Tory B@stards!!!

[MrFrost]

What have they actually cut so far? They've stopped some redevlopment plans, the schools project (which to be honest was a far from convincing idea in the first place). They plan to cut £1 billion from the administration of the NHS, taking away alot of needless red tape. They actually don't plan to cut the NHS funding, as labour actually intended to do.

There is a public sector pay freeze. Labour actually had plans to cut more public sector jobs than the Tories.

Unemployment is actually on the decrease at the moment, and there are now less people claiming benefits than there were in March last year.

[coventryrover]

MrFrost wrote:

What have they actually cut so far? They've stopped some redevlopment plans, the schools project (which to be honest was a far from convincing idea in the first place). They plan to cut £1 billion from the administration of the NHS, taking away alot of needless red tape. They actually don't plan to cut the NHS funding, as labour actually intended to do.

There is a public sector pay freeze. Labour actually had plans to cut more public sector jobs than the Tories.

Unemployment is actually on the decrease at the moment, and there are now less people claiming benefits than there were in March last year.

Have you been to all the secondary schools in the country to check what state they are in?  As part of my job I have been involved in many BSF projects and, believe me, the facilities need refurbishing or new buildings redeveloped.  Your arguement that the project isnt needed doesnt sway me one jot

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

MrFrost wrote:

Unemployment is actually on the decrease at the moment, and there are now less people claiming benefits than there were in March last year.

Until my mates and I sign on next month as we're no longer students and can't gain employment.

But on the whole I don't think the government's done too bad, in fact I expected cuts to be bigger than they are.  Surely removing the ridiculous notion of a primary school head earning 200k is not a bad thing?  Neither is the ridiculous amount of NHS admin.  Now it doesn't help me, in fact it hinders me as I'm competing with people nearly twice my age who understandably have way more experience, that really isn't easy.  However, I can understand why it's the way it is and I just have to live with it.

[jucyberry]

MrFrost wrote:

What have they actually cut so far? They've stopped some redevlopment plans, the schools project (which to be honest was a far from convincing idea in the first place). They plan to cut £1 billion from the administration of the NHS, taking away alot of needless red tape. They actually don't plan to cut the NHS funding, as labour actually intended to do.

There is a public sector pay freeze. Labour actually had plans to cut more public sector jobs than the Tories.

Unemployment is actually on the decrease at the moment, and there are now less people claiming benefits than there were in March last year.

Do you not watch the news? Have you not seen the state of some of these schools? You cannot honestly say that the kids who attend these decaying schools don't deserve the chance to be educated in classrooms that don't leak when it rains, that aren't rotten and structurally unsound.. Or can you?

How wonderful is a government who has had to recount it's list on schools so many times? It gives very little confidence in anything else they might also be doing .

You yourself are growing quite an interesting list here... from housing to race relations to education.......

I don't think I dare ask what your stance is on capital punishment.....

[River Don]

BillyStubbsTears wrote:

MrFrost wrote:

What I find strange is that people are questioning the needs for cuts.

Decimating public spending now runs the huge risk of utterly destroying what faint recovery there is.

What recovery? The banks are still broke and as we're seeing now, the rally has been based on stimulus and money printing. Our debts are already sky high according to the Independent today four times higher than previously acknowledged:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/britainrsquos-debt-the-untold-story-2025979.html

It's highly uncertain as to whether private sector spending and employment are able to fill the gap that the cuts in public spending leave but we don't have any choice in the matter. Britain now has to cut back and a Labour government would have had to too. Other economies are trimming their deficits. If we don't follow suit, it'll be targeted by investors worrying about sovereign debt.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

jucyberry wrote:

MrFrost wrote:

What have they actually cut so far? They've stopped some redevlopment plans, the schools project (which to be honest was a far from convincing idea in the first place). They plan to cut £1 billion from the administration of the NHS, taking away alot of needless red tape. They actually don't plan to cut the NHS funding, as labour actually intended to do.

There is a public sector pay freeze. Labour actually had plans to cut more public sector jobs than the Tories.

Unemployment is actually on the decrease at the moment, and there are now less people claiming benefits than there were in March last year.

Do you not watch the news? Have you not seen the state of some of these schools? You cannot honestly say that the kids who attend these decaying schools don't deserve the chance to be educated in classrooms that don't leak when it rains, that aren't rotten and structurally unsound.. Or can you?

How wonderful is a government who has had to recount it's list on schools so many times? It gives very little confidence in anything else they might also be doing .

