The British prime minister, Gordon Brown, has been plunged into a tense confrontation with some of the country's leading scientists over government policy on illegal drug-taking.

They are furious that he has fired the head of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, Professor David Nutt, for publicly challenging the government over the dangers of cannabis.

Nutt reckons that the legal drugs, alcohol and nicotine, are more of a risk to users than cannabis and he has been publicly campaigning against the recent government decision to treat it as a class B drug.

Yesterday, Dr Les King, another member of the Advisory Council, resigned in protest at Nutt being denied 'freedom of expression' and a top Labour-supporting peer and scientist, Robert Winston, said the sacking showed "a rather poor understanding of the value of science".

It is easy to see why Brown was unwilling to keep a scientific adviser who accused him of changing policy "on a whim" but the whole embarrassing episode underpins the image of the prime minister as an autocratic control freak who only listens to those who are willing to agree with him.

The very public furore comes at a time when Brown is also caught up in an even more awkward row with leaders of the armed forces about the lack of resources for fighting the war in Afghanistan.

'In blood Stepp'd in so far? Towards Realism in Afghanistan' is the lurid title of a short but damning analysis of the strategy and conduct of the war, which is published today by the Centre for Policy Studies.

Author Adam Holloway is an MP, a member of the Commons Defence Committee and a former Grenadier Guard. He claims that the real beneficiary of the war is al-Qa'ida: "Put starkly, our current situation is working against the West's security interest and is making attacks on the streets of Britain more, not less, likely. . . Before 2006 who had heard of Musa Qala, Sangin or Kajaki? Today they are global rallying cries across the websites of global jihad. Places like Helmand are, for al-Qa'ida, a gigantic film studio."

The pressure on Brown over Afghanistan was intensified at the weekend by the leaking of a memo about the risks to Nato troops because of the shortage of helicopters. It was written in June by Lieutenant-Colonel Rupert Thorneloe just three weeks before he was killed by a roadside bomb.

The news of the memo coincided with a devastating indictment of negligence and incompetence within the Ministry of Defence over the crash of a Nimrod reconnaissance jet in 2006.

There will be more embarrassment for the government over the next few months as the public enquiry into the Iraq invasion gets under way. One of its key witnesses will be Tony Blair, who seems to be still nursing hopes of becoming president of the European Union.

Business Minister Peter Mandelson says in an interview to be shown on the BBC news channel today: "He would like to do the job. But when I talk to him, I don't feel it's a life or death question for him. He doesn't want it so much he couldn't live without it -- but he's committed to it."

That's not exactly the kind of enthusiastic reference that would get a candidate short-listed for an ordinary job. But behind the scenes, Blair is, according to the former SDP leader, Lord Owen, "campaigning very vigorously".

One man determined to stop him at all costs is the Labour MP, Peter Kilfoyle, who, in 1994, was the first MP to sign the nomination papers for Blair in the party leadership election.

Kilfoyle used to be on such good terms with the Blairs that he turned up dressed as Santa Claus for their children at Christmas. Now, like others, he is disillusioned and he has tabled a Commons motion stating: "On his record in international affairs, Tony Blair is wholly unsuitable to be president of the European Union."

The foreign secretary, David Miliband, has not only been talking up Blair as president but also, more privately, promoting his own claims to be the new 'High Representative' of the EU.

Cynics at Westminster think that Brown likes the idea of pushing Miliband off to Brussels so as to leave the way clear for his cabinet ally, Ed Balls, to succeed him as party leader if Labour, as expected, is beaten in the general election next May.

Removing David Miliband from the Westminster stage would also pave the way for Peter Mandelson to replace him as foreign secretary before the election and for David's younger brother, Ed, the climate change minister, to put in a challenge for the leadership after it.

- Nicholas Leonard

Irish Independent