DRUGS POLICY RETHINK FOR WIDDECOMBE

Shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe has promised a rethink on her
party's policy on drugs.

Her change of heart comes after the publicly announced hard-line
strategy was undermined by senior party colleagues and mauled in the
media.

Miss Widdecombe unveiled the Tories' new tough "zero tolerance"
approach on cannabis at the party conference in October.

Within hours it was criticised for being over zealous and there were
claims that it would criminalise thousands of young people
unnecessarily.

Confusion also reigned over whether the policy had been cleared
properly with the rest of the shadow cabinet.

Speaking to the BBC on Friday, Miss Widdecombe said it was time to
look at it again.

Tories' Dope Confessions

She said: "I am a very practical politician and you know that once
you've got a policy - it doesn't matter how unfairly it may have been
parodied or ridiculed - once you've got a policy that has been
through those sort of rough waters you would be a very great fool if
you didn't say: `Right, let's see if we can do it in a slightly
different way'."

Following her conference speech eight members of the shadow cabinet
admitted to having smoked cannabis themselves in what was seen as a
concerted move to undermine her.

Miss Widdecombe said: "I'm not really sure what went wrong... but as
far as I was concerned we had a policy which I thought would have
been properly cleared.

"It was a very surprising day and obviously not one of my best
moments in my political career, but on the other hand these things
happen."

Ms Widdecombe said the media had been longing for her to "come a
cropper" but added: "You know I've managed to face you lot down
before and I will do it again."