ANN WIDDECOMBE sought a few tough headlines with her ill-judged announcement of a cannabis crackdown, but never can she have imagined that her words would lead to the prospect of the law being softened.

Yesterday William Hague was doing his best to row away from Ms Widdecombe's remarks without too much embarrassment, but she has inadvertently opened a can of worms.

If seven members of the Conservative shadow cabinet - not normally a group of people thought of as renegade law-breakers - admit having broken the law by smoking cannabis in their youth, then this is a law that needs serious work on it.

A quarter of British adults say they too have broken this particular law. In Britain, policing is by consent, and by popular consent the law on cannabis has broken down.

What is needed now is a sensible, mature debate on whether cannabis should remain a proscribed drug. In the past, the debate has been clouded by politicians all posturing about how tough they are on drugs and forgetting about the real issue in real life. This was shown again yesterday when the entire Cabinet clammed up when asked if they had experienced any illicit moments like their Conservative colleagues.

The debate will need to answer whether long-term cannabis use is mind altering, whether it acts as a gateway to harder substances, and whether it has any medicinal value.

Ms Widdecombe opened up the prospect to the blue rinses at the Tory conference of their beloved student grandchildren becoming common criminals. They, too, should want to know whether their grandchildren are damaging their health.

If the answer is no, our thinly-stretched police resources would be far better regarding cannabis like alcohol and tobacco, leaving them free to tackle the hard drugs like heroin which visibly cause so much mayhem in our society.

Sad losers

A MAN has been warned by police after he twice phoned Kevin Keegan and threatened him after his resignation as England football manager.

The calls achieved absolutely nothing except to show the unpleasant streak that runs through the English footballing psyche. This was shown directly before kick-off on Saturday when the German anthem was drowned out by cat-calls and boos, and the pathetic second-half chants of "stand up if you won the war". These people are supposed to be supporting the national team, not dragging down the national name. They are as sad as David Seaman's slicked back hair and ponytail.