Simon wants to cane Dave and George

The "sane and rational" Simon Heffer has a rant against Cameron in the Telegraph. It is quite barking. The best way to help the poor, apparently, is to cut taxes and cut public spending, degregulate (no nonsense about the minimum wage etc), and reintroduce selection in education (what does he mean "reintroduce"?). He says that "...many people make a career decision not to work but to sponge off the taxpayer". Ah, that's what it is: a "career decision". Should I take this offer of a job as a systems analyst at 60K per annum or should I opt for living on £50 quid a week for heating, clothing and food? It's a no-brainer: I'll take the £50. Why? Because I'm an idle bastard.

But this is what most struck me. Heffer says we should treat "drug dealers, or indeed drug users, with the sort of unremitting ferocity practiced in places such as Singapore". What is he suggesting? Surely not that Dave and George did or do deserve to be caned? (But then, I thought, at least before becoming such eminences, a lot of the time they were caned). And why are these wingbats always salivating and wetting their pants at the idea of corporal punishment?