Why did Alan Johnson Sack Expert?

In a period where the Government is being attacked for the majority of its new policy initiatives, from almost every angle, it is surprising that it opted to pursue a political risky strategy by sacking Professor David Nutt from his role as Head of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD).

This strategy of sacking the Chairman of a quasi-independent public Council is baffling at best and at worst creates a unwelcoming precedence in which the Government is willing to ignore (and often contradict) scientific advise in favour of winning support from tabloid media outlets. There are three potential political reasons for Home Secretary Alan Johnson to sack Prof David Nutt:

1. Alan Johnson believes that Prof David Nutt's claim concerning cannabis, ecstasy and LSD is contradicting Government advice, and therefore his position became untenable.
   
2. The Government wished to create a smoke screen for the criticism it faces concerning the reduction in funding for the Armed Forces and the TA. Funding for the Armed Forces and the TA is becoming a central plank for both the Labour and Conservative Party in the run up to the forthcoming election. Any perceived weakening in either party's commitment to the troops will be political suicide.
3. The Government wanted to appear to be tough on drugs to appeal to the Daily Mail, Daily Express and the tabloids.

The decision whether the reclassification of these drugs is correct is a matter for debate. But the main issue to arise from Prof David Nutt's sacking, is the Government's willingness to ignore independent, scientific and evidence based reasoning in favour of pursuing an ideological or political decisions designed to carry favour with current columnists and editors of newspapers.

The purpose of a quasi-independent body, such as, the ACMD is to advise the Government on their areas of expertise, not to becoming a whipping boy of the ministers to demonstrate how tough the Government can be on controversial issues.

As Margaret Thatcher famously said "Advisers advise and ministers decide".