Sunday, September 29, 2013
Drugs, mortgages and Miss Whiplash
Sunday morning and up at 5am to get to the BBC studios in Cardiff for the newspaper review on Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement. What this means of course is that I get to read all the papers for free during a dedicated hour and a half time slot. Luxury but still tiring.
Three articles caught my eye in particular. Firstly, the Observer's front page splash detailing the views of the Chief Constable of Durham that class-A drugs should be decriminalised and the policy of outright prohibition radically revised.
In truth these are not unique views nor is the Chief Constable advocating a regime that is unworkable. We have already trialled heroin clinics in the UK, where addicts can go for safe injections. It helps them to control the addiction and undermines the criminal market.
The trial was abandoned not because it was not working but because politicians could not be seen to be soft on drugs. However, treating drug addiction as a medical condition does not mean that we stop going after dealers, we do it in two ways: by hitting their profits as proposed by the Chief Constable and by targeting their operation through traditional crime enforcement methods.
The second article was the Sunday Times lead on the UK Government bringing forward their mortgage guarantee scheme from January to next week. I need to check whether this is the scheme that covers both England and Wales but if it does it is good news. The Welsh Government has singularly let down first time buyers here. It looks like it will take the coalition to step in and do their job for them.
Finally, we have all read about the Damian McBride revelations about his time as spin doctor for Gordon Brown. Well, according to the Sunday Telegraph we will soon have a tell-all book by the latest Miss Whiplash to look forward to.
The paper says that Natalie Rowe, the dominatrix once pictured with George Osborne has written her memoirs and is in talks with publishers:
“They are dynamite,” one of Rowe’s friends tells me. “They are full of sensational claims about her time as a dominatrix and she is prepared to name names.”
Something to look forward to I am sure.
Three articles caught my eye in particular. Firstly, the Observer's front page splash detailing the views of the Chief Constable of Durham that class-A drugs should be decriminalised and the policy of outright prohibition radically revised.
In truth these are not unique views nor is the Chief Constable advocating a regime that is unworkable. We have already trialled heroin clinics in the UK, where addicts can go for safe injections. It helps them to control the addiction and undermines the criminal market.
The trial was abandoned not because it was not working but because politicians could not be seen to be soft on drugs. However, treating drug addiction as a medical condition does not mean that we stop going after dealers, we do it in two ways: by hitting their profits as proposed by the Chief Constable and by targeting their operation through traditional crime enforcement methods.
The second article was the Sunday Times lead on the UK Government bringing forward their mortgage guarantee scheme from January to next week. I need to check whether this is the scheme that covers both England and Wales but if it does it is good news. The Welsh Government has singularly let down first time buyers here. It looks like it will take the coalition to step in and do their job for them.
Finally, we have all read about the Damian McBride revelations about his time as spin doctor for Gordon Brown. Well, according to the Sunday Telegraph we will soon have a tell-all book by the latest Miss Whiplash to look forward to.
The paper says that Natalie Rowe, the dominatrix once pictured with George Osborne has written her memoirs and is in talks with publishers:
“They are dynamite,” one of Rowe’s friends tells me. “They are full of sensational claims about her time as a dominatrix and she is prepared to name names.”
Something to look forward to I am sure.
