Westminstenders: Tory Natural Selection

[RedToothBrush]

Here we go again...

My final word on drug policy is that it is often a means of social control of subgroups of the population that politicians consider undesirable. Hence the war on drugs in the US, which was primarily a war on young black men. In the U.K., the sort of drugs taken by working class people with serious social, mental health and often physical problems get you locked up. You're also far more likely to be locked up if you are not white.

Meanwhile "party" drugs taken by middle class kids at parties, and stimulants taken by young people in high pressure jobs, are effectively legal unless you deal.

I don't consider taking drugs a mistake (I mainly took pharmaceutical-quality speed - which these days we give without too many qualms to children with ADHD). There were no negative consequences and some positive ones. Like most recreational users I grew out of it as I moved into work. I am baffled by this whole conversation, tbh. U.K. drug law needs a serious overhaul that looks at the actual harms drugs do, with alcohol at the very top of the list.

Songsofexperience

Ds did once say he was never going to drink alcohol ( "His body was a temple" and all that ) but he seems to have forgotten that one He doesn't drink (or go out) the night before a rugby game though.

And having had one really bad hangover, he's not so keen on getting really drunk any more (I can remember that feeling.....doesn't last though )

Ah the old "never again" eh? 😂
Seriously though, I think their generation doesn't binge quite as much, which is good news!

Hmm, well Leaver ex-friend teacher is addicted to pot - smokes on average 8 joints a day and teaches psychology . Another friend from Nigeria also pointed out that if her son had, as Leaver's son had, been caught threatening other children with his dad's gun, a lot more would have been done about it than a phone call home...

Huge double standards in UK. I think there have been a few UN reports on equality?

Oh and...if the PM has admitted to doing drugs, doesn't that bar them from many countries

I agree: drinking seems to be for when they go out to clubs and therefore expensive (hence "pres") and an occasional event, not a regular occurrence.

Boris' "I didn't actually take cocaine because I sneezed" seems more unbelievable than my "The one time I was offered a puff of a spliff it had no effect as I didn't know how to inhale, as I'd never, and still haven't ever, smoked" The latter is true - I never had the slightest inclination to smoke (my dad was a radiologist and his dad had died from a smoking related cancer before I was born).

For some strange reason , I don't get the sense that BoJo would never have had the slightest inclination to try any drugs, having had both the opportunity to do so and the environment in which it was "normal"

Since Boris has managed to be 'for' and 'against' everything over the years it is difficult to take him seriously.
With him we can't work out if the UK leaving or revoking this week and will it change next week?

There are very few Leaver teachers lonely and certainly that story about the gun is bonkers : was that a private school.?? Please don't base all your impressions of teachers on this rare case.

Obviously, gun ownership in the UK is rare anyway : but it would be instant exclusion for anyone bringing a gun to school (if that's what happened ) in 99.99999999999999% of schools and a police intervention!

It was in paper today that Gove - theoretically - could, indeed, face a travel ban. There is something bizarre about this world that Trump's administration will happily ban Khan (and, let's face it, lots of Muslims) from travelling to the US, but not Gove or Johnson.

Corby, of course, doesn't drink! I bet that's viewed as weirder by the Great British Public.

Corbyn

The ST is, naturally, completely failing to report on Gove's story... ooohhh, I wonder why!?

Smear on Corbyn on about page 6, however.

I like both Black Forest and Lemon Drizzle. But at different times. LD is an afternoon cake with tea. BF is a dessert cake with coffee.
A favourite high in the 60s was the Benzedrine inhaler, which was available without prescription. The speed soaked interior was removed and dropped into a cup of tea (preferably in a Lyons cafe), which was then drunk, producing an indescribably vile sensation. I think these inhalers were outlawed in the 70s.

It seems my youth was misspent. I only got drunk once, and that made me very giggly and silly. I didn't and don't smoke. I might have had cannabis in a cake once - which made me pleasantly floaty and relaxed, or it might just have been a good cake.

Or I am just plain boring and puritanical. It was my upbringing - DF didn't drink or smoke. Growing up he'd seen the horrors of alcoholism in the docks area of his town, and the effects on families with an alcoholic father and all the wages drunk away. DM only had the odd glass of wine or sherry at Christmas or Weddings. A lot of people with a Non Conformist background took a pledge not to drink because of all this.

You might think that the older working class voters that the Tories now want to appeal to might also have sufficient numbers with the same puritanical upbringing, who don't find Gove's or Johnson's antics an amusing eccentricity.

I think the fact it's drugs is distracting from the fact that Gove has admitted to breaking the law. Not "by accident", he wasn't snorting icing sugar only to discover it's cocaine. He obviously set out to, and did engage in an activity that is illegal for his own ends whatever they may have been.

Not really sure if that's the measure of the character of the person we are supposed to entrust the law and order of this country to.

Even now, if his admission had been intended to start a serious discussion about the UKs ludicrous drugs laws (not as ludicrous as some countries, but certainly getting a dishonourable mention) I would have had some admiration.

It seems to me all he is doing is living the part of an advertisement for privileged men. Cocaine: do it - because you can

Be curious to know if Opium was illegal where Rory says he smoked it ? Although I have to question his green credentials, as I could have sourced some pretty decent opium from the council flower beds at a fraction the carbon footprint.

Following Rorys lead, I decided to hit the old hookah myself last night - "if it's good enough for de Quincy" I said to DW "it's good enough for us."

I had a strange dream where Theresa May managed to carry on as Prime Minister despite the next leader of the Conservatives being decided. It was a weird constitutional situation where the Tory leader could not command a majority, but Theresa May could. Possibly something to do with the DUP not backing the anointed leader.

Does that seem any more bizarre than some other actual events in the past two years ? Maybe we should ask David Gauke ?

Wasn't Rory in Afghanistan, where I assume it was legal, and maybe more part of the culture?

I'm suprised that people are surprised by drug use being rife amongst the priviledged set in London and student life in general, now and in the past. I think it's something most grow out of.

DGR - a dream? I thought that is what was happening with Theresa May. She's still PM. I can't remember what happened when Cameron stood down; did he carry on until May was annointed?

I’m also boring - the whole concept of taking drugs terrifies me and I’ve never done it, never wanted to.

I used to see others at uni after a ‘big night’ and was scared by the way they acted.

Drugs must therefore have been available at uni (90s) but there was definitely only a minority who were known to use them.

Drinking on the other hand was standard and there were definitely some who had major drink issues even as students. I don’t even like being drunk

piggy no he didn't take the gun in, just threatened a group of kids with it (enough times for the teacher to overhear). My point was more about the double standards between him (a white 7yo) and my Nigerian friend who is very aware that if her child even mentioned a gun in school there would likely be consequences.

According to the Mail : an article written by Mr Gove in 1999 has emerged. It called for tighter laws on the use of cocaine.

Oh dear, oh dear.

I wonder what the reaction would be if Diane Abbott, or - indeed- Corbyn was found to have taken cocaine. There was a huge fuss when Abbott drank from a can of G and T on a train...

I think we're in for an interesting summer...

Drug use would not necessarily preclude security clearance, denying it and therefore laying oneself open to blackmail would.
Despite hypocrisy being almost de rigeur for a Conservative MP I expect that is what will have blown Gove's chances