You yourself are growing quite an interesting list here... from housing to race relations to education.......

I don't think I dare ask what your stance is on capital punishment.....

Do we need half the stuff in these schools.  Just 7 years ago when I was at school we had white boards and that was it.  Now they have computerised boards, some classrooms have a laptop for each student and 3D interactive lessons.  But do they need them?  I was always quite happy with a simple blackboard.  My school was Armthorpe, falling down a bit it was, but a patched up job did enough.  Why do we need multi million pound schools and mega technology when we are essentially teaching the same stuff?

[jucyberry]

Yes, I think we do. We live in an ever developing world of technology, Children need to be able to grow apace with this growth. and yes, they do deserve to be able to do it in surroundings condusive to that learning..

Why should they have to do it in surroundings that are cold, and unsafe?

Surely the future is one area that should be tended with the greatest care.

[Glyn_Wigley]

jucyberry wrote:

I don't think I dare ask what your stance is on capital punishment.....

My guess? He's one of the hang 'em brigade who spout that capital punishment should be brought in where someone is '100% guilty', but don't have the wit to realise that this will result in more acquittals.

[wilts rover]

Can I congratulate Mr Frost on his postings. I profoundly disagree with (nearly) everything he has ever written, but this board would be a much duller place without him. And it never hurts to have someone hold a stance you disagree with - so you remember why you disagree with it in the first place.

I could tell you that I was in Trafalagr Square in March 1990 during the Poll Tax Riots, working on a building site nest to Keadby Power Station in 1984 when the miners came to picket it and the police charged them across the fields, worked as a volunteer for Shelter & St Martin's homeless charities in London in the late 80's feeding the people in the cardboard boxes (got filmed by the Beeb too but never seen it myself) was at Ruskin College in 1993-1994 when Mandleson, Blair, Brown etc came to have meetings with the lecturers there to plan 'New' Labour after the death of John Smith, was in Bucharest in 1990 during the protests against the goverment drafting in the miners to break the call for 'proper' democracy and in Israel in 1996, leaving two days before the intafada broke out and then saw on the news one of the Arab lads I had been working alongside waving a gun and swearing to overthrow zionism or die.

What does this life experience give me, nothing but the knowledge to say, shit happens all over the world and it is generally the poor who suffer; after 16 years of the last Tory goverment was the country in any better state after it than before - and why will this bunch of tossers be any different?

I also work in local goverment, so my job is only marginaly safer than the OP. I dislike the PCT for what they have done in wrecking community care in the area where I live and I am afraid I wont shed any tears over their passing, but that is not the fault of those who worked for them but the rational in why they were set up. Good luck in finding a new job, there are always oportunities for someone with a bit of go about them, a lot of us have been there before you so it can be done.

[MrFrost]

wilts rover wrote:

Can I congratulate Mr Frost on his postings. I profoundly disagree with (nearly) everything he has ever written, but this board would be a much duller place without him. And it never hurts to have someone hold a stance you disagree with - so you remember why you disagree with it in the first place.

I could tell you that I was in Trafalagr Square in March 1990 during the Poll Tax Riots, working on a building site nest to Keadby Power Station in 1984 when the miners came to picket it and the police charged them across the fields, worked as a volunteer for Shelter & St Martin's homeless charities in London in the late 80's feeding the people in the cardboard boxes (got filmed by the Beeb too but never seen it myself) was at Ruskin College in 1993-1994 when Mandleson, Blair, Brown etc came to have meetings with the lecturers there to plan 'New' Labour after the death of John Smith, was in Bucharest in 1990 during the protests against the goverment drafting in the miners to break the call for 'proper' democracy and in Israel in 1996, leaving two days before the intafada broke out and then saw on the news one of the Arab lads I had been working alongside waving a gun and swearing to overthrow zionism or die.

What does this life experience give me, nothing but the knowledge to say, shit happens all over the world and it is generally the poor who suffer; after 16 years of the last Tory goverment was the country in any better state after it than before - and why will this bunch of tossers be any different?

I also work in local goverment, so my job is only marginaly safer than the OP. I dislike the PCT for what they have done in wrecking community care in the area where I live and I am afraid I wont shed any tears over their passing, but that is not the fault of those who worked for them but the rational in why they were set up. Good luck in finding a new job, there are always oportunities for someone with a bit of go about them, a lot of us have been there before you so it can be done.

