IDS promises war on drugs
Iain Duncan Smith has promised to wage war on illegal drug use should the Conservative Party win the next general election.
Addressing an audience at the University of London, the Tory leader said that it was incumbent upon society to make the use of heroin or crack cocaine “an unacceptable choice”
Insisting that the “war on drugs must be won”, he maintained: “Conservatives will not and must not tolerate the cowardly defeatism of this government’s attitude to crack and heroin on our streets today”.
The Conservative leader promised that the 20,000 extra drug rehabilitation places already pledged by his party would be “only the start of what we want to achieve”.
“My ambition is to free the next generation from drugs is unshakeable”, he told his audience.
In a wide-ranging speech, Mr Duncan Smith repeatedly insisted on the need to extend greater choice to all aspects of public sector provision.
On the issue of education, he restated his party’s commitment to the introduction of a state scholarship proposal designed to give parents in “Britain’s most hard pressed areas” increased freedom of choice.
“The money the state spends on children’s education, that money should be free to be used at the school chosen by that child’s parents – we will deliver that”, IDS remarked.
The Conservatives would also work to bring struggling inner city schools “up to the standard of the best” as well as developing “world class” vocational education courses.
It was further necessary to scrap Labour’s university tuition fees, which “have become and will become a tax on learning”, he maintained.
And in a direct attack on the Government, the Tory leader insisted that his remained at heart a lower tax party than Labour, accusing the Government of having failed to deliver on its manifesto promises.
For its part, the Labour government has repeatedly accused the Opposition of failing to do its sums. It insists that public sector improvements cannot be achieved at the same time as seeking to cut the tax burden.
to unveil 16 proposals to rebuild the community infrastructure “on which poor neighbourhoods depend”
also time for an end to what he described as “the disgraceful exploitation of our shambolic asylum system”
He insisted that Tory policy in this area would ensure that the “genuine asylum seekers”
The Tory leader also
