Political

Nick Clegg: Time to rethink drugs policy

The Sun running a story about the attitude of politicians to drugs reform is fairly commonplace.

A Liberal Democrat politician calling for the drugs laws to be reviewed is fairly commonplace.

What is however rather less common – and so all the more significant – is for the former to feature the latter in a positive light as Lib Dem Voice mentioned earlier today:

Nick Clegg declared the war on drugs a disastrous failure last night — and demanded that David Cameron plucks up the “courage” to order a major review of Britain’s ageing narcotics laws…

Reforms … most Brits want a review of drug laws and think legalisation could be a solution. A YouGov poll for The Sun found two thirds say current policies have failed — but a fifth oppose looking at all options…

The Deputy PM insisted his call did not make him “soft”. And he claimed powerful allies in his call for change — including ex-MI5 boss Baroness Manningham-Buller and ex-deputy chief of MI6 Nigel Inkster. Mr Clegg said: “It’s not just me. The Association of Chief Police Officers say we must update our approach.”

It’s a reminder that the party can find some common ground even with media outlets which are often hostile to the party. That matters, because, for example, far more Lib Dem voters read such newspapers than many Lib Dem activists realise.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

All comments and data you submit with them will be handled in line with the privacy and moderation policies.