Government sacks David Nutt for telling the truth

Professor David Nutt has been sacked as the government's chief drugs adviser because he refused to champion ideology over research findings.

This development will come as no surprise to anyone who remembers what happened in the Commons in February after Professor Nutt published an article in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

I concluded in a House Points of the time:

this incident tells us something important about the government. New Labour came to power claiming it was interested in “what works” and not hamstrung by ideology.

The truth, as Jacqui Smith demonstrated, is that to get on today you have to stick to a narrow range of acceptable views. Step outside it and you will be attacked.

Substitute "sacked" for "attacked" and that moral holds for today's development too.

Incidentally, Tory backbenchers were outraged by David Nutt's article back in February too.

That question time also reminded me of a story involving a horse rider and drugs.