CLOUD CUCKOO LAND

Oh dear. The next election campaign has started already. It might be
nine months until we get a chance to cast our votes, but we've already
heard the call of the first campaign cuckoo. It was the pathetic
squawk of mock outrage from Douglas Alexander, Labour's general
election co-ordinator, accusing the Conservatives of being "soft" on
drugs. If true, sensational. The prospect of Ann Widdecombe suddenly
going easy on the old blow would be entertaining indeed. The truth is
that the website of Conservative Future, the youth wing of the party,
merely started a debate, inviting visitors - not necessarily Tories -
to answer the question "Do you believe that any illegal drugs should
be decriminalised?"

Which provoked a trite response from Labour. It is dispiriting that
the governing party should seek to make political capital from such an
innocuous question. The reality is that this is likely to be the
standard of political "debate" for the forseeable future. We can
expect much, much more of the same. We will be told that the Tories
will privatise the NHS, the Lib Dems will legalise pot and that New
Labour is about to join a Euro super-state. It is not the best time to
recall the old adage about a nation getting the politicians it deserves.