Why is the BBC criminalising low income women?

The BBC has a penchant for staging debates on the decriminalisation of drugs. I should know because I am often drafted in as the right-wing loon to provide a bit of balance to the enlightened drugs expert putting the more fashionable view. These debates always go the same way. I argue that if a substance is dangerous enough to be banned then you need to punish the users as well as the suppliers because it is they who are creating the market. Without these consumers, the drug-pushers would have nothing to sell. The enlightened expert is then invited to say how damaging it is to drug-users to be given a criminal record which will hurt their chances in life and prevent them from seeking help.

But there is one subject on which the BBC seems rather less keen on decriminalisation. Culture secretary Lady Morgan this morning launched a consultation on whether the failure to buy a TV licence should continue to be a criminal offence.