Of Iain Dale, Boris and Gateway Drugs

During his recent one to one with Boris Johnson, Iain Dale stated that Marijuana was a gateway drug. According to Dale, this can be inferred from the fact that one would be unlikely to find a single Heroin addict who had not consumed Marihuana previously. Boris duly conceded that taking drugs was a stupid idea and expressed his scepticism over taking a more relaxed attitude to Marijuana.

So, is Boris loosing his libertarian instincts? Are potheads doomed? Let’s look at the gateway drug issue first.

The Liberal Democrats are having a daft idea

… well there is nothing new or original in that, but this one has to be one of the least thought through policy proposals in a while. The Lib Dem health spokesman Norman Lamb argued:

“If you go out on a Friday or a Saturday night and get very drunk and you end up in accident and emergency, and you are foul and abusive to staff who are already overstretched, then is it right that you should get that care entirely for free, or are there consequences to your actions?

And I think there is a case for saying that someone in those circumstances should be asked to pay for their care.” (Source)

Let’s leave to one side the question of what kind of behaviour should be punished by the NHS. (Simply removing misfits from the premises clearly isn’t always feasible in healthcare.) Let’s just look at

Quote of the Day

“Pledge allegiance to Britain?! What the flying fuck is going on? This is the mindset of Nazi Germany, of Iran, of the inbred, half witted parts of the USA. Not Britain. People here should be free to be patriotic. Or free to be not patriotic. Because they are free. Pledging allegiance to the country does not make people patriotic, and actually should make us feel there is less to love about this country.”

The nameless one, in his beautifully poetic analysis of Cameron’s national service proposal.

Cameron’s National Service

Cameron announced (again) that he wants all 16 year olds to do a voluntary national service lasting six weeks. The actual proposal so far seems to amount to little more than an extra layer of work experience. So long as this is voluntary for all participants, it should be unproblematic too It is unlikely though that such a scheme, whatever the details, will do much to “mend our broken society”.

The whole project sounds less pleasant once