral Reform Too
I would have thought it was obvious after the unsatisfactory result of this election that Tories need electoral reform too. It should definitely not be a dealbreaker between the Tories and Lib Dems. In fact, I’ll go further, David Cameron should offer a referendum on the issue – why not?
A redrawing of constituency boundaries so that each seat has the same number of voters would in itself be a more proportional form of representation. I also think that a fixed term of office would lead to fairer and more sensible government.
David Cameron has an opportunity now to become prime minister and usher in a new, fairer, brighter politics. If he misses this chance then he will have let down the British people as well as the Tory party and himself. Brown, at last, thank God, is gone. At least we can be grateful for that and, yes, eventually, he did find some dignity in his defeat.
Britain Has A New Leader
What a magnificent, statesmanlike, exciting and constructive statement from David Cameron. He and Nick Clegg stand head and shoulders above the putrid, stubborn and dishonest loser Gordon Brown.
Brown must resign now. He is yesterday’s man.
Maybe I was wrong. Perhaps this result will prove to have been a good thing if it produces the sort of constructive politics that Cameron and Clegg have both now demonstrated.
I Agree With Nick But I’m Voting For Dave
In the last general election I wrote “no suitable candidate” across my ballot paper. In the European elections I voted UKIP.
Fundamentally I’m a Tory but if I became prime minister tomorrow, I’d implement the following policies on Friday:
- Withdraw our troops from Afghanistan
- Nationalise electricity, gas, water, telephone and broadband provision
- Introduce the Lib Dem’s £10,000 tax policy
- Introduce the Lib Dem’s policy on the separation of retail and investment banks
- Start a phased withdrawal from the EU retaining a free trade policy.
- Legalise all drugs. Introduce strict regulation and taxation
- Break off diplomatic relations with Israel until it ends the Gaza blockade and stops new settlements.
It is sad but true that a Lib Dem vote is a wasted vote. Not only that but it is extremely dangerous. It could result in the very worst possible outcome to this election if there is no overall majority but Labour has the most seats and Gordon Brown remains prime minister. This would be an unmitigated disaster of horrendous proportions. If this happens then I predict at least as much chaos as is happening in Greece. In fact we could well be in for riots in the streets whoever wins.
The only hope for the future, far from perfect that it will be, is a Conservative government.
Peter Reynolds 