Posts Tagged ‘Tory’
Corbyn Finally Cracks.
I welcome the breath of fresh air that Jeremy Corbyn has brought to British politics. I was never going to vote for him in a million years but the subversion of our corrupt political and media establishment has been a tonic long overdue.
Eventually though his loony tendencies have got the better of him. His weak and cowardly failure to support the use of lethal force against terrorist violence means he is done for. He will go no further and that is a pity because he has now blown his chance of having any further serious influence because of one simply idiotic but unforgivable mistake.
I believe he has now rendered himself unfit for any high office. We cannot have a leader of the opposition who equivocates about defending our nation and innocent people against violent attack.
There can be no question about this. Any member of the police, army or security services who is authorised to carry a weapon and sees life threatened must shoot and shoot to kill.
There are two important principles here. The first will be clear to anyone who has had any firearms training. If the threshold has passed where you are entitled to open fire then you must stop the target. That means you aim for the centre and you tap twice or three times. Misty-eyed ideas about wounding or disabling are for Hollywood. Anything less than a certain stop is a failure of duty and/or skill.
The second principle is a legal one. If lethal force is justified then anything less means it wasn’t. When that moment arrives you have to take the decision and the shot in sure and certain knowledge that you are justified and that you can rely on full support for your actions.
Corbyn has now changed his position and recognised the self-evident truth. It is too late though. Such a failure in leadership, decisiveness or the ability properly to communicate what he meant is beyond redemption. I am sorry to see him go.
Now, Britain desperately needs someone to challenge the Tory oligarchy. All those who failed to vote Liberal Democrat when they had the chance are to blame. We had an excellent, sincere, honest and able set of experienced politicians who we threw on the scrapheap and gifted our country to tyrants.
The Weak And Ineffectual Response Of Most MPs To The Cannabis Debate.
CLEAR has been mobilising its members as never before to lobby their MPs in advance of the cannabis debate on 12th October.
There are honourable exceptions but most responses have been unhelpful, dismissive and have completely failed to deal with the arguments put forward. Most MPs are indoctrinated with the false reporting churned out by the press, scared stiff of the subject and not prepared to look any deeper.
It is a terrible indictment of these people, each of whom costs us about £250,000 per year in salary and expenses. Most simply do not do their job properly, certainly not in the interests of or representing their constituents, mainly they just pursue their own political ambitions and interests. They cannot be bothered to deal with the cannabis issue.
Usually, from both Tory and Labour MPs, the responses parrot the official Home Office line. Most are too lazy to inform themselves about cannabis and the facts and evidence around current policy which costs the UK around £10 billion per annum. This vast sum comprises a futile waste of law enforcement resources and the loss of a huge amount of tax revenue. It provides funding to organised crime, including human trafficking, and does nothing to prevent any health or social harms around cannabis. In fact, if anything it maximises these harms, endangering health, communities and the whole of our society by enforcing a policy which is based not on evidence but on prejudice. Source: http://clear-uk.org/media/uploads/2011/09/TaxUKCan.pdf
Paul Flynn MP
As Paul Flynn MP, said in the House on 14th September:
“There is [a debate] in a fortnight’s time, on a subject that terrifies MPs. We hide our heads under the pillow to avoid talking about it, but the public are very happy to talk about it in great numbers. That subject is the idea of legalising cannabis so that people here can enjoy the benefits enjoyed in many other countries that do not have a neurotic policy that is self-defeating and actually increases cannabis harm.”
Source: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2015-09-14a.185.0#g194.0
Below I reproduce a reply from one MP. This is the standard MP line on cannabis. The words may vary slightly but essentially this is the response that the Home Office enforces and, irrespective of party, these are the disingenuous statements that MPs hide behind.
“I believe cannabis is a harmful substance and use can lead to a wide range of physical and psychological conditions. I therefore do not support the decriminalisation or legalisation of cannabis at this time.
I welcome that there has been a significant fall in the numbers of young people using cannabis, and the number of drug-related deaths among under-30s has halved in a decade and I would not want to see this progress undermined.”
Stating cannabis is harmful is meaningless and and an evasion of the question. Anything can be harmful. Such an assertion only has any meaning when in comparison to other substances. In fact, cannabis is relatively benign, even when compared to many foods. It is much less harmful than energy drinks, junk food, all over-the-counter and prescription medicines and, of course, tobacco and alcohol. Compared to these two most popular legal drugs, cannabis is hundreds of times less harmful. Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4311234/
If cannabis can lead to a wide range of physical and psychological conditions, what are they and how likely is cannabis to bring them on compared to other substances? In fact, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, whose publications are often presented as evidence of cannabis harms, states unequivocally
“There is no evidence that cannabis causes specific health hazards.”