Cracking last paragraph there.

I dare say had I been a miner, or suffered personally under the Tories, I may feel different. But I didn't. I base who I vote for on personal experiences, and how I feel me and those close to me will benefit from a particular party.
I'm sorry if people see this as selfish, but thats the way I am.

The Tories will probably make mistakes, and people will come down on them like a ton of bricks. What I don't see many people doing is mentioning the mistakes Labour made.

[BillyStubbsTears]

MrFrost wrote:

I'm sorry if people see this as selfish, but thats the way I am.

Don't you just love it when a right-wing t**t finally comes clean and gets right to the heart of the matter.

Never met one yet who doesn't have this egotistical selfishness at the core if their value system.

Hey ho. Takes all sorts.

[MrFrost]

I'm just glad BST that I really don't care what you think of me. I certainly won't lose any sleep over it that's for sure!

[Jonathan]

big fat yorkshire pudding wrote:

Until my mates and I sign on next month as we're no longer students and can't gain employment.

But on the whole I don't think the government's done too bad, in fact I expected cuts to be bigger than they are.

That's a pretty stupid comment, they've barely been in office two months so what exactly were you expecting to see at this stage? If you were privvy to what is going on behind the scenes you may be a little more alarmed. The situation may become slightly clearer after the spending review in October, but the effects can only really be judged over time.

It's very easy for people to sit back and say cut this, cut that and cut the other. The consequences are and will be a lot more far-reaching than just telling people to go out and sign on or find another job. Services that vulnerable people have come to rely on will be at serious risk over the coming years, it is inevitable as we are entering a stage where providers are left with no option than to look at ways of doing less for less. There is such a thing as a social conscience and it extends beyond just worrying about other peoples employment prospects (which it's obvious you can afford to be flippant about). You may not need social services, for example, so it doesn't matter to you, but if you can't spare a thought for people that do then I think that's pretty sad.

[jucyberry]

My best friend works for a mental health charity, I won't say which one. Over the coming months she has already been told they have to make huge cuts. The day center she runs is looking more and more like it will if not close, be severely restricted.. Service users have had their funding removed. this is the thin end of the wedge, as Jonathan says, the vunerable are the ones who will suffer first.....

But then, I guess that doesn't matter because all they do is take from the system, unlike the majority who put in...........isn't that right?

I fear in its fervor to prune back the 'dead wood' many vunerable people, the old, the infirm, people with mental health problems and the single parents are going to be pruned into abject poverty.

[MrFrost]

Jonathan wrote:

big fat yorkshire pudding wrote:

Until my mates and I sign on next month as we're no longer students and can't gain employment.

But on the whole I don't think the government's done too bad, in fact I expected cuts to be bigger than they are.

That's a pretty stupid comment, they've barely been in office two months so what exactly were you expecting to see at this stage? If you were privvy to what is going on behind the scenes you may be a little more alarmed. The situation may become slightly clearer after the spending review in October, but the effects can only really be judged over time.

It's very easy for people to sit back and say cut this, cut that and cut the other. The consequences are and will be a lot more far-reaching than just telling people to go out and sign on or find another job. Services that vulnerable people have come to rely on will be at serious risk over the coming years, it is inevitable as we are entering a stage where providers are left with no option than to look at ways of doing less for less. There is such a thing as a social conscience and it extends beyond just worrying about other peoples employment prospects (which it's obvious you can afford to be flippant about). You may not need social services, for example, so it doesn't matter to you, but if you can't spare a thought for people that do then I think that's pretty sad.

It's not a case of not sparing a thought for people. But would you agree the majority of voters vote for the party they see as the best choice for them and their family?
As i've pointed out before, if you want to blame anyone for cuts, try looking at the last government and their insane overspending. Someone was going to have to put it right. Whether the coalition do a decent job of it remains to be seen. I do find it encouraging that employment is currently rising. We will have to see if that continues.
I also believe the white paper and abolishing the PCT will have a better effect on the NHS. Labour actually wanted to reduce NHS spending, the colaition don't.

As you rightly pointed out Jonathan, we will have a better understanding of the situation later on in the year.

If my nature is being portrayed as selfish, then so be it. I simply voted for a party I believed would serve me and my family the best. However, what I see alot of people jumping on a bandwagon to slate the coalition because they are now the easy target.

