Politics demeaned by Johnson

Groan.

 I thought it could not get worse, Prof Nutt is sacked, caught in possession of an intelligent idea. Science and evidence is secondary to prejudice and ignorance. Truth is subordinate to the need for political gratification.

On every drugs issue Prof Nutt has been right. The Government and Opposition have been wrong. Tobacco and alcohol are more toxic, addictive and poisonous than cannabis and ecstasy. Reclassifying magic mushroom in the same group as heroin and cocaine is an act of imbecility. Labour and Tory frontbenchers did that.

Facing down the tabloid evidence-free hysteria, the professor said smoking cannabis created only a "relatively small risk" of psychotic illness. Nothing in the Home Secretary's letter of dismissal questions the truth of the science.

This day should be marked in future as the Day of Coarse politics. Today,  Government dumped the truth in exchange for grubbing for redtop mindless approval. The greatness weakness in Government for the past 30 years is their addiction to the daily drip feed of adulation from the tabloids. This was an act of cowardice by a government led by a politician who wrote a book on political courage. Portugal bravely challenged drug fear and reduced their drugs deaths by 50%. Blair's strategy unit's conclusions were similar to Nutt's. Nothing was done. In 1971 the UK has fewer than a 1,000 drug addicts. 37 years of harsh prohibition has increased this to 300,000.

 I am ashamed of this base decision. Politics is demeaned.

Criminals cured

Strictly in the line of duty, I dropped in on a Speed Choice workshop today..

The deal is to accept three penalty points for speeding or spend three hours of driver education. It cost £60 but is a bargain by avoiding the cost and misery of disqualification.

All the 13 'master criminals' in today's group had been clocked doing 37-38 mph in a 30 mph area. They were asked if they used a four letter word when that had heard the news. Did they say 'only' 38 mph? Probably most were resentful at the start of the session. Three hours later they were all determined to change their driving habits.

Two avuncular characters with a self-deprecating line in humour convincingly illustrated the difference in injuries to a pedestrian hit by a driver doing 30 mph and one doing 38. All the class felt uncomfortable after being caught in an act that could have made the difference between life and death.

There were none of the speed camera haters present. If they were they were silent. The figures for the reduction of 36% of fatalities at camera sites on roads and traffic lights was very convincing. 

Twenty years ago, twenty people were killed every day on the roads. Following the breathalysers, seat belts and speed cameras, the slaughter has dropped to seven a day.

There was a bit of role play is persuading groups to imagine that they were the guilty driver, the grieving relatives or the prosecutors. At the end of the three hours, the early resentment against forced indoctrination had disappeared. I look forward to statistics that, I am sure, will prove a sharp drop in future accidents by those who attend Speed Choice.

This cynic was  persuaded.

Comments

[Kay Tie]

"Huw a Trot? He is far too intelligent to be a Trot."

I use Trot in the Private Eye Dave Spart sense, rather than in the complexly nuanced difference between Trotskyite, Marxist, Maoist, Stalinist, etc.

"I will be blogging on the Karminsky affair soon."

If you widen the point to include Eastern European racists, anti-semites and homophobes in general (rather than your slurs on Kaminsky), you will be sure to add to the list the extremists in the EPP and PES groupings, yes? You know the ones, the 9/11 conspiracy nuts, anti-semites, homophobes, anti-immigrant racists, yes?

I would particularly like to draw your attention to Italian parties:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7500605.stm

This is being done by governing parties that are members of the EPP. Similarly, here's a lovely election poster of Forza Italia in the 2008 elections:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/37/122164961_e6b7b172c4.jpg

For those without Italian, it says ”Daddy and Papa? This isn’t the family we want!”

There are some very unsavoury parties in the 'mainstream' EPP and PES. Yet not a peep from David Milliband over you or the Tories associating with them. Does the Foreign Secretary think that taking on Berlusconi is too difficult, but that it's OK to insult the Poles?

[Paul Flynn]

Thanks KayTie. I will be blogging on the Karminsky affair soon.
Huw a Trot? He is far too intelligent to be a Trot.

[Paul Flynn]

Thanks MH.
Galileo is called to mind by a decision that appears to be a sad attempt to appease tabloid prejudice. If you rejoice at the demise of the Labour MPs, perhaps you would like to consider the alternatives. Mostly political nerds who have never done a real job plus a gang of lobbyists on the make.
Things can only get worse.

[Kay Tie]

The former British ambassador to Poland has commented on the Kaminsky affair:

http://charlescrawford.biz/blog/even-yet-more-further-labour-kaminski-nonsense

The first paragraph indicates it's a basic lesson to junior diplomats not to take at face value a quote in a magazine. A lesson I was trying to teach resident bitter old Trot Huw. One might think he'd take the lesson from a diplomat who met Kaminsky while he was visiting Blair in Downing Street.

I hope Paul that you and your colleagues are going to stop flogging a dead horse on these smears. You've sold your integrity very cheaply, it seems. An apology from you would restore some of it (no chance of David Milliband doing so, despite the damage the Foreign Secretary has done to Polish-British relationships).

[patrick]

"Today, Government dumped the truth in exchange for grubbing for redtop mindless approval."

Whatever we think about grotesque feeble government decisions we ned to look at the causes.

Just like any retail centre it's the buying public that dictate fashion , brand popularity , and even price.

The British public have demmanded red top, jingoistic, mindless parties and politicians.

The public have given rise to the present prospect of voting for a party that bans thinking and illegally invades foreign countries and murders it's inhabitants.
The other popular party is so well organised that it's position on the EU among many others is 'blowing in the wind'.
Nobody knows what the Tories are going to do but they look favourites to get in.

We can only blame the British voting public for being mindless enough to give the tabloids the power to make weak government decisions.

This is obviously what they want!

[MH]

On David Nutt's dimissal, well said Paul.

I'm not going to shed one tear for other Labour MPs in Wales who will lose their seats next year, but I'd be sad to see you go.

Of course, I'm sure you don't intend to!

MH @ Syniadau