By Tim Montgomerie
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ConHome recently hosted a debate on drug legalisation. It was kicked off by this pro-reform article from Bruce Anderson. The case against legalisation was then made by Christian Guy.
The comments on both threads were heavily in favour of Bruce Anderson's position.
I tested the overall view of Tory members in the latest ConservativeHome survey and these are the results:
My big conclusions are that (i) support for the status quo is very limited (option 3) but that, on balance, Tory members would prefer a change to a tougher rather than a more liberal view; (ii) support for some form of decriminalisation is nonetheless substantial; and (iii) the comment threads which were very pro-decriminalisation failed to reflect the more hardline views of party members.
Blog threads not being representative was a point I recently made in the context of support for David Cameron.
1,340 Tory members all polled on Wednesday 30th November.