[MrFrost]

jucyberry wrote:

My best friend works for a mental health charity, I won't say which one. Over the coming months she has already been told they have to make huge cuts. The day center she runs is looking more and more like it will if not close, be severely restricted.. Service users have had their funding removed. this is the thin end of the wedge, as Jonathan says, the vunerable are the ones who will suffer first.....

But then, I guess that doesn't matter because all they do is take from the system, unlike the majority who put in...........isn't that right?

I fear in its fervor to prune back the 'dead wood' many vunerable people, the old, the infirm, people with mental health problems and the single parents are going to be pruned into abject poverty.

Look at why the cuts have to be made. Perhaps because the countries financial situation is far worse than thought when the colaition took power.

Forgive me for being ignorant, but does the charities funding come direct from the government? Serious question. I have no idea how that works, so i'd actually be interested to know.

[jucyberry]

It must do, she is forever telling me how hard it has been to explain to people that it isn't the charity who will be cutting funding , but that it is from government. all areas of the mental health sector are to be tightened from what I can make out.  And as the last wave of cuts and alterations gave us a care in the community that didn't seem to care much at all, I guess it's something to think about.



Well, I have to go to bed, I over slept this morning ..Not good...

nighty night mr frost et al, sweet dreams..

[BillyStubbsTears]

1) See Mr Frost, you can't help playing up to the Tory t**t stereotype can you. Being a self-confessed selfish type, you really can't believe that people are actually capable of considering the wider context, the collective can you? How deeply sad.

2) What f**king \"insane overspending\"?  We went into the recession with the lowest total debt as a percentage of GDP of any major economy. Lower than America. Lower than Germany. About half that of either Japan or Italy. How does THAT square with  your claim of \"insane overspending\"? The problem we were then faced with is that our economy was particularly exposed to a banking collapse (a collapse which not one major politician or economist predicted). So our Government finances took a double hit - we had to bail out the banks or face an utter financial and economic catastrophe, and we lost serious tax income because of the banking crisis. The Labour Government then, like all other major Western governments deliberately injected a fiscal stimulus into the economy to prevent a vicious recession turning into a God-awful Depression. There was no \"insane spending\". If you believe differently, spell it out in numbers. Otherwise, stop rabbiting trite soundbites and expect to be taken seriously.

3) So the Tories' Great Plan for the NHS is to let GPs run the whole show eh? Well God-f**king-help-us-all. It was a GP who sent my Dad away with a bottle of Gaviscon when he was in the first stages of his fatal heart attack. It was a GP who repeatedly gave my father-in-law prescriptions for Benylin when he went complaining of a hacking cough for 4 years. The Benylin didn't do much for the lung cancer that was the cause of the cough and that killed him.

GPs in charge of the NHS? Genius. Could only have been thought up by the Party that thought splitting up the railways into a couple of dozen private monopolies was a wizzard wheeze.

4) Why the f**k do you think employment has risen slightly over the last few months? Could it just possibly be because of the deliberate policies of the last Government, in reducing VAT and allowing huge Quantitative Easing to help stimulate the economy? And what do you think the effect od the Tories' policies of cutting Government spending by £70bn will be? To INCREASE employment? Don't make me chuckle. Even their own predictions reckon that unemployment will be half a million higher by 2013 than it is now. And that's assuming that the private sector suddenly rises, Lazarus-like from its death bed. You are living in Cloud-Cuckoo Land pal.

[Jonathan]

MrFrost wrote:

It's not a case of not sparing a thought for people. But would you agree the majority of voters vote for the party they see as the best choice for them and their family?
As i've pointed out before, if you want to blame anyone for cuts, try looking at the last government and their insane overspending. Someone was going to have to put it right. Whether the coalition do a decent job of it remains to be seen. I do find it encouraging that employment is currently rising. We will have to see if that continues.
I also believe the white paper and abolishing the PCT will have a better effect on the NHS. Labour actually wanted to reduce NHS spending, the colaition don't.

As you rightly pointed out Jonathan, we will have a better understanding of the situation later on in the year.

If my nature is being portrayed as selfish, then so be it. I simply voted for a party I believed would serve me and my family the best. However, what I see alot of people jumping on a bandwagon to slate the coalition because they are now the easy target.

You can't just look at it from one perspective Frosty. You accuse people of being on the 'bandwagon' of slating the coalition, but how would you refer to your perspective of choosing to blame the previous regime for the fact that the Conservatives are currently implementing their own political ideology? Would you suggest that the planned shrinking of the public service sector (that happens to be a particularly significant employer in areas of Northern England that saw their industrial backgrounds decimated) is purely a consequence of the previous Government?

