The only reason this is annoying is that every one of them would be happy to preside over a state that criminalises others for doing the exact same thing. They should be disqualified unless they say they'd legalise.
Rory Stewart took opium too. Do these idiots not realise the damage the illegal drugs trade does to ordinary people in developing countries, or do they just not care?
3 Ducks, you have a point I think, albeit a distant one. Many runners in the campaign have come out as having taken drugs, including Raab et al. I am just unclear as to why they have chosen to d so. Any leaks/reports of former friends who say "x" took whatever drugs I would just say prove it? As did Cameron and Osbourne?
One of the candidates for our next prime minister admitting to taking illegal class A drugs is definitely not as bad as Diane Abbott drinking a can of M&S mojito on a train though, right?
I think the d Abbott comparison would be more useful if all of them were doing their thing either (a) 20 years ago pre politics or (b) 11am on a working day in a public place.
What escaped said. Ceteris paribus, I'd rather be led by someone who did a bit of brain tabasco 20 years ago pre-politics than someone who is on the sauce on a train while shadow Home Sec.
Of course, the thought of either of them leading either a government or a political party is pretty terrifying.
I thought the issue with Abbott wasn’t so much the drinking during the day (who on earth can care about that?) as the fact that she was illegally drinking on a TFL run train.
That’s either deeply ignorant or a proper “I’m above the law” moment - neither of which is a great look on the Shadow Home Sec.
David Cameron said that politicians deserve to be allowed a private life before politics. I think I can agree with that. And I couldn’t give a shit about that retard and her drink on a train ffs what’s with all the pearl clutching over that?
It's a TFL line, she lives in London and the ban has been in place for a decade. There's no way she wasn't aware (and certainly hasn't claimed she wasn't). Not exactly on a par with serial killing as regards criminality either though.
I'm pretty sure many people are unaware of that fact, whereas everyone knows cocaine is illegal and most of us know how many people are killed and how many lives are ruined in poorer parts of the world so that city w**kers can get their fix in club toilets on a Friday night.
I can't say I would be seen drinking on the tube at 11am, and particularly not if I were the shadow home secretary, but it's very clear that it's one rule for Diane Abbott and another rule altogether for white male Tory wannabe prime ministers.
If he’d been seen in the strangers bar doing lines off a hookers arse then I’d agree with you, but we are talking about a historical offence rather than a current minor lack of judgement. Apples n oranges imo.
I still couldn’t give a stuff about either mind you.
Well the signs are there and it was publicised well enough at the time of introduction. Maybe if you didn't live or work in London just prior to and after 2008 it might take a month or two to notice. Not for a moment do I think that offences like this eg cycling on a pavement or driving at 32 in a 30 zone should be routinely prosecuted unless you're causing a problem to others which DA wasn't
As a matter of interest, if any of these self confessed ingesters of various illegal drugs were Solicitors, would it be a matter for the SRA/SDT to get involved with...?
Both bodies are taking an increasingly puritanical and PC view of how Solicitors should behave these days, even in their private lives, so I suspect they would send in the Witchfinder General to investigate...
It would be a mistake to legalise cocaine. I think the state would end up paying more to deal with the consequences than it would save in reduced enforcement costs. And in any case, i don't thnk it can be morally right to legalise something which destroys lives.
Debateable. A common trick of dealers is to offer "free" samples to get new users hooked. Usually in situations where the victim has impaired judgement.
Apparently he confessed as a book is about to come out about it.
There are two ways of looking at it. One he was a journalist in the 90's so it's on a par with a bear admitting to having shat in the woods once upon a time. Alternatively he could have denied it but is admitting to it as he thinks he makes him look a bit more like the average middle aged conservative voter. I think the first option is the more likely.
As for Londoners who don't know there's an alcohol ban on trains why do you think most people you now seeing having a cheeky pre-drink on the way out on the Tube have it in a bag?
Anna, yes, that was exactly my point. They're the people who really suffer. Something that metropolitan liberals snorting lines at North London dinner parties choose to ignore.
Genuine question - if there are no signs on the underground or London overground telling you that it is an offence to drink alcohol, how are you supposed to know?
I was working in central London in and around 2008 and I didn’t know about it either. So much for publicity campaigns. Mind you I missed out on the whole ‘no smoking on train station platforms’ thing too. There were genuinely no signs which is why I didn’t get fined (Bristol Parkway for those who like to spreadsheet my exploits).
Chambers, his bad judgement in taking cocaine as a journalist 20 or so years ago , is something that profession along with many others do regularly. I don't condone it, but should that preclude him from running for PM.
We work and socialise with people who do it routinely, I am sure.
Hoolie, fair does you may not knowingly socialise with friends and acquaintances who do coke, but I suspect you do, same for colleagues , it would be highly unlikely that people in your fir that no one does or has done coke.
How did people miss the well publicised Saturday night Tube party the weekend before drinking on the Tube was banned?
Hoolie my first encounter with coke definitely wasn’t in London. I’m fact I believe the first was in Newcastle and the second was in Bristol and the third in Leeds.
