Drugs Policy without Science

I woke on Monday to the news that the views of scientists were going to be removed from decisions on drug policy.

This is a further undermining of the role of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), last year Prof. David Nutt, the then chair, was sacked by then Home Secretary Alan Johnson for criticising the Labour government's stance on cannabis. Following this a number of further council members resigned and their jobs were only recently up for grabs.

1 in 3 Quangos to go?

In my first post I commented on the difficulties of cutting Quangos, especially because many of them carry out vital roles. Now it seems that more are set to go.

Both The Telegraph and The BBC were given leaked lists of bodies to be cut or merged. Among others Cycling England, the HPA and the Audit Commission are to go.

Last Quangos in Britain?

The Government recently announced massive cuts in the number of quangos The Independent and the BBC report. Possibly a good thing given that there are a lot of them (almost 1,200 as of mid 2008) and they cost a lot (£64 billion if you trust the Taxpayers Alliance).

I will leave it up to you to decide whether this is going to harm the services these quangos have been providing, the question I find interesting is;

How does this fit into "The Big Society"?