I'll not just mindlessly blame the coalition (or should I say the Tories) for everything. There are certain elements of their action I'm in theoretically in favour of, for example if they can remove some of the obstructive red tape and bureaucracy associated with service provision then very few could argue against that being a positive thing, but my worries about the more far-reaching effects still stand and are valid. It is far too early to hang them based on what little they've done so far, but I would defend the right of people to put an educated argument forward as to why their proposals put the future of the economic recovery, and the prosperity of so many people, at risk.

[redwine]

Night jucy.............




\"Look at why the cuts have to be made. Perhaps because the countries financial situation is far worse than thought when the colaition took power \"


I have looked at the way the cuts have been made, frostyboy, and to me it smacks of opportunism by the blood blood Kitsons. Let's big up the financial crisis and push through things we'd never get away with otherwise.

message for Mr Frost

I know you've made things interesting on here and just wondered if you were planning on bringing out a book..........you know the sort of thing \"Everything you ever wanted to know that ran round Mr Frost's head\"

I'd suggest you made it big, hard and empty

 


If I can I'll pick up this tomorrow after work because unfortunately I'm too busy earning a crust. Hope your business isn't suffering because of your constancy on the board.

[MrFrost]

BillyStubbsTears wrote:

1) See Mr Frost, you can't help playing up to the Tory t**t stereotype can you. Being a self-confessed selfish type, you really can't believe that people are actually capable of considering the wider context, the collective can you? How deeply sad.

2) What fcuking \"insane overspending\"?  We went into the recession with the lowest total debt as a percentage of GDP of any major economy. Lower than America. Lower than Germany. About half that of either Japan or Italy. How does THAT square with  your claim of \"insane overspending\"? The problem we were then faced with is that our economy was particularly exposed to a banking collapse (a collapse which not one major politician or economist predicted). So our Government finances took a double hit - we had to bail out the banks or face an utter financial and economic catastrophe, and we lost serious tax income because of the banking crisis. The Labour Government then, like all other major Western governments deliberately injected a fiscal stimulus into the economy to prevent a vicious recession turning into a God-awful Depression. There was no \"insane spending\". If you believe differently, spell it out in numbers. Otherwise, stop rabbiting trite soundbites and expect to be taken seriously.

3) So the Tories' Great Plan for the NHS is to let GPs run the whole show eh? Well God-fcuking-help-us-all. It was a GP who sent my Dad away with a bottle of Gaviscon when he was in the first stages of his fatal heart attack. It was a GP who repeatedly gave my father-in-law prescriptions for Benylin when he went complaining of a hacking cough for 4 years. The Benylin didn't do much for the lung cancer that was the cause of the cough and that killed him.

GPs in charge of the NHS? Genius. Could only have been thought up by the Party that thought splitting up the railways into a couple of dozen private monopolies was a wizzard wheeze.

4) Why the fcuk do you think employment has risen slightly over the last few months? Could it just possibly be because of the deliberate policies of the last Government, in reducing VAT and allowing huge Quantitative Easing to help stimulate the economy? And what do you think the effect od the Tories' policies of cutting Government spending by £70bn will be? To INCREASE employment? Don't make me chuckle. Even their own predictions reckon that unemployment will be half a million higher by 2013 than it is now. And that's assuming that the private sector suddenly rises, Lazarus-like from its death bed. You are living in Cloud-Cuckoo Land pal.

Where do you get your figures from? I have just watched, not ten minutes ago that although around 500,000 public sector jobs could be lost over the next few years, over 1.6 million private sector jobs are expected to be created. That doesn't tie in with what you have just quoted.

Insane overspending, I'll give a few examples.
Business Link. Set up suppoisdly help new businesses. It was set up during the last Tory government, however in 2004 labour sactioned the spending of £35 million a year for their new website. Don't make me laugh. The advice they give is nothing that you cannot get from a book in the library or on the internet yourself.

Last year Labour were spending more than £258 million per day.

Here we have some more evidence:
Project: NHS national IT programme
•Budget £2.3bn
•Current cost £12.6bn
•Percentage overspent 450%
•Established in October 2002, under Alan Milburn, scheme to link 30,000 GPs in England to nearly 300 hospitals has been derided for huge costs and technical problems.

