THERE must be an election coming. Even the Tories are raising their eyes above their obsessions - Europe and asylum seekers - to talk about the subjects that concern ordinary people most.

One of Michael Howard's most eye-catching ideas in his year as leader - a year that still finds his party anything up to 11 per cent behind Labour in the polls - is to increase the number of drug rehabilitation places from 2,000 to 20,000.

As drugs are the root cause of a majority of crimes, this is blindingly obvious common sense. It is pointless to imprison someone for his criminal activity and not take that opportunity to address the reason for his offending.

Yesterday Mr Howard offered some interesting pointers on education. Granting teachers anonymity until they are formally charged with an offence like sexual abuse would seem a very fair way to protect teachers against career-threatening false accusations.

Mr Howard also created a vote-catching headline by promising to increase sixfold the number of places available for disruptive pupils expelled by mainstream schools.

Currently, 9,500 children are expelled each year, but there are only 4,000 places in "pupil referral units". The Conservatives will increase the number to 24,000, with every district having its own "turnaround school".

This is welcome thinking, and useful debating material. Just one disruptive child can destroy a class for 30 others.

However, re-creating Borstals will stigmatize children for life, and there will be very few neighbourhoods which volunteer to have a "bad boys' school" built on their doorsteps.

As Mr Howard also plans to scrap the process by which children can appeal against their expulsion from or non-admittance to a school - a bad, Blunkettian idea that offends natural justice - there is a danger that headteachers may jettison any awkward child into a turnaround school to improve their own league table position.

Perhaps the biggest problem, though, is the Tories' Achilles heel: cost. These schools, like the drug rehab places, will be hugely expensive to build, equip and staff with specialist professionals.

Can you really do this and still cut taxes? Or will private companies, working for profit and not educational improvement, run these shows?

But, just like the lack of drug rehab places, it is to Labour's shame that these problems have yet to be adequately addressed.