Outlawing khat will ensure that it becomes associated with crime and terrorism

The Times reported today that "the Home Secretary, Theresa May, is poised to ban a legal drug (khat) in defiance of her own officials."

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs says that there is no evidence that khat causes health problems . It also says that there is no evidence that trade in khat is directly linked to organised crime or used to fund the extremist Islamist terrorist group al-Shabab.

Outlawing the drug will mean that there will no longer be a legal sources of supply.

The report says that khat is used by 90,000 Somalis, Yemenis and Ethiopians in Britain. With that kind of demand, we can be sure that outlawing the drug will ensure that it will become associated with organised crime and/or terrorists.

Senior West Berks councillor trying to deflect criticism by chief schools inspector?

Councillor Alan Law, Executive Member for Finance at West Berkshire Council, complained about the low fines meted out to benefits cheats by local magistrates on the local radio this morning..

An I a cynic for wondering whether he was trying to distract attention from yesterday's criticism of West Berkshire Council by England's Chief inspector of Schools? The inspector criticised the council for the poor GCSE results achieved by pupils receiving free school meals.

Councillor Law also said that the £1M in defrauded housing and council tax benefits could otherwise have "filled all the potholes twice over". This is nonsense. These benefits are government funded benefits that are administered by the council. The £1M would have been money saved by the government, not by the council, if it had not been claimed fraudulently.

Many of the poor children being left behind in schools now are in suburbs, market towns and seaside resorts - Chief Schools Inspector

In a new report,  England's Chief Inspector of Schools said "there were 15 local authorities where only a quarter of children on Free School Meals achieved five good GCSEs including English and maths last year and that those with the poorest record on this were West Berkshire, Peterborough, Barnsley and Herefordshire.”

Please see the full BBC report

In West Berkshire (my council) at least, the problem has been made much worse in the last few years by the council sacking schools advisors. They had twenty two in 2010, now they have just five.