Source: http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/healthadvice/problemsdisorders/cannabis.aspx
There is a reported fall in cannabis use from the British Crime Survey. However, the Association of Chief Police Officers reports ever increasing incidents of cannabis cultivation and there has been a massive surge in the use of ‘legal highs’ or novel psychoactive substances. Without exception, these are far more harmful than cannabis and their very existence is the product of government policy. In places such as Holland and the US states that have legalised, there is no problem at all with such substances.
As for “drug-related deaths”, this is classic disinformation. What does it have to do with cannabis? Are our MPs so badly informed that they cannot distinguish between different drugs? Sadly, in many cases the answer is yes. Even so, this is a false claim. The latest figures show an increase in the number of drug poisoning deaths to the highest level since records began in 1993. So much for the claimed “progress”. Source: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_414574.pdf
Just recently MPs have started to address the question of medicinal use, almost certainly because of the rising clamour from people in pain, suffering and disability. Also because the UK is now a very long way out of step with the rest of Europe, the USA, Canada, Israel, Australia and most ‘first world’ countries. Source: http://clear-uk.org/static/media/PDFs/medicinal_cannabis_the_evidence2.pdf
“I am aware that one of the issues raised is around enabling the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes. I know that cannabis does not have marketing authorisation for medical use in the UK, and I understand that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency can grant marketing authorisation to drug compositions recognised as having medicinal properties, such as in the case of Sativex.”
A marketing authorisation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is a deliberate diversion from the issue. Medicines do not have to have an MHRA marketing authorisation. Doctors can prescribe any medicine, licensed or unlicensed, as they wish. However, since 1971, medical practitioners have been specifically prohibited from prescribing cannabis on the basis of no evidence at all except minsters’ personal opinions. Source: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2001/3997/made.
Applying for an MHRA marketing authorisation costs over £100,000 as an initial fee and clinical trials have to be conducted at a cost of at least the same again. Instead, minsters could simply move cannabis from schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations to schedule 2 alongside heroin and or, more logically, to schedule 4, alongside the cannabis oil medicine Sativex. This would place the whole question of the use of cannabis as medicine in the hands of doctors and not in the politically motivated hands of Westminster. Isn’t that where it should be?
This is the most important short term objective of the cannabis campaign – move cannabis out of schedule 1. Not only would this enable doctors to prescribe Bedrocan medicnal cannabis as regulated by the Dutch government but it would mean research could start in earnest. The restrictions presently in place on cannabis, because it is schedule 1, make research very expensive, complicated and are a real deterrent.
If you haven’t lobbied your MP on the cannabis debate yet, you still have time to. If you can, get along and see them in a constituency surgery. Full guidance is provided here but you must act now: http://clear-uk.org/guidance-on-how-to-lobby-your-mp-for-the-cannabis-debate/
Most MPs run surgeries on Fridays so that means you have just this coming Friday, 2nd October and the following 9th October.
Please at least ensure you write to your MP. This is our moment and we are having an impact. Make sure you do your bit.
The Cannabis Petition. A Wake Up Call For MPs Who Have Ignored Both Electorate And Evidence.
5.45 pm, 31st July 2015
Nearly 200,000 people have signed a petition to legalise cannabis. It’s not just a simple click of a mouse button, it requires email verification. It is an enormous event. It is only the tip of the iceberg of the millions in the UK that want to see our archaic and harmful laws on cannabis changed.
A lot of MPs are going to be very unhappy about this. They have successfully prevented any real debate on the issue since the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 was introduced. This despite the fact that UK drugs policy must be one of our most failed and disastrous polices of all time. One indicator – in 1971, we had around 3,000 problematic drug users. We now have 350,000. Another – in 1971 virtually all the cannabis available was well balanced with both THC and CBD content, now it’s all low-CBD ‘moonshine’ weed.
The government and MPs who support prohibition will fight tooth and nail to brush this aside. They will do anything they can to stop it. They will say that it has ‘only’ been achieved because of campaigning – guess what they’re right, it’s called democracy, something we have very little of in the UK these days. Undoubtedly the claim will be made that the vote has been rigged.
