Party Lines: December 16th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Writing for LabourList this morning, former defence secretary Bob Ainsworth said that the “War on Drugs” has “failed”:

“Prohibition has failed and the ‘War on Drugs’ has failed. The evidence is strewn across the poppy fields of Afghanistan, the jungles of Columbia and the streets of our major cities in the United Kingdom. We’ve created the ‘Lucky’ Luciano’s and Pablo Escobar’s of this world and this has to stop.”

“But our political culture doesn’t allow for an honest and open discussion about drugs policy. As soon as a politician mentions the words decriminalisation or legalisation; the press scream blue murder, colleagues move to distance themselves from you and your political opponents sharpen the knife. The words had barely passed my lips before my party briefed against me and called me ‘irresponsible’.”

Appearing in Oldham East and Saddleworth today to kick off the by-election campaign, Ed Miliband was interviewed by Sky News, and said that the campaign would be a “test for the coalition government”:

“It’s a test of the coalition government most of all because they are coming along and people are concerned here in Oldham East and Saddleworth. Around their broken promises around policing, around tuition fees, around a range of other issues.”

On the date of the election, Miliband said that he wanted to give the people of Oldham East a politician free Christmas, but they have been denied that by the coalition. He also expressed concern over the possible disenfranchisement of students in the by-election, as many won’t have returned to the constituency before the vote:

“I think there’s a real concern here about the disenfranchisement of, potentially, thousands of students. Vince Cable was here today, not meeting students, you may not be surprised to learn.”

“I think it’s very, very important that we make it as possible as they can for those students to vote at this important by-election.”

Miliband also took the opportunity to deny that there are cracks in the cabinet after Ed Balls yesterday told the Daily Politics that he’d prefer to see more focus on the economy:

“In fact, I’m going to be here with Ed today campaigning around police cuts. He’s absolutely right that the economy is a massive issue, when you see the rise in unemployment yesterday and the rise in VAT which is going to take place on the 4th of January and indeed the big public spending cuts which I think are a real threat to jobs and growth in this country. Then it’s absolutely right we are campaigning on that issue. And that’s actually absolutely what we’re doing.”

And John Mann said that Cameron was “running scared of his own backbenchers” over expenses:

“David Cameron promised a new politics, but after meeting Conservative MPs he’s changed his tune. Hardworking people in normal jobs will be astonished that the Prime Minister seems to be running scared of his own backbenchers on MPs’ expenses.”

“There is a disconnect between people and politics. We could see that at the last election when so many voters were angry with MPs over the expenses scandal.”

“One of the reasons people are angry is that politicians like David Cameron and Nick Clegg have broken promise after promise – on the NHS, on tuition fees, on EMAs and on a new politics. As soon as the polling stations closed and the doors of their ministerial cars opened, David Cameron and Nick Clegg went back on their word. Under Ed Miliband’s leadership the Labour Party will be different.”