My hatred for the lying liars who rule us grows apace!

If, like me, you find yet another example of blatant lying by those who rule over us either enraging to the point of considering murder, or depressing to the point of abject weeping, then read no further! However, if you can stomach it, here's another prime example from a press release issued last Thursday by the Home Office:

" ‘[A] record 186,028 drug seizures by police and HM Revenue and Custums in England & Wales in 2006/07, compared with 161,1132 in 2005; an increase of 15 per cent’. [...] ‘between 2004 and 2006/07, drug seizures have increased by 73 per cent’"

By jove, I bet you're all thinking; well done, the boys in blue, and how lucky we all are to have such a super efficient Home Secretary under the wise and kindly guidance of our very own son of the manse.  Well, of course, you didn't think that at all.  My readers, with the exception of retards like 'Little Willy', are a fairly shrewd old lot and if they thought anything it would have been along the lines of, 'I'm not exactly sure why but that sounds like a load of bollocks'!  We would all then wait for further proof that there is no fool like a smart-arse fool as John Band leaps in to tell us that we have it all wrong because we are suffering from galloping Daily Mail-itis. (Actually, to be fair, he's not always totally stupid but when he is, he really is!)

In this case, I am grateful to Kathy Gyngell of the Centre for Policy Studies for conducting a forensic examination of this particular pile of steaming ordure and then demonstrating from a careful reading of the real statistics that the press release should have read like this if it had aimed for accuracy:

"‘The latest figures show that quantities of Class A Drugs seized fell by 30 per cent on the previous year and are the lowest figures since 1999. They have fallen by a combined 64% per cent on peak takes of heroin in 2001 and cocaine in 2003.’ "

She sums up the real world, a place rarely visited by our glorious leaders, thus:

 

"The reality is that far from going up, the amount of Class A drugs has slumped once again, as it has every year since 2003. Cocaine quantities seized have dropped to 3,191 tonnes, 53% down 2003’s record take. And the amount of crack cocaine seized in 2006/7 was a shocking 73% down on 2003. The continuing failure to stem the importation of heroin is no less worrying. The paltry 1,003 kilos taken in 2006/7 shows a 62% drop since 2003."

To savour fully the rich taste of corruption, mendacity and political chicanery involved in this piece of Goebbels-like propaganda, consider her final remark:

 

"How come Sweden – a country with a seven million population and a huge coastline, with many fewer policemen and customs and excise officers than the UK – managed to seize more heroin than the UK did in the same year and nearly a quarter of cocaine total? Not surprising perhaps that they don’t have the drug problem we have."

I am obliged to Fraser Nelson of The Coffee House for the original link and for a graph which provides, perhaps, the best evidence for exactly how the so-called 'war on drugs' is actually going, in that it shows that in 1997, the price of cocaine and heroin was around £70 - £73 a gram and today it is approximately £50-£53 a gram.   Say no more!

 

Comments

[Simon Metz]

The war on drugs is not in any way a failure. Your post asks readers to read between the lines. You need to do that about the entire policy.

You're not asking what the war on drugs is intended to do, and has been doing for decades. Here's a hint, it has nothing to do with addressing the drug problem.

[David Duff]

Simon, good to hear from you again, even if you are somewhat mystifying! So what is the 'War on Drugs' all about?