I imagine David Cameron is secretly rather pleased that his cannabis smoking at Eton has come out. While he may have shocked some of the Tory old guard, he will be counting on gaining credibility with the people he’s really trying to impress – younger, floating voters who probably smoke the odd illicit spliff on a Tuesday evening when the kids are in bed, and like the idea of a potential PM who knows how to chill out. For myself, I’d rather have a leader who smoked dope than one who drank to relax (and ‘relax’ would be a euphemism when it comes to Charles Kennedy), a vice which is far more prevalent in Westminster as has been highlighted by the death of ex-MP Fiona Jones whose husband claims her drinking was severely exacerbated by the hard-drinking culture in the parliamentary village.

In other vices, the Pope is warning of moral decline in Portugal which voted today to legalise abortion up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. It is estimated that 23,000 women a year in Portugal undergo dangerous illegal abortions. However, while most abortions do take place before 10 weeks, there are circumstances where women may not know they are pregnant at 10 weeks, or delays in access to medical services may allow the pregnancy to continue beyond this threshold, so although this is a step in the right direction, the battle is not yet won. In Europe, abortion is still illegal in Ireland and Poland, and there is a torchlight rally on Saturday 3 March from 6.30pm to mark the 40th anniversary of abortion rights in the UK, and to protest against any limit in the 24 week time limit and ensure equal access to abortion facilities.

Finally, you may be interested to know that Ming Campbell is now on Facebook and is my friend. Maybe he’s beating Cameron in the coolness stakes after all.

Filed under: davidcameron, gender, health, religion on February 11th, 2007