agreed about the switching allegiances to get elected. blair basically became a tory to get elected, and now cameron is trying to become an honorary labour politician to get elected. it's great when your (prospective) leaders are such principled folks, isn't it?
This is essentialy my problem with politicians nowadays. They will say anything to get into power, it is no longer about having any kind of political beliefs it is more about either obtaining power to feed the ego or getting themselves in a position to take advantage of the "consultant" etc. type posts offered to them by major corporations with huge salaries once their political lives have ended. Once in power they will then come out with policies solely to appease the general concensus of the population who are severely misinformed by a press owned and influenced by only a couple of people. The average person in this country has no clue as to what is actually neccesary to make everything work, in a "true" democracy it would completely implode within days!
With regards to what Jonathon was saying about the heroin users and prison situation. The problem wasn't so much about being made to come off heroin per se, it was actually about the fact that they were undergoing medical treatment for their addictions which was then withheld from them whilst they were in prison. This is both unethical and illegal, they also actually only got tiny sums of compensation for this, the overall figure was shouted about a lot but was actually shared by hundreds of people.
Just my two pennorth! :)
*Soapbox collapses under strain of supporting 18 stone for too long*