Baying Donkey Tory Backbencher
I’m just waiting for some bumptious, baying donkey on the Tory backbenches to make the accusation. But it would be untrue. This is the will of the people and it must prevail.
Philip Davies MP
MPs of all parties are so far out of touch that they don’t even begin to realise what is going on. Conservative MP Philip Davies, who is on the Justice Select Committee, said that Ron Hogg, the Durham PCC is “abusing his position” by saying that cannabis is a low priority. This is typical hypocrisy and bluster from a pompous fool who doesn’t really believe in democracy. That was the idea of PCCs wasn’t it, to bring policing in line with what local people want?
Andrew Percy MP
Fellow Tory ignoramus, MP Andrew Percy said: “We’ve got to start debunking the liberal elite view that cannabis is some sort of benign drug”. Which, of course, is exactly what it is.
It’s not just Tory MPs, it’s on all sides. They are ignorant, poorly informed, more driven by prejudice than evidence. Take the baby-faced Blairite John Woodcock. About a year ago he came out with the fantasy theory that the cannabis policy in Holland led to more hard drug use. In fact, exactly the opposite is the case. In Holland, where adults may purchase up to five grams of cannabis without fear of prosecution, rates of heroin use and addiction are very much lower than the UK.
John Woodcock MP
The EMCDDA reports problem opioid use (rate/1000)as follows:
UK: 7.9 – 8.3
Netherlands: 0.8 – 1.0
So, in fact problematic opioid use in Holland is about one-sixth of what it is in the UK. This is just typical of how useless the majority of our MPs are. They have no idea. They get their so-called ‘facts’ from the Daily Mail or the Daily Telegraph, both of which have descended to become nothing but dishonest propaganda and crass scaremongering.
Hospital Patient Using Vapouriser
If you showed the average MP the reality of legal cannabis in Colorado, Washington, Oregon or Alsaka they would think they were dreaming. It’s a roaring success: crime is down, traffic accidents are down, painkiller overdoses are down, millions in cannabis tax revenue is being pumped into schools and hospitals.
I’ve explained to several ministers that in Israel and Canada cannabis vapourisers are provided on trollies in hospital wards. I don’t think they believed me. They couldn’t take it in.
The UK Parliament exists in a state of denial and delusion about cannabis. Only in the House of Lords do we see any lawmakers with a grip on reality but even they are mostly victims of the ‘killer skunk’ myth, asserting that this moderately potent strain is somehow different and ‘dangerous’.
It’s unlikely that the petition and the debate which surely must follow will succeed in changing the law. But MPs, however arrogant they are, cannot ignore the will of the people for ever. Too many are ignorant about the scientific and medical evidence on cannabis. Most are too cowardly to address the issue even if they are beginning to realise the truth. However, this is a battle of attrition and we are quite clearly winning.
Watch The Maiden Speech Of The SNP’s Mhairi Black, The UK’s Youngest MP.
What a magnificent example of modern Britain is this young woman. This is what Parliament is supposed to be about and Ms Black sets an example to the baying toads on the Tory benches and the spineless hypocrites of Labour.
I probably disagree with her on 95% of issues as I did with her idol Tony Benn but both of these lefties deserve great respect.
I’m An Ex-Tory But Osborne’s Budget, The Rail Unions And No To Heathrow Could Get Me Back.
The budget is strategically brilliant. It makes reforms that are essential.
I think some people are going to suffer and I am particularly concerned about disabled people and students but I like this radicalism. It takes us in the right direction. It is political genius for the Conservative Party to introduce a higher minimum wage. All of Labour’s spokespeople are speechless.
I can agree with Boris that the Tube and GMB strike are vexatious and deliberately timed to coincide with the first Tory budget since 1996.
I also agree with Boris that London’s hub airport would be best sited in the Thames Estuary. We need this radicalism. It will create jobs and enormous wealth. The very idea that we should build another runway at Heathrow is, in my view, close to a war crime. It is a gross violation of humanity. It is disgusting that we should even contemplate subjecting a dense population to such violation.
So this Tory radicalism excites me. This sort of visionary, long-term politics is what Britain needs. Add a dash of liberal back in and we could be getting there.
Why I Have Joined the Liberal Democrats.
In my view the only rational choice for the next UK government is another Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition.
The Labour Party is simply a joke. Miliband is an out-of-touch, Hampstead-socialist buffoon who was part of the team whose reckless borrowing meant that the banking crisis destroyed this country’s economy. It is ludicrous that we should even consider giving the same people another chance.
