Why oh why do we pay taxes?

Forgive my tardiness on the subject of David Nutt and his sacking for saying something the government didn't like.

But what can one really say that hasn't been said a thousand times on this blog and others far superior to my pink witterings?

The fact is that what Professor Nutt said, and for those of you who've been dead for the last few days, here it is:

He repeated his familiar view that illicit drugs should be classified according to the actual evidence of the harm they cause and pointed out that alcohol and tobacco caused more harm than LSD, ecstasy and cannabis.

He also argued that smoking cannabis created only a "relatively small risk" of psychotic illness.

has been around for years.

Presumably that means that the chap who came to my school to give myself and my school chums a lecture on drugs was also fired for making the point that alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than other drugs? It's hardly a new statement and that's because it's true. There are these handy things called statistics which prove it.

But of course that doesn't fit in with the way the government and, as reports show, the Tories want us to live our lives. They know that what professor Nutt said was true but it would mean having to justify why alcohol and tobacco are still legal and why other drugs aren't. Taxes and convenience, mainly. And who would vote for a party which proposed to ban booze? Patsy Hewitt, the wierd woman who lives down the end of the road and shouts at shadows and that's about it.

Alan Johnson should be ashamed of himself for morphing into a beast which despises debate and truth. Sacking people because you don't like what they say is something which this country fought against - years ago with our legislative reforms and also against other countries.

As the row intensified yesterday, Nutt said he had been contacted by more than half the council's members, who had shared their "horror and disgust" over the manner of his dismissal and were now considering resigning en masse.

Do the decent thing and resign. Do the decent thing and stand up for what you believe in. It is what this country needs in the long run along with thousands of people like you who also put their hands up and say 'my god but these politicians are shit.'

And of course what it needs is millions of people not to vote for vile parties who say that people should be sacked for putting the government in a difficult position by expressing an opinion.

Because that's fascism.

This country is fucked, though. Recently I've just been sitting here wondering what the point of it all is. Where can we move to, away from these hidous beasts who need to be removed for the sake of liberty and freedom? People are stupid, that I know. But when people get into politics they become caricatures of the stupid people they repesent and, combined with that narcisism and greed which propels people to scrabble and claw for the upper echilons of power, it turns them into the worst examples.

What has this life, this country become?