Starmer can do better than merely rowing in behind the SNP on drug policy

Simply letting the police issue warnings for possession of Class A drugs is an inadequate substitute for proper reform.

Emily Carver: The war on drugs has failed. Will this government have the guts to change tack?

Having been so focused on Covid health outcomes, we have lost sight of our nation’s terrible rate of drug-related deaths.

Henry Hill: The UK Internal Market Act empowers Johnson to take the fight to Sturgeon on drugs policy

Whilst the First Minister flirts with illegal ‘shooting galleries’, the Government can step in to support the rehab beds Scotland really needs.

Rachel Wolf: Tests for the delivery of levelling up, and levers with which to deliver it

It now needs to get real. This is clearly the plan in the next few months, starting with the Queen’s Speech tomorrow, leading to the Levelling Up paper. 

Neil O’Brien: The NHS and jobs. Family and community. Indispensable means of boosting our mental health.

It’s welcome that we’re investing much more in services.  But we need to tackle the causes too.

Stephen O’Brien: The challenge of converting world-class research into British economic success. Here’s an example than works.

We should double down on Product Development Partnerships, which are alive and well in the field of public health.

Robert Jenrick: We’ve made real progress on reducing rough sleeping since the pandemic came – but there’s much more still to do.

This is not an easy issue to solve. Rough sleeping is as much a health issue as it is a housing issue – it is often a crisis of addiction and mental health as well.

Like the virus itself, and like other restrictions, this shutdown will come down hardest on the deep poor

Duncan Smith names “five giants”: family breakdown, worklessness, serious personal debt, addiction and educational underachievement.

Introducing a series this week on ConservativeHome with the Centre for Social Justice about the pandemic and fairness

We need a long-term poverty strategy and a Social Justice Cabinet Committee. And here’s a Christmas holiday plan for childrens’ food.

Ryan Bourne: If you want to feed hungry children, don’t target food poverty. Aim to reduce poverty as a whole.

Together with tax cuts and less regulation, higher or more extensive benefits look like better support for hungry children than vouchers.

Matthew Barber: A new approach to defeat drug crime

In the Thames Valley, those under 18 caught with drugs are given an education programme, with sanctions if they refuse to attend.

Frank Young: What drug dealers really think about legalising drugs

The solution to the problems they described isn’t debate over regulation – but scaling up programmes that focus on young people heading for the clink.

Sunak whistles in the dark

The Chancellor is groping his way, knowing well that the future is unknowable, trying to hold on to as much of the past as he can.

Rough sleeping has fallen sharply. The challenge is to stop it rising again.

A bed is not enough. A chance of employment, as well as good physical and mental health are needed to turn lives around.

Robert Halfon: The Government was wise to give way to Rashford. Now let him head up the Social Mobility Commission.

Plus: vision from the top for left-behind pupils, a National Education Broadcasting Service, and Alan Turing summer schools.