Cameron is an oily, two-faced oaf who has transformed the Conservative Party into the Bullingdon Club Party, dominated by out-of-touch posh boys with quasi-fascists like Theresa May, Iain Duncan Smith and Chris Grayling as their attack dogs.
The only redeeming factor about the Tories is a basic competence in managing the economy. Osborne knows what he is doing but left unrestrained he would devastate our society: trashing the benefits system, care for the disabled and access to justice.
We must have the decent, fair, rational and conscientious Liberal Democrats in government with the Tories. Crucially they must hold out for a much tougher coalition agreement which will see the disgusting policies of Duncan Smith and Grayling reversed. I think it’s too much to hope that we will see the back of Theresa May but definitely, in my area of special interest, the Liberal Democrats will insist on drugs policy reform. The evidence-free, prejudice-based, self-defeating and cruel drugs policies of the past must be overturned. They have caused too much harm, suffering and promoted the interests of organised crime and the alcohol industry over common sense and the national interest.
So, in February I joined the Liberal Democrats. I was free to do so because that month the CLEAR Executive Committee resolved that we would no longer be a political party. An explanation of that decision is here.
My decision had a lot to do with drugs policy but, as I have explained above, was considered across the wider issues. I think it reflects the fact that the LibDems are less ideologically-driven, more rational, evidence-based and fair in their policies. All my life I have been a Tory voter for the crucial values of individual liberty, regulated free markets and opposed to the cloying, repressive ideas of socialism and the overbearing state – but the Tories have lost their way, their moral compass and their integrity. I will never, ever vote Tory again.
CLEAR has worked closely with the LibDems since I first led a delegation of medicinal cannabis users to meet Norman Baker, then drugs minister, in July 2014. Just a few weeks later he publicly called for a change in policy on medicinal cannabis, the most significant breakthrough in the UK cannabis campaign for nearly 50 years. This year we have worked closely with Nick Clegg’s team and the LibDem manifesto incorporated CLEAR’s policy on medicinal cannabis word for word. I had the privilege of personally briefing him on medicinal cannabis just a few weeks ago. Julian Huppert, Norman Lamb and Lynne Featherstone, also LibDems, have been of great help to the CLEAR campaign and demonstrated outstanding sincerity, honesty and commitment, uncommon qualities amongst politicians. Personally, I also greatly admire the courage of LibDem David Ward in standing against Israeli war crimes and in support of Palestine.
On the narrow issue of drugs policy, once again, Labour is a joke. It doesn’t have one. With a few honourable exceptions, such as Paul Flynn, David Winnick and Bob Ainsworth, the party is stuck in reefer madness, terrorised by tabloid editors and prefers prejudice and scare stories to science and evidence. The Tories have more individuals who support reform but the party as a whole is in a corrupt relationship with the alcohol industry and also terrorised by the tabloid press.
As far as the Greens are concerned, yes they have a sensible drugs policy (originally drafted, in fact, by Derek Williams, my colleague on the CLEAR Executive Committee) but they have no chance of any influence in the new government. Caroline Lucas did a good job on getting the drugs debate in Parliament last year but I cannot support her party’s bizarre behaviour in the illiberal ‘No More Page 3’ censorship and fracking campaigns. The Green’s attitude to fracking is as evidence-free and based on prejudice as is Labour’s attitude to cannabis. Also, CLEAR gave the Greens an opportunity to present their drugs policy to our supporters but despite repeated efforts they couldn’t get it together. By contrast, the LibDems welcomed us enthusiastically and at the highest level.
I am a Eurosceptic LibDem, which is unusual. In fact, I voted for UKIP in the last European elections and although the party itself is confused on the issue, I have talked with Nigel Farage in person at length on drugs policy and he is progressive, intelligent and pragmatic on the subject.
CISTA, the Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol party? Well, I know a number of the candidates personally and I would recommend voting for them in constituencies where the LibDems stand no chance. Overall though the party is a waste of Paul Birch’s money and I can say that with the experience of CLEAR’s 16 years as a political party. It’s great that they are bringing some attention to the campaign but it’s a futile strategy and Birch has spurned all efforts at support and assistance from CLEAR. Had he even returned our calls we would have endorsed and promoted CISTA candidates in some constituencies.
So in conclusion, for drugs policy reform, particularly for access to medicinal cannabis, but also for a fairer society where policy is based on evidence and compassion rather than prejudice and vested interests, vote Liberal Democrat!
