It’s unlikely that many of our readers also take The Sun, but it’s probably equally unlikely that a Liberal Democrat would ever give an interview to it in which they spoke so freely about drug policy.
So, today’s headline in the Sun, “Nick Clegg: time to re-think drugs” will be an unexpected one, made more so by the rather supportive polling carried out by YouGov for it and the general tenor of the piece.
Here’s a snippet from the article;
If you were waging any other war where you have 2,000 fatalities a year, your enemies are making billions in profits, constantly throwing new weapons at you and targeting more young people — you’d have to say you are losing and it’s time to do something different.
I’m anti-drugs — it’s for that reason I’m pro reform.
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8 Comments
Good for him. He was also covered in the guardian (less shockingly). He shoudl be applauded for having the guts and honesty to raise this issue, and not letting it be buried by Cameron’s hypocritical dismissal (will Cameron hand himself in for all the weed he smoked at uni, or the coke Osborne took in his 20s? Nope? Thought not) .
Clegg has done the Right Thing, which has the added bonus of re-affirming a clear Liberal approach on a vitally important issue, and which also confirms how brave he can be at times. And i say this as someone generally very disillusioned with him these days.
Bravo, Nick.
Not only did he come out and back reform, but the frank manner in which he said it was pretty powerful, not the limp, compromising and apologetic tone I was expecting.
Really encouraging to see this.
This move might have been all it took to persuade me to rejoin the party. I might actually have done that today. You know what stops me rejoining? The fact that my comments on this site have consistently been censored for no good reason.
Can I do my survey again? I said in it that Nick Clegg was the biggest disappointment since this year’s summer and should be thrown out of the party for being a loser. I now realise that he is a master of political leadership and rather than mucking about in the ODPM should instead start his campaign to become the first World President.
Seriously, though, this is jolly good stuff.
Excellent stuff from our DPM, unlike the Labservative drug warriors who stick with their evidence-free prohibitionist policy. Seems Barack Obama sort of agrees with Nick too…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/14/obama-pot-washington-colorado_n_2299512.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003
@Bernie Ranson
“You know what stops me rejoining? The fact that my comments on this site have consistently been censored for no good reason.”
Come on Bernie! That is no excuse. This is a private site, not the Lib Dems’ site. It’s management policies are those of the owners, not the Party.
Strangely enough, even though I am actually ambivalent towards decriminalisation and Nick Clegg, I was impressed that he stood up for a Lib Dem view that is maybe a little ‘out there’ (as in, potentially unpopular with Middle England), and went against David Cameron’s line to do so. It shows that he is capable of standing up for the Lib Dem party as a whole when he wants to.
Yes, Clegg did a good day’s work.