Last week, to coincide with the 100th birthday of the man who discovered LSD, Albert Hofmann, a consultant psychiatrist, Ben Sessa, announced that he was going to give a presentation to the Royal College of Psychiatrists in March urging that the controversy over the therapeutic uses of “acid” be reopened after 30 years in the cold. No one thinks that Mr Blair wants to spy on his political opponents, but the very idea of parliamentary privilege is a vital bulwark against undemocratic temptations that might be felt by leaders as yet unknown.. This newspaper has a proud record of campaigning in defence of civil liberties, but we are not na?. We recognise that suicide terrorism is peculiarly difficult to anticipate and that protection against jihadism requires the traditional safeguards of liberty to be reconsidered Reconsidered, but not junked. His responsibility as Prime Minister is above all to ensure the security of the nation, and he has been advised that this is a necessary step.

Tony Blair wants to dispense with the 40-year-old convention that the security services do not bug the telephones of Members of Parliament, we report today In this, we accept that his motives are entirely proper. Attempts to pin the blame for individual cases on her or her junior ministers are secondary.. The important charge against Ruth Kelly, the Secretary of State for Education, is one of a lack of urgency in implementing Sir Michael’s recommendations. Nevertheless, it is depressing that the inquiry into the Soham murders carried out by Sir Michael Bichard does seem to have been more part of observing the rituals of grief than of sustained policy response. In the latest outbreak of paranoia about paedophilia it is worth bearing in mind that in none of the cases yet reported of sex offenders permitted to work in schools has any child been harmed. The participants have been so unlikeable and egotistical – it has been reported – that there is growing support around the country for the idea of confining George Galloway and others to the Big Brother house and pretending to film them..

The latest series of Celebrity Big Brother lives down fully to its reputation as humiliating television. It has been richly demeaning both for those in it and those who watch it. The Secretary of State for Education has been the target of an onslaught of criticism because a man cautioned for viewing child porn was cleared by one of her ministers to work as a PE teacher.. Bournemouth council has admitted that William Gibson, who has child sex convictions, was given a job at a local school. To round off a week in which he has been seen on national television dressed as Dracula and imitating a cat ­ pretending to lick cream from the hands of actress Rula Lenska ­ the charity to which he will donate his appearance fee has already been declared a “specially designated global terrorist” organisation by George Bush.. Further revelations last night that a convicted sex offender was given permission to work in a Bournemouth school have increased the pressure on Ruth Kelly to provide answers about how her department could have allowed such a scandal. With The Daily Telegraph recording its first sub- 900,000 sale for more than 20 years, the quiet revolution going on in that group clearly has further to go.Peter Cole is professor of journalism at the University of Sheffield.