Transform on Newsnight and David Frost

A couple of interesting media appearances for Transform last week.

The first was an invitation to debate drug legalisation/regulation with Anne Widdecombe MP on David Frost's Al Jazeera show; 'Frost over the World'. This was significant in that the show is broadcast to an audience we rarely access - 140 million households internationally (although not, presumably, anything like that many actual viewers) - mostly in the Middle East, where the drug law reform debate is historically some way behind Western Europe and the Americas.

Anne Widdecombe (who was very personable and charming in the green room) is famously outspoken on the issue (she has clashed with Transform before), and one of the most public voices (along with Melanie Phillips) for a particular form of moral authoritarianism in the drugs debate, which is, IMHO, rooted in ideology rather than evidence and rational analysis. She is, however, unlike some of her political colleagues and drug war advocates, unquestionably sincere and well intentioned in her beliefs , which I can respect even if she has got it horribly wrong.



Another TV appearance was on the BBC's Newsnight (Scotland), available on iplayer here for a few more days (and we will try and sort something out and post it here when iplayer has expired) . The interesting thing about this one was the the Newsnight editorial position was very much why has drug policy been so hopeless for so long, and given that it has been, why aren't politicians engaging with the legalisation/regulation debate. This sort of questioning is exactly where we need to be, and was a welcome sign of the changing climate in this debate. It was also a nice curtain raiser for next week's Transform publication of our Cost Benefit Analysis report.