Latest
Still not listening, Gordon
THE next few weeks will - almost as much as
last week's local election thrashing - show
us just how badly Gordon Brown is going
wrong.
Just when the Prime Minister needs to bounce
back dramatically to revive his shattered Government,
he is wasting his political capital on two
unnecessary and unwanted changes.
The first came yesterday, when Home Secretary
Jacqui Smith confirmed the barmy decision to reclassify
cannabis as a Class B drug so smokers
can, once again, be jailed for up to five years.
It is barmy because consumption of the weed
has gone down since it was downgraded to Class
C, while the numbers punished under the "confiscate
and warn" policy have gone up.
Therefore, the logical consequence of a return
to prosecutions is that fewer cannabis smokers
will face police action, because forces know it is a
waste of their time.
The Prime Minister says it is important to "send
out a strong message", but he must know it is a
fantasy to think a different classification is a
deterrent?
In fact, the Association of Chief Police Officers
(Acpo) has already said it will refuse to clutter up
police stations - and overcrowded jails - with
spliff-happy young people. The whole thing is a
farce.
In his weekend attempts to look humbled by
Labour's battering at the polls, Mr Brown pledged
to "listen and learn" but there is no evidence of
that whatsoever.
Just as the Prime Minister is ignoring the experts
on cannabis, so he is spurning them on his
second looming mistake - 42-day detention without
charge for terror suspects.
The list of those opposing an extension from 28
days includes Sir Ken Macdonald, the director of
public prosecutions, former attorney-general
Lord Goldsmith and up to 50 Labour MPs.
While the DPP says he has "managed quite comfortably"
with 28 days, Lord Goldsmith and others
fear a backlash in Muslim communities, with
more people feeling justified to "take up arms".
In better times, Mr Brown imagined portraying
the Tories as weak on terror, but now finds himself
heading for the car crash of a humiliating
Commons defeat.
If that happens, the public will see the Prime
Minister as weak and out of touch - and they will
be right.
SHADOW Foreign Secretary William Hague, who
picks up £15,000 a time for his speeches, could
soon be picking up a prize as well.
The Richmond MP is nominated for Speech of
the Year in the annual parliamentary awards, for
his witty words in the EU Treaty debate. That
was the speech when, as I reported at the time,
Mr Hague conjured up the image of Tony Blair
visiting Gordon Brown at No.10 - as President of
Europe.
He imagined: "The gritted teeth and bitten
nails, the Prime Minister emerges from his door
with a smile of intolerable anguish, the choking
sensation as the words, Mr President', are forced
from his mouth.
"And then, once in the Cabinet room, the melodrama
of When will you hand over to me?' all
over again."
FINALLY, among the phrases foreign footballers
will now be expected to master before
they can play here, is How do I get to the Post Office?'.
Surely, the failure to find a post office may have
less to do with an inability to speak English than
with 2,500 of them disappearing?
10:05am Thursday 8th May 2008
Print 
Email this 
Comment
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
