The resignation of Norman Baker is a sad day for intelligent policy making in Government

It was with deep sadness I learnt this evening of Norma Baker’s resignation as a Home Office Minister. During the last year he has been in the job, he has worked hard to make sure that policy in that Department has been based on good research & evidence, not just on what gets a good headline in The Daily Mail. Even with the wholehearted support of Nick Clegg, it seems that Norman found trying to make rational, thoughtful decisions based on evidence has no place in the Home Office under Theresa May.

The much delayed (by Theresa May & David Cameron) report on Drugs policy is a good case in point. Even most MPs who spoke in the Common’s debate on the issue agreed with the report’s conclusion that there needs to be a fresh approach to tackling drug addiction that focused on helping the addicts and putting those who peddle the drugs behind bars. However May and Cameron (and Labour’s Miliband & Cooper for that matter) were too scared of bad headlines in the right wing popular press to back the common sense approach outlined in the report.

This Government is weaker when people of integrity such as Norman Baker are forced out because they want to make policy based on facts and research rather than on pandering to perceived prejudices in parts of the media. I hope that after the next election, if there is another Government involving Liberals Democrats, Norman will be back as a Minister; the country needs more people like him in Government, not less.