Rob Merrick: Prime Minister still not listening

May 7 2008 by Rob Merrick, Liverpool Daily Post

THE next few weeks will – almost as much as last week’s local election thrashing – show us just how badly Gordon Brown is going wrong.

Just when the Prime Minister needs to bounce back dramatically to revive his shattered government, he will waste his political capital on two unnecessary and unwanted changes.

The first will come today, when Home Secretary Jacqui Smith confirms the barmy decision to reclassify cannabis as a Class B drug so smokers can, once again, be jailed for up to five years.

It is barmy because consumption of the weed has gone down since it was downgraded to Class C, while the numbers punished under the “confiscate and warn” policy have gone up.

Therefore, the logical consequence of a return to prosecutions is that fewer cannabis smokers will face police action, because forces know it is a waste of their time.

The Prime Minister says it is important to “send out a strong” message, but he cannot, for a moment, think the vague threat of a jail term will turn people away from the drug?

In fact, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has already said it will refuse to clutter up police stations – and overcrowded jails – with spliff-happy young people. What a farce.

In his weekend attempts to look humbled by Labour’s battering at the polls, Mr Brown pledged to “listen and learn” – but there is no evidence of that whatsoever.

Just as the Prime Minister is ignoring the experts on cannabis, so he is spurning them on his second looming mistake – 42-day detention without charge for terror suspects.

The list of those opposing an extension from 28 days includes Sir Ken Macdonald, the Director of Public Prosecutions, former Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith – and up to 50 Labour MPs.

While the DPP says he has “managed quite comfortably”, Lord Goldsmith and others fear a backlash in Muslim communities, with more people feeling justified to “take up arms”.

In better times, Mr Brown imagined portraying the Tories as weak on terror, but now finds himself heading for the car-crash of a humiliating Commons defeat.

If that happens, the public will see the Prime Minister as weak and out-of-touch – and they will be right.

MERSEY MPs could soon be picking up prizes in the annual Parliamentary awards.

Wavertree MP Jane Kennedy is up for Minister of the Year, having “handled a difficult Treasury brief with humour and style”, say the experts.

And Birkenhead’s Frank Field is nominated for Speech of the Year, for his memorable condemnation of Tory MP Derek Conway for paying his student sons from Commons allowances.