Extremist Attack On Freedom Renders Cameron And May Unfit To Be Ministers Of The Crown.
Even before Theresa May delivers another speech of hatred, prejudice and bile at the Tory Party conference, the dreadful news is out. Cameron himself has trailed it and blatantly, unashamedly, these two oppressors of British democracy plan to restrict our freedom of speech and thought in a way never before contemplated.
Cameron explicitly states that it is not just about committing or inciting violence, it is about holding “extremist views”. All that the Home Secretary has to have is “reasonable suspicion” that people hold views she does not agree with or dislikes and she may lock them up.
This must be stopped. It is the greatest ever betrayal of the British people and Cameron and May have demonstrated conclusively that they are not fit to be in government. They are hoist on their own petard for their ideas are as extremist as any other and if such legislation is introduced, they should be the first to be arrested and charged
Insufferable, Disgusting, Sick – The Mind of Iain Duncan Smith.
As a life long Tory voter (never again), I take great offence that this patronising, cruel and out-of-touch idiot gets to hijack what was once a great and noble institution. He and his arrogant, conceited colleagues have twisted and perverted Margaret Thatcher’s legacy into a mindless, self-serving parody of itself.
His ideas repel me. Anything good or positive he proposes is extinguished by the nasty, spiteful attitude to those less fortunate than himself. He cares for no one except his own. He is the caricature of the nasty party personified. His legacy, of brutal treatment of the sick, disabled and unemployed, will be an eternal shame on him, the Tory party and Britain.
Mark Reckless Should Sue Grant Shapps For Defamation.
Odious Slanderer And Wide Boy, Grant Shapps
The odious wide boy Grant Shapps, chair of the Tory party, has launched an attack on Mark Reckless which goes way beyond politics, it is defamation. Reckless should sue the slimy oik for every penny he has got.
I know a little about defamation from bitter, personal experience. Shapps is worth suing, he’s wealthy and when you are slandered, maliciously and deliberately and the person responsible can pay, he deserves to.
Let’s be clear, Shapps is a first rate scumbag. He made his fortune by selling despicable and fraudulent get rich quick schemes under a succession of false identities. That he is now chairman of the Tory party says everything about how far that once noble institution has fallen.
My experience also tells me that Reckless will find a legal team willing to work on a conditional fee agreement. There is no doubt that Shapps’ disgraceful words are deliberately calculated to cause serious damage to Reckless and it seems to me that his repeated accusations of lying are factually inaccurate or unsupportable opinion, spoken out of malice. This ticks all the boxes as required under the Civil Procedure Rules.
Resorting to law in politics is something that must only be done in the most serious and extreme of circumstances, when those engaged in defamation have breached every limit, every red line and every tenet of civilised behaviour. That is the basis on which I decided to launch legal action against my abusers back at the beginning of 2013 and I urge Mark Reckless to take similar action now.
He, as I did, has a wider responsibility. Shapps’ behaviour is beneath contempt and beyond redemption. It is so serious that a stand must be made. People who sink so low must be stopped in the interests of wider society – just as those who attacked me.
Shapps should also reflect on this – had he made his remarks after the writ for the Rochester and Strood by-election had been moved, he should now be facing criminal charges under section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983. Regrettably the maximum penalty is a fine of £5,000 but Shapps political career would then be finished. For that, the whole country would be grateful, whatever their political views. People who behave in the way that Shapps has, like those who defamed me, deserve everything they get. They should be made outcasts from civilised society and debate.
The Silence Of UK MPs On Gaza Is Shameful.
Where are they?
I see a few have signed petitions or letters or statements. Two ‘leading Tory MPs’ (is this what we call leadership?) have written to David Cameron.
That the right of self-defence is with Palestine and its elected leadership is self-evident.
It’s sickening. My MP, Richard Drax, Lord of South Dorset, has simply ignored my last two emails about Israel’s war crimes. Cameron is cowering in his bunker. Clegg is redeeming all the accusations of cowardice. Miliband is no more irrelevant than usual.
There is a ringing, hollow, horrifying, echoing, cacophony of silence from these small, small people.
They have no right to call themselves our leaders. They are disgraced by their inaction, by their cowardice. They are useless.
This is the Auschwitz, Belsen and Dachau of our day. Yet Parliament stands idly by. The West fiddles while children burn.
Peter Reynolds 