Project: 2012 Olympics

•Budget £2.4bn
•Current cost £9.3bn
•Percentage overspent 289%
•The euphoria that greeted the decision to award London the 2012 Games has largely given way to concerns over spiralling costs.

Project: Astute Class submarine

•Budget £2.5bn
•Current cost £3.8bn
•Percentage overspent 48%
•The order for three of next-generation nuclear fleet submarines for the Royal Navy was announced in 1997 and subsequently increased to four. Only one has yet arrived.

Project: Pensions Transformation programme for DWP

•Budget £429m
•Current cost £598m
•Percentage overspent 39%
•An NAO report subsequently criticised the delays and overspend.

Project: A46 Improvement

•Budget £157m
•Current cost £220m
•Percentage overspent 40.1%


Closer to home - our new £80 million pound college. Look at the problems this place had, and still has. There was nothing wrong with the old place. A pipe dream to create a Doncaster University and obtain city status.

[Glyn_Wigley]

MrFrost wrote:

Look at why the cuts have to be made. Perhaps because the countries financial situation is far worse than thought when the colaition took power.

Yeah, because the Tories would never have made any cuts otherwise, would they?  :side:

They're using the excuse of the credit crunch to get done exactly what they would have done anyway.

[River Don]

Never mind closing schools and hospitals.

I would decriminalise and tax all drugs, saving a fortune on police and prison services. We would probably be able to close 50% of the prisons immediately and open treatment centres instead. Evidence from abroad suggests such a move would lower rates of drug use and addiction, while improving the health of addicts. Crime rates, particularly burgalry would plummet. Happily we would also choke off a massive revenue stream currently flowing to South American ganglords and Afghan terrorists.

It seems to me it would be a fairly painless way of improving the nations finances. No politician would dare contemplate it obviously.

[Glyn_Wigley]

River Don wrote:

I would decriminalise and tax all drugs, saving a fortune on police and prison services. We would probably be able to close 50% of the prisons immediately and open treatment centres instead. Evidence from abroad suggests such a move would lower rates of drug use and addiction, while improving the health of addicts. Crime rates, particularly burgalry would plummet. Happily we would also choke off a massive revenue stream currently flowing to South American ganglords and Afghan terrorists.

It seems to me it would be a fairly painless way of improving the nations finances. No politician would dare contemplate it obviously.

That's because it's b*llocks.

Unless you can convince me that the 'South American ganglords' and 'Afghan terrorists' will somehow sell their product to the UK at bargain prices instead of continuing to smuggle their stuff into places where it is still illegal and make at least ten times the profit...or can convince me of some other mysterious supply that will magically take the place of the supply currently smuggled into the UK...

[MrFrost]

Still no comments regarding the labour overspend, of which the likes of BST deny existed.

[wilts rover]

MrFrost wrote:

Still no comments regarding the labour overspend, of which the likes of BST deny existed.

If you are waiting for me to defend New Labour you will have a long wait. I am one of the people who voted for the dream in 1995, only to find we had actually voted for a party who were set on destroying or ignoring what they were supposed to stand for - Blair inviting Thatcher to Downing Street!! If you loose your morals and principles - you aint gonna be very good at running a country are you.

So my comment is; after 16 years of the last Tory rule and refusal to spend on the public services, we had schools, hospitals, social services, transport infrastructure in chaos, our manufacturing base had moved to India and Taiwan and with the drop-off in North Sea Oil were now relaint on power supplies from France and Russia to keep the lights on, Labour had a heck of a job on last time. As the Coalition now appear to want to do the same again - lets hope it is a shorter wait to fix it.

[River Don]

Glyn_Wigley wrote:

River Don wrote:

I would decriminalise and tax all drugs, saving a fortune on police and prison services. We would probably be able to close 50% of the prisons immediately and open treatment centres instead. Evidence from abroad suggests such a move would lower rates of drug use and addiction, while improving the health of addicts. Crime rates, particularly burgalry would plummet. Happily we would also choke off a massive revenue stream currently flowing to South American ganglords and Afghan terrorists.

It seems to me it would be a fairly painless way of improving the nations finances. No politician would dare contemplate it obviously.

That's because it's b*llocks.

Unless you can convince me that the 'South American ganglords' and 'Afghan terrorists' will somehow sell their product to the UK at bargain prices instead of continuing to smuggle their stuff into places where it is still illegal and make at least ten times the profit...or can convince me of some other mysterious supply that will magically take the place of the supply currently smuggled into the UK...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/20/marijuana-factories-weed-oakland