The Labour leadership and medical cannabis: the Milibands

In the last couple of weeks both the Milibands visited Yorkshire in an attempt to convince Labour members to elect them to the leader of the party.

Both performed well, although one impressed your correspondent more than the other. But more of that later.
One question that the both candidates were asked was as follows;
"In the USA 14 states have legislated to improve the quality of life for patients suffering from: Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Glaucoma, Cancer, Aids, Parkinson's Disease and Arthritis. A 15th state, Arizona, will legislate on this issue in November. 72 per cent of Arizonans support implementing the new law.
The issue is legalising medical cannabis.
Do you support legalising medical cannabis in the UK? Or do you believe patents should be arrested for taking cannabis?"

Now, it would be nice to report that either of the candidates supported measures to help protect patients. Neither did, and would not have been realistic to expect otherwise. It was interesting to see how they handled the question, which of itself was important in the context of becoming leader of the Labour party. Both admitted they had never been asked the question before, which again is important to see how they handled themselves with a question that is unexpected.

David Miliband said he did not want to make any comments about Cannabis in case the comment was taken out of context. But he did not want to see patients arrested either.

Ed Miliband said he didn't want to give me a glib answer and would talk to me about the issue afterwards, as he did not know much about it. After the meeting we then had a wee chat about the issue.

Now their replies were very similar. But my judgement is that Ed was warmer of the two and gave a slightly more impressive answer. Still David Miliband still looks very prime ministerial and very good on TV. My vote is still up for grabs.