@Pyro as Bill: Marijuana is the only drug that I personally can see being legalized in the medium term, and it certainly won't be this Parliament. However, I think we all need to realise now that the Liberal Democrats are probably going to have some form of representation within the Government for a very long time, now, especially if AV/AVPlus (whatever one it is that they're going for) passes.

I can certainly see serious debate on the legalization of pot occurring during the next Parliament, if everything goes to plan in the current one.

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As an aside: I am in full support of the legalization of all drugs. Not only because of my liberal beliefs, but because of the revenues it can bring in taxes, and the fact that it destroys the financial lifeblood of so many evil organisations in this world - the Taliban, Mexican drug cartels, that one kid who sits at the back of the class, doesn't have a job, but is always loaded.

Second, Portugal's legalization has seen an increase in the number of drug abusers seeking help, whilst also seeing decreases in drug related deaths and illness (in particular, HIV from dirty needles), and drug-related crimes.

That was an awesome speech, Mr. Clegg, but Mr. Ubuntu-face raises some crucial points.

@Machina: Indeed, I think it's quite apparent, now, that the Lib Dems are here to stay. I'm obviously happier about the situation than you (giving that, like Pyro as Bill, I think the Con-Lib coalition is the closest thing this country has to a decent political party).

However, I will say one thing: if the Lib Dems do get more of their own ways, and we see further devolution - particularly in England, then the affairs of Westminster won't be as important to us, any more. I mean if English education and health is in the hands of an English Assembly, or perhaps even regional Assemblies of England - then those areas will pretty much always be dealt with by Conservatives/right-winged Liberal Democrats. I mean, I don't know whereabouts in the UK you're from. But, I'm from South-East England - if that area had its own Assembly... even UKIP would have decent representation in there.

Totally agree. The only thing I would say is that given how far the coalition are going with schools and the NHS, legalising or just relaxing dope/drug laws would be pretty minor. The rumblings coming from the likes of Ken Clarke about prisons also makes me think they're up to something.

^{*You consider the kid at the back of the class to be in the same league as the Taliban and Mexican drug cartels? That was tongue in cheek right?}

I hope he means modern liberal and I completely despise neo-liberal and classical liberal

@Pyro as Bill: Yes, it was. As I wrote it, I did it with Homer Simpson's list-reeling voice ("There you go again, Marge, always taking the other side: Flanders, the water board, God").

I dunno, I think that this could be one of those key issues that could be too much for the core Tory party. Whilst it may seem like a minor issue to us, for some reason, it seems to be a really big deal for these political types (I personally feel the same way about things like abortion and gay marriage - they seem to be such minor things to me, and yet they draw up such huge, moral debates in Parliament, and indeed, everywhere else).

Which I believe was a proposal of the Conservatives quite some time ago. Obviously, they're a unionist party, and they felt that this was the best way to deal with West Lothian... though it all seemed to get lost during the election, with other, more wide-reaching (ie - UK-wide) political reforms taking the front stage.

And, haha, a right winger living in Wales? No wonder you're opposed to devolution!  

As a bit of background, the Liberal Democrats were formed as a merger of the Liberal party (who tended to be more clasical liberal), and the Social Democrats. They are very much a Liberal party in the modern, American sense of the word.

Which is precisely why I like them being teamed up with the Tories.... to dilute the whole "social" aspect of the Lib Dems, and to dilute the "pro-business" aspect of the Conservatives. I'm pro-markets, not pro-business.

Yep definitely the stuffy Tories who would oppose. If it was higher up on the Lib-Dems agenda it would stand a better chance. Strangely I don't think Clegg and Cameron could convince anyone but put Ken Clarke and Vince Cable out there selling it and it could just work.

There are some good points here and bad points.

There are some ucrrent day stupid idoitic policies in this country that leaves me wondering why it has taken so long to fall into 1 trillion £ debt. Take the heads of the burocrats for a start.

Taking away the bus pass from pensioners are you ƒ//cking kidding me? Elderly British people have earned the right for some conforts considering they have paied tax into the system their entire lives.

Slash the foreign aid before we slash our pensioners right for transportation.

Overpopulation leaving nobody able to get a job immigration is a contrbuting factor to this but within reason we need to have immigration in order to counter act our ageing population. Henceforth, we should ONLY have EU immigration and cut other immigration as it is excessive.....unemployment is bound to rise and it's all Labours fault for employing everyone into the public sector and forgetting that it's the private sector that has to find everything....with that in obvious mass decline and very little being done it was a disaster waiting to happen.

Every child someone has they get child tax credits. After someone has 3 children slash the child tax credits/. If these familes want to have a 4th child then they can fund it out of their own back pockets....

Weight reduction (liposuction) on the NHS? Seriously? Unless it is a genetic condition then......ok I will stop now.

Rant over. Bit off topic but....heck British politics is a mixed bag