Drugs? All Bad, full stop

The Telegraph has a story saying that Government advisers are recommending that ecstasy should be downgraded from a Class A to a Class B drug.

I'm very glad to read that Jacqui Smith is likely to ignore their advice.

I've seen close up the effect that drug use has.  Those effects can be long lasting, slow to show their effect and can manifest themselves in so many ways, always negative.

To my mind there are no drugs that are good, none that are slightly better than others.  The effects of all of them from cannabis to heroin are negative.  Let's stop kidding ourselves by giving them different designations.

Drugs are all bad.  Full stop. 

Prisoners from Guantanamo Bay

Apparently Gordon Brown has agreed to accept prisoners being released from Guantanamo Bay to help President Elect Obama out of a hole.

The thing is, these people will have no link what so ever with the UK.

Presumably they have been held on Cuba becuase they were considered a threat of some kind. They deserve a proper, just, trial and if found not-guilty should be released to where they came from or to make appropriate applications to countries considereing to take them.

So why are we agreeing to take them, apparently without precondition?

Seasonal Drunkenness

I read today that, astonishingly, there were a number of churches who held their midnight mass at 6pm on Christmas Eve.

The reason?

Because of the fear of disruption from drunken people.

This fact was used in the context on a commentary about 24 hour licensing policy.

Undoubtedly the introduction of extended licensing hours has played its part in the increasing problem of drink related anti social behaviour and disruption. However, I do wonder how many of those who attend church on Christmas Eve inebriated have at the very least begun their drinking at home, if not completed it there too.

Until we control the sale of cheap alcohol through supermarkets and off licenses we will be unable to control the problems associated with excess alcohol consumption.

500 Binge drinkers admitted to hospital every day

This story about the number of drink related admissions to hospital made the front page headline in the Daily Telegraph today.  

The figures revealed by the Telegraph's investigation are shocking but not surprising.

Their assertion is that the ease of availability and low cost of alcohol have been the main causes of increases in drink related illness.  I'm not sure personally whether an increase in the opening hours of licensed premises has had a dramatic effect on the amount alcohol being consumed.  I am sure, however, that its availability and cost are a major factor in the growing problem alcohol plays in our society.  

I wrote the following article for one of our leaflets back in October:

"Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Mid Dorset and North Poole, Nick King, is putting forward a clear agenda to deal with alcohol fuelled anti social behaviour in the area. 

Nick, a member of Dorset Police Authority says: “Much of the problem comes from the inappropriate sale and use of alcohol.  Alcohol costs too little and is therefore too freely available, too much ends up in the hands of young people.  I’m proposing measures that will tackle the cause of the problem rather than spending money on dealing with the symptoms.”

Nick’s proposals include the following: 

1. Extend the prohibition of alcohol consumption to all unlicensed public spaces.
2. Give police the power to confiscate alcohol.
3. Place a levy on town centre bars and clubs to pay for additional policing.
4. Impose minimum pricing on alcohol sold through shops and supermarkets.

Nick explains: “We have to get away from a culture that says drinking in public is acceptable.  We need also to give the police and local authorities powers to control where alcohol is consumed, to make areas alcohol free and allow the use of others at certain times.”

For me the most important part is the last one.  Drink is readily available and often sold at a ridiculously low cost.  Locally we are lucky that our local authority licensing teams work well with Dorset Police to maintain a standard minimum price per alcohol unit sold through bars and clubs.  This stops many of the irresponsible practices that encouraged dangerous drinking, such as the 'one charge for all you can drink' evenings.  

This kind of intervention should be rolled out nationally and, more importantly, should be extended to all off sales of alcohol too.  There should be no need to increase the taxes charged on alcohol, it should be enough to ensure that the cost per unit is maintained at a reasonable level which prohibits the purchase of enormous quantities.

No to ID Cards

Averil King (no relation), who is the chairperson of Mid Dorset and North Poole UKIP has a letter in tonight's Daily Echo making some very good points in opposition to the Government's plans for ID cards.

Good for Averil.

I'm opposed to the ID card scheme. It will be a huge intrusion in to our privacy and it wastes money which could be so better spent elsewhere (for example, helping the Home Office keep track of convicted offenders).

Police Community Support Officers

My comments about the Government not funding the increase in Police Community Support Officers promised in their election manifesto has raised some interesting comment, I've recieved a number of e-mails and a couple of comments have been posted here.

