Picture worth one thousand words

4 responses to “Picture worth one thousand words”

1. 

   Observer

   February 28, 2026

   Looks as if Greater Manchester Police are now investigating reports of voting irregularity. So much for Green hypocrisy!

   Reply
2. 

   Anonymous

   March 1, 2026

   The Greens do not believe in “legalising drugs.” They wish to “decriminalise” them which is not the same thing as “legalising” them. They argue that the Misuse of Drugs’ Act which has been implemented in the UK for over 50 years takes a punitive approach to drugs and it is not working. I think the Greens propose taking a “Public Health Approach” to drug use similar to that taken by the Government of Portugal, a policy which appears to be achieving good results in Portugal.

   The Greens are not condoning the use of drugs or taking the libertarian line to drugs’ use which some extreme right wing libertarians take. These right wing nut jobs regard the illegal drugs’ market like any other market – if people want to buy dangerous drugs which could kill them and someone is prepared to sell them and someone is prepared to pay for them then the state should not intervene in that market because all market interactions are inherently good. I agree that is a bonkers way to proceed and it is not what the Greens want to do.

   There was a time when people who were sent to prison for drug abuse could use their time in prison to come off drugs and many did so. I have come across people who rebuilt their lives by coming off drugs in the nick. These days that is much harder to do because the prisons are full of drugs. It is like a pharmacy inside these days. I know a Prison Officer who has told me what it is like and it is really shocking.

   I am not some wishy washy liberal when it comes to drugs. I used to take the same line as the writer of this article takes. For the best part of fifty years, I vigorously supported the line taken in the Misuse of Drugs Act of lock them up and teach them a lesson. (That will teach them and they won’t be quick to take drugs again was my line.) After much soul searching, I have changed my mind. I now support the Public Health Approach to drug misuse. This approach gets most of the dirty money out of drug dealing and provides a safe environment with safe drugs for users. If the Public Health Approach is implemented, those who go on drug dealing (and making money out of it) will still be punished for that crime. The Public Health Approach provides an emphasis on people coming off drugs and getting clean with a range of support services provided by specialist Drug Support Workers.

   Drugs and their dealers are a menace to society. Drugs do not know social class boundaries. They permeate society at every level. Prince Harry has dabbled with them. School kids at top public schools and state schools are getting them. I hope the greens explain their policy in detail so that the misunderstandings about tackling drugs are clarified.

   Reply
   1. 

      Old Grump

      March 1, 2026

      You are entirely correct about drug policy, but that is still no reason to vote for the stark raving mad Greens.

      Reply
3. 

   SOAS Lecturer

   March 1, 2026

   No one disputes that we need a serious conversation about drug decriminalisation. Sensible people can disagree about the details, but at least the debate itself is legitimate.

   Where the real argument begins is over whether the Greens — led by a man who appears to think geopolitics works like a university seminar — have the competence to implement it.

   This is a leader who speaks as though he could simply sit down with Vladimir Putin, offer a firm handshake and a heartfelt appeal, and bring the invasion of Ukraine to a polite conclusion. The same man apparently believes he could invite drug cartel bosses to the negotiating table and talk them into better behaviour. It’s foreign policy by group therapy.

   Then there’s the inspired proposal to leave NATO, thereby volunteering to become strategically neutral in a world that is very much not. History suggests that announcing “we’d rather not take sides” rarely deters anyone with tanks.

   We are also asked to embrace tax policies so aggressively punitive that wealth creators might reasonably conclude Heathrow offers a more welcoming future. We don’t have to speculate about the outcome — capital flight is already accelerating, and the real damage is often invisible: the businesses never launched, the jobs never created, the investment that quietly chooses another country.

   Does any of this inspire confidence that Polanski is the man to navigate the complexities of drug reform? Decriminalising hard drugs requires careful regulation, enforcement strategy, public health planning and economic realism — not slogans and wishful thinking.

   Instead, we are offered grandstanding and moral theatrics from a career politician with little experience of meeting a payroll or building something that survives market reality. A playboy politician, long on posturing and short on pragmatism.

   If you believe he possesses the judgement and intellectual discipline required to deliver a policy as delicate as drug decriminalisation, you have more faith than evidence.

   Meanwhile, in parts of London, the scent of high-strength skunk remains less a policy debate and more a daily fact of life. He is such a conman he even persuaded the Islamists in Gorton and Denton that the Greens aspired to the tenets of the teachings of Muslim…

   Reply