A WAR ON DRUGS IS SOUNDBITE POLITICS AND BOUND TO FAIL

Duncan McNeil truly is the king of spin. Watching him do backflips to
link New Labour's policy of drug cessation instead of harm reduction
to his May ramblings was truly breathtaking (Drugs contract will put
children's rights first, December 11).

Alas, still no detail from big Dunc. Does he still justify only
giving addicts methadone if it contains contraceptives? Does he tell
us what the "compulsory measures" will be if the addict breaks the
social contract and has a family? Loss of benefit, dawn raids and
children removed and parents in handcuffs? No, Duncan merely points
out that New Labour has adopted a vague agreement, to develop some
policy, sometime before the next election. This, it would seem,
justifies his ramblings back in May.

Duncan, the spiking of methadone with contraceptives has not become
"politically mainstream" - the "usual suspects" just don't take you
seriously any more, so have stopped reacting; you are the Scottish
court jester. A war on drugs like the war on all nouns - such as
terror - is bound to fail because it is just soundbite politics with
no substance. Oh, and the "current approach" which has been failing,
this has been Labour policy for as long as can be remembered so don't
go blaming the people on the ground.

Here is a novel idea - how about a contract between political parties
and the voters that they need to stick to? This could contain things
such as developing economic prospects for all, not the few, raising
the confidence of our nation instead of insulting us, and an
agreement not to sell the next generation into unmanageable levels of
PFI debt for current political expediency. If this contract is broken
there will be "compulsory measures".

To paraphrase Mr McNeil - although not universally accepted, there is
a broad recognition that the life of the nation under New Labour "is
pretty miserable".

Kevin Green

Port Glasgow