These clearly come from people who know more than I do about the issue.

I fully realise that the greatest benefit of the PCSO's is their deterrent effect. The posters seem to be suggesting however that the money would be better spent in funding fewer, but fully trained, police officers. I'd be interested in your comments.

PCSO's

The Government has reneged on its election manifesto pledge to create 24,000 Police Community Support Officers by 2008.

Their plan to roll out the national non emergency number has also been revoked.

I've come across a number of PCSO's in the last few weeks, they undertake an excellent job supporting the local police. People want more uniformed officers on the streets, not less.

Increasingly the attention of the police is centred on Poole and Bournemouth town centres, particularly at the weekend. PCSO's provide a vital service in retaining locally knowledgeable and responsive officers, we should be finding ways to fund more rather than less.

Youth Crime

Attending the Crime Reduction Parnership meeting made me think about one of the common concerns raised there, that of youth crime.

I therefore have spent some time today looking out some information from the party and elsewhere about the issue. The figures are quite astounding. The shocking statistics were obtained by Conservatives under the Freedom of Information Act.

· Across the country, a third of all muggings last year were on 11-16 year olds. They are seen as easy targets by muggers seeking mobile phones and MP3 players. In turn, 11-16 year olds were responsible for 40 per cent of all robberies.

· The Government, despite claiming street crime is a top priority, does not properly monitor the level of youth muggings.

· There were a projected 113,000 robberies on 11 to 16-year-olds last year across England & Wales. This is equivalent to over 600 muggings a day for each of the 195 school days.

· In Dorset 23%, or 55 of 239 personal robberies reported were on 11 to 16 year olds.

These new statistics reveal a worrying area of crime that has gone unrecognised. This is likely to be the tip off the iceberg given how few crimes are actually reported.

Secondary school students and their parents will immediately recognise the picture of life these crime figures paint. Having mobiles and ipods routinely stolen, being marched to the cashpoint, seeing their friends mugged – this is the everyday life for too many of our teenagers. Too often these crimes are carried out by people of their own age.

Youth-on-youth crime could be a serious long-term problem and the Government are not properly monitoring it. I believe young people have a right to expect violent crime against them to be taken seriously by this Government.

For that reason I want to work with our local Crime Reduction Partnerships to identify both the victims and perpetrators of these crimes. We should be offering support to the victims and looking for Community involvement in the identification of those who carry out the attacks.

Upton Crime Reduction Partnership

I attended a meeting of the Lytchett Minster and Upton Crime Reduction Partnership this week.

I've mentioned before on the blog how, so often, Conservatives take an unsung lead in local communities. This was a perfect example of this kind of positive action.

Certainly not everyone at the meeting was a Conservative. Indeed, I would suspect that we might have been in a minority, however, Cllr Paul Johns, former Cllr Pam Hindley and Bill Pipe take an active role in the group.

What is apparent is that the group consists of people who are completely committed to their community and its improvement. I have enormous respect for them all and I hope that I might be able to go along to some of their future meetings.

Just being able to sit in and ask questions on occasion gave me a great insight in to the problems facing local people. Most of their issues result from anti social behaviour by young people. Some of the more serious crime is drug related, however the majority consists of vandalism, criminal damage, graffiti and the like.

It has, on occasion, created an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty for some local residents. The volunteers of the Crime Reduction Partnership are making a great contribution to dealing with these issues. They tie local residents groups, youth groups, Purbeck District Council, Dorset County Council, Upton Town Council and local businesses together.

The work of the local youth club and the County's youth workers has been particularly dedicated in dealing with many of these issues.

I spent some time in London on Thursday talking about community involvement and ideas for linking communities in to local improvement initiatives. I think there may well be opportunities to assist the Crime Reduction Partnership by organising community help in, for example, youth mentoring schemes. It's something I'll be looking in to over the coming weeks.

What the government don't know......

First it was the number of failed asylum seekers still in the country, then the number of illegal immigrants in general. Now it's the number of prisoners to have absconded from Open Prisons. The Government doesn't know how many people there are in each of these categories?

And yet this Government has an obsession with collecting data on everything else. It's created an army of bureaucrats to collect data on business, on the health service and on our schools just so they can quote their beloved targets and tables.

It absolutely beggars belief!

A suggestion: Let's spend more time scrutinising those who break the law and leave the rest of us who are law abiding to get on with working hard to improve our communities and our country. Wouldn't that solve the problem?