Monday, August 15, 2005
If you were someone who was preparing to go into seclusion and the day that you were doing so was the day the Government announced the downgrading of cannabis then, based on the facts rather than prejudice, you'd probably think it was okay. The evidence, the doctors and the police all seemed to agree that it was harmless and it was a sensible thing to do. If you'd come out of seclusion at that time you might wonder how the Government could countenance doing something so crazy, the scientific studies now all say you turn into the Incredible Hulk, police think it's a menace to society and a gateway drug and doctors can't cope with the numbers of addicts turning up in their surgeries. Odd that.
And now the same thing seems to be happening with the Government's plans to scrap the limits on how long pubs could open. Before they announced it everyone and police seemed to think it was a great idea, now it's a proposal there's no-one, except for the companies that open the pubs, that has a good word for it, and police are warning that it's lead to an increase in violence and vomiting, presumably on the grounds that people who drink too slowly will now have a couple more hours to drink and so reach the required state of lairyness in order to want to ruck. But where were all these naysayers in the consultation period. New Labour are big on law and order. I find it hard to believe that whereas they follow the police line on most other issues, if the police had said then "we don't think this is a good idea", they would have said "Fark off, Charlie Clarke and John Prescott want to push this through so they can go out on the piss after a hard day abolishing civil liberties!"
And now the same thing seems to be happening with the Government's plans to scrap the limits on how long pubs could open. Before they announced it everyone and police seemed to think it was a great idea, now it's a proposal there's no-one, except for the companies that open the pubs, that has a good word for it, and police are warning that it's lead to an increase in violence and vomiting, presumably on the grounds that people who drink too slowly will now have a couple more hours to drink and so reach the required state of lairyness in order to want to ruck. But where were all these naysayers in the consultation period. New Labour are big on law and order. I find it hard to believe that whereas they follow the police line on most other issues, if the police had said then "we don't think this is a good idea", they would have said "Fark off, Charlie Clarke and John Prescott want to push this through so they can go out on the piss after a hard day abolishing civil liberties!"
