Can we throw Michael Gove in prison for his cocaine use?

[AlaskanOilBaron]

I mean seriously, this fella was Justice Secretary- i.e. responsible for sending people to prison for using cocaine - and he's used cocaine?

What a complete twat. He tied himself in a pretzel on Andrew Marr trying to talk his way out of it, how he was 'fortunate' and so on - THAT'S EXACTLY THE POINT. He got lucky because he's white, because he's middle class, and so on -so sod the poor fools who haven't been so lucky?

I do hope this is the end of his career.

@formerbabe

I didn’t say it was fine, I just said it was normal. I was offered cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana a lot at uni and in my 20s, I am a professional and I work and socialise with other professionals. Never took it as I have a condition that could have caused some issues.

Personally I think it should be legalised, production controlled and monitored (so that it can’t be cut with poisons) and taxed. Just like cigarettes and alcohol.

@romanyqueen - inbreeding? Michael Gove was born to a single mother, and adopted as an infant. He hardly fits the inbred, privileged English gentleman stereotype.

you're a working class black kid

and yeah, fuck the poor brown people beign forced to grow the stuff in Colombia.

I'm a middle-class professional in my forties and I've never encountered anyone who's been anywhere near the stuff.

I'm a middle-class professional in my forties and I've never encountered anyone who's been anywhere near the stuff.

Not really sure what that adds to the debate ? Are you saying you don't believe Goves admission ? Or that you have no opinion on something you have no experience of ? Or did you just want to let us know you are a "professional" - which devoid of any subsidiary detail does sound like an out and out boast ?

It's also quite a bold statement - not caveated with to the best of my knowledge but asserted.

Jesus half our naice white middle class village would be banged up in the space of 24 hours if you got sent down for using cockiness.

Yeah I'm really boasting anonymously on a website frequented by middle-class professionals about being a middle-class professional like anyone would give a shit. The point is that it might be rife in some professional circles but it's certainly not inevitable.

Since when did anyone go to prison for snorting coke? Worked in the City back in the 90s when every second person spent most of the evening wiping their nose continuously and no party was complete without a glass framed print taken down & passed around with a few lines on it. If we were going to retrospectively jail everyone who did a line or two, I imagine that the prisons would be full to capacity within a day or two!!!!!!!

However, I have no doubt all the pearl clutchers & bosom hoikers will be suitably horrified and all the dealers will give less than two shits, that some twatty bloke has admitted he snorted back in the day and is a raging hypocrite, because he was and is power hungry.

And yes, anyone who takes drugs probably has blood on their hands, but you could say the same about anyone who stays in a hotel in Dubai, that's been built by immigrant labourers, for whom no one gives two shits.

If you legalised drugs a lot of the problems would cease to exist.

I'm infinitely more worried about the rabid pack of ultra right wingers, who'd happily prorogue parliament, get rid of dissenters in cabinet and essentially revoke our democracy! That is far more disturbing to me than a few lines of coke 20 years ago.

I thought it was obvious that my point was ‘if gove wants to throw the book at drug offenses, let’s show him what we can do’.

I’d like to legalise it all and call it a day.

@romanyqueen

You are lying, I haven’t sent you any PMs.

Responding to your posts is not harassment. Don’t post anything if you don’t want a response.

What a hypocrite. They are all at it anyway these slimy politicians. Probably paid for by taxpayer funded expenses

Never been to Dubai, wouldn't set foot there, give a shit about the workers there too so that's a bit of a falso dichotomy.

@romanyqueen
I’ve reported your post. Mumsnet will be able to check whether or not I’ve sent you any PMs (I haven’t).

You’re just annoyed because I, and several other posters, disagreed with you for boasting about how easy it was for you to abuse the benefit system.

Your attempts to bully me are not going to work.

Since when did anyone go to prison for snorting coke? Worked in the City back in the 90s when every second person spent most of the evening wiping their nose continuously and no party was complete without a glass framed print taken down & passed around with a few lines on it. If we were going to retrospectively jail everyone who did a line or two, I imagine that the prisons would be full to capacity within a day or two!!!!!!!

However, I have no doubt all the pearl clutchers & bosom hoikers will be suitably horrified

I'm not horrified that people take drugs.

I'm horrified that police don't carry out stop and search on affluent, white, city workers or journalists or politicians yet like to stop and search young black men, perhaps find a small amount of weed on them and then we brand them the scourge of society.

The hypocrisy stinks.

Not really BlamesFarts. We all like to feel morally superior and think that our hands are clean & yet lots of people will have done something less than perfect in their lives and many more than we would like to think have blood on their hands one way or another. (All those who don't whistle blow in the NHS and dodgy care homes, everyone involved in flammable cladding on buildings, the purchase of products made in countries with shocking human rights records and really poor health & safety and employment rights etc etc etc.)

I gave one example but there are many.

yet lots of people will have done something less than perfect in their lives

Yes but presumably they're not standing in a position of power and judgment over others whilst doing exactly the same thing themselves...but it's fine, because them taking drugs is totally different to the plebs doing it.

He is a hypocrite formerbabe and I don't want him as PM, but I was refuting BlamesFart's point that my point was a false dichotomy.

Why would the police bother to stop and search affluent city workers? What a shocking waste of their time and energy. I think there would be outcry, not because of the hypocrisy but because their resources are so thinly stretched and they have better things to be doing than trying to catch out a few middle class recreational drug users.

and some of those are more avoidable than others. I can't help eating / wearing clothes (though I try to do so as ethically as possible) but I've managed to go 44 years so far without taking any drugs. If giving a shit about the impact on poor people a long way away makes me a pearl-clutcher, then so be it.

Middle-class cocaine use is a big driver of criminality, why wouldn't the police try to put a stop to that?

I don’t think the CPS would prosecute for a small amount of weed. Unless the person had a previous history for possession and intent to supply.

The police and CPS don’t seem interested in prosecuting people for being in possession of a small amount of drugs, as it will always be argued that it’s for personal use.

I think poverty is one of the biggest drivers for criminality and I can't see Gove tackling that with any degree of urgency. This is all a massive diversion from the things that really matter.

Are you going to jail all cocaine users or just those against whom you are prejudiced? What a hypocrite, and I don't even like Gove!

I think poverty is one of the biggest drivers for criminality

How utterly rude and patronising to the majority who manage their lives without cocaine.

The extremely ambitious Mr and Mrs Gove have offended some very influential people whilst clawing their way up the ladder. Very keck-handed and no surprise at all that someone on a higher rung has stomped hard on those fingers. He'll be lucky to get a place in any new government.