Mr Hellawell is furious at reports that he has softened his approach to cannabis

Mr Hellawell is furious at reports that he has softened his approach to cannabis. His report will call for wider testing for drugs in offices, including Whitehall, and will claim that the Government’s comprehensive approach to tackling the drugs epidemic is working.A Government source said: “Nobody believes you can simply beat the drugs problem by putting people behind bars. The annual report will in no uncertain terms prove that.”However, it may disappoint critics of the Government’s anti-drugs strategy, who argue that prohibition is failing. Government sources last night said the arrest of a Briton in Estonia in connection with a £20m heroin smuggling plot was an example of the successes in the war against drugs that will be highlighted in the report.The operation to seize the drugs involved British Customs and Excise, the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency and their Estonian counterparts. Claire Morgan of Customs and Excise said: “The arrest shows that the policy of co-operation between all drug enforcement agencies is going a long way to reducing the availability of drugs on the streets of the UK.”Mr Hellawell’s report will show that the Government is meeting its tough targets for drug seizures but is also expanding help to drug users to escape their addiction.. A senior Conservative frontbencher has warned that the party could lose half its support unless it backs Michael Portillo’s more inclusive, liberal agenda. A senior Conservative frontbencher has warned that the party could lose half its support unless it backs Michael Portillo’s more inclusive, liberal agenda.
Alan Duncan, a close ally of Mr Portillo, told Radio 4’s Week in Westminster programme yesterday that “people’s party political loyalties become more dilute” as they look to issues other than their income and employment prospects to determine how they vote.”Attitudes to social problems – and indeed attitudes to society in general – are very important and people, in deciding how they’re going to vote, want to know where you stand on certain things such as tolerance of alternative lifestyles,” he said.Last week Mr Portillo and the shadow Foreign Secretary, Francis Maude, resigned from the right-wing No Turning Back Group after details of a stormy meeting were leaked to newspapers.

Mr Duncan, who attended the meeting, revealed: “There was a lively discussion about authoritarianism versus libertarianism in Conservative thinking and the extent to which we needed to go and seek new sorts of people to become Conservatives. It was true that Michael Portillo, Francis Maude and I took one point of view and others took a different view.”Mr Duncan added: “Some colleagues are suspicious of the need to include all sections of society in the Conservative Party.”Asked whether he welcomed the outcome of the cannabis row, in which Ann Widdecombe’s “zero tolerance” policy was dumped, Mr Duncan replied: “Yes. It’s made a lot of people admit that this area of politics is very important for shaping people’s voting intentions. We ignore the importance of this area at our peril.”The Tory leadership is worried that the debate over liberal values could cause splits at least as damaging as those over Europe.

It faces further tensions from within the right of the party. Some “Portillistas” accuse John Redwood of briefing against them and are frustrated by the reluctance of Mr Hague to embrace their agenda more enthusiastically.In his BBC interview, Mr Duncan insisted: “If we detach ourselves from that sort of social agenda then we cut off large areas of potential support. If we cut the agenda in half we cut our support in half as well.”Mr Duncan, who was once Mr Hague’s closest political ally and still speaks privately with the leader on a regular basis, added: “William will be leader for ages.” Some in the Hague entourage, however, suspect that Mr Portillo and his allies are repositioning themselves for a leadership bid after the election.. Tony Blair today denied that his reluctance to cut fuel taxes showed he was “out of touch”. Tony Blair today denied that his reluctance to cut fuel taxes showed he was “out of touch”.
The Prime Minister insisted that surrending to the protesters would affect families, education and pensions.He said on BBC radio: “Let’s say I give in to protesters’ demands and give people a big cut off the fuel duty. Now, you could say that is in touch, because people want that money off their fuel duty.”But if it meant a family then ended up with their mortgage payments going up or can’t get their children decently educated at school or their parents didn’t get a decent pension, would that be being in touch?”But the Conservatives claimed Chancellor Gordon Brown planned to use his mini-Budget next week to buy off critical among hauliers, farmers, motorists and pensioners.Queues at petrol pumps – sparked partly by Government hints that Mr Brown would resist protesters’ demands – were today reported to be easing. The Petrol Retailers’ Association said the message had got through to most motorists that supplies were plentiful and there was no need to panic.Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott scornfully compared the fuel lobby’s demands with the needs of families flooded out of their homes by the recent storms.And he maintained the Government’s tough line on the protests as he visited flood-stricken York today.He told BBC1’s Breakfast with Frost: “Government cannot accept that a few people at some refinery gates can stop the country running and deny it fuel with all the effects and consequences for our emergency services.”Government must govern.

That is what the Prime Minister’s made clear and at the end of the day we will be accountable to the electorate.”In the meantime, they have told us to get on with the job, be competent and make the best decisions and that is what we are trying to do.”Mr Prescott admitted: “In the middle of all these problems, floods and railways, I can tell you, at times it is not always easy But I know we have got the long-term decisions right.”. The leader of the Confederation of British Industry yesterday attacked the high fees paid to young lawyers working in the City. The leader of the Confederation of British Industry yesterday attacked the high fees paid to young lawyers working in the City.
Digby Jones, Director General of the CBI, claimed many solicitors with just one year’s experience were being paid between £40,000 and £50,000.He said the fees “were very very worrying” and represented “a real imbalance”, with lawyers working on social issues earning much less.His comments follow a move by two of the biggest City law firms to award annual pay increases to lawyers who have been qualified for six months.Allen & Overy and Linklaters & Alliance have both decided to award six-month qualified lawyers £45,000 salaries rising to £50,000 after one year’s qualification.Mr Jones, a solicitor and guest speaker at the Law Society’s annual conference in London, said the imbalance between the high and low-paid lawyers had to be properly addressed. He called on leaders of the profession to remind Labour MPs in vulnerable constituencies that “access to justice” was an important issue for all their constituents. After the speech he said there was a genuine need to pay lawyers who work in the field of “social exclusion” a proper wage.

The reason City law firms were paying such high wageswas the arrival of big American law practices offering much higher starting salaries.He said partners did not deserve the “fat cat” label because many worked very long hours and risked their businesses if things went wrong.. A gunman who hijacked a busload of Japanese tourists after killing two people committed suicide on Sunday by jumping out of a window at police headquarters just before he was to be transported to a prosecutor to be formally charged, police said. A gunman who hijacked a busload of Japanese tourists after killing two people committed suicide on Sunday by jumping out of a window at police headquarters just before he was to be transported to a prosecutor to be formally charged, police said.
Christos Kendiras, 48, broke a window and jumped from the seventh floor of the police headquarters building in downtown Athens after police had finished taking his fingerprints, authorities said. He died instantly.On Saturday, Kendiras had hijacked a bus with 35 people, including 33 Japanese tourists, after killing his mother-in-law and a friend in southern Greece over a family dispute.Two police officers had been escorting Kendiras when he broke free from them and ran at a window, authorities said. He landed on a second-floor balcony, they added.”Unfortunately, we had this event, which is not the best thing that could have happened to us,” said Dimitris Efstathiadis, general secretary of the public order ministry.