You would have to have a pretty narrow circle of friends pretty much anywhere in the UK not to have at least one or two who liked the odd line of coke from time to time (at least in their 20s and 30s) in the mix and the idea it is limited to 'moneyed London types' is hopelessly inaccurate. Coke in the UK is not really any more expensive than booze.
I think it is actually much more prevalent in provincial cities than in London.
There are signs on the tube explaining drinking alcohol is banned (although they are not massively obvious) and they sometimes make announcements about it at night as well but enforcement is pretty much non-existent.
Coke is for boring losers and no my friends aren't druggies ta
Gove wanted one time drug use to debar people from teaching forever. His pet project. he's a massive hypocrite (and also it would be embarrassing to have a PM that claps like that)
at least Sarah vine hasn't tweeted all weekend so there's a small upside to all this
Loads more people do it than puritanical rof realise.
I was at a party speaking to someone employed by a well known charity this weekend - she started berating me for being a Tory and voting brexit (I didn't tell her obv, but someone else did). I pointed out that the cocaine she was taking was not "fair trade". She didn't like that.
Thing I don’t get is why he came out with it? Presumably he was given the chance to put his side to a tabloid sting or scoop. Be interesting to know who has it in for him. Bojo seems to be getting an easy ride.
He has said he has never lied about it and denied filling in any forms etc on which he lied- I am betting that is not true (eg on visa applications to the US) and it will come out and that will finish him.
On the other hand the new ESTA form is super direct:
“Have you ever violated any law related to possessing, using, or distributing illegal drugs?”
So a recent visit means he has definitely lied, unless you allow for an "innocent until proven guilty" which I guess technically means even after you have admitted something you haven't actually broken the law unless convicted.
There was a piece in the times about this saying party members living in Clapham or Putney won’t give a toss but those living in a Hampshire village will be mortified and look very dimly on it
There was a piece in the times about this saying party members living in Clapham or Putney won’t give a toss but those living in a Hampshire village will be mortified and look very dimly on it
Its all about hypocrisy ebitda - teachers get banned from the profession for life for taking cocaine - so how can one argue one is fit to be PM while throwing people in prison/barring them from their profession for exactly the same thing?
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Given that cocaine turns an individual's cvnt rating up by a factor of 1000, I really do struggle to imagine that!
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You look at that picture of him on the BBC news site and you think WTAF. Dorky glasses, t-shirt, no muscle, looks about 13 and 3/4.
The next PM?
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Chambo wants a man with big muscles to rule over him. Perhaps instead of the hustings we should have a tractor pulling contest.
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Or maybe just not a penfold impersonating rimlicking thundertwot.
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That might be amusing Goose. A JRM / Gove tractor pulling contest. I can't think of any other way to separate both of the idiots.
Be more entertaining than a TV debate.
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Yeah, but what are you going to do when they both collapse with hernias and neither tractor has budged an inch?
I reckon Boris could shift a tractor, the fat chopper.
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crikey we might all be in a better place had our esteemed leaders actually taken something they shouldn’t!
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Boris has said many times that he smoked loads of weed and enjoyed it. Heh.
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The only reason this is annoying is that every one of them would be happy to preside over a state that criminalises others for doing the exact same thing. They should be disqualified unless they say they'd legalise.
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Rory Stewart took opium too. Do these idiots not realise the damage the illegal drugs trade does to ordinary people in developing countries, or do they just not care?
W*nkers
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3 Ducks, you have a point I think, albeit a distant one. Many runners in the campaign have come out as having taken drugs, including Raab et al. I am just unclear as to why they have chosen to d so. Any leaks/reports of former friends who say "x" took whatever drugs I would just say prove it? As did Cameron and Osbourne?
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Pre-empt some kind of tabloid Sunday newspaper story is my guess.
I liked Obama’s take on it « Yes I was young and smoked pot and I inhaled. That was the point! »
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"I was heavily influenced by the Eric Clapton song. And also his views on immigration."
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Tories in "I'm above the law, ultra-privileged and utterly indifferent to the consequences of my behaviour on others" non-shocker.
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Puzzles me that some seem to think that the best response to the damage done by the illegal drug trade is less trade, rather than less illegality.
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One of the candidates for our next prime minister admitting to taking illegal class A drugs is definitely not as bad as Diane Abbott drinking a can of M&S mojito on a train though, right?
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Cocaine is a disgusting drug that rots brains. It should not be legalised
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I think the d Abbott comparison would be more useful if all of them were doing their thing either (a) 20 years ago pre politics or (b) 11am on a working day in a public place.
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The guy’s an utter tool irrespective of whether he misguidedly did a bit of coke when he was younger.
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What escaped said. Ceteris paribus, I'd rather be led by someone who did a bit of brain tabasco 20 years ago pre-politics than someone who is on the sauce on a train while shadow Home Sec.
Of course, the thought of either of them leading either a government or a political party is pretty terrifying.
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I couldn't give a fvck if Gove did a bit of marching powder back in the day or if Abbott likes a cheeky sharpener of a lunch time to be honest.
I do give a fvck that both of them are absolute weapon's grade tossers (although Gove is clearly far far worse than Abbot)
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Gove obviously is far worse than Abbott but he gets a free pass, whereas Abbott's every failing is pounced on with glee by rightards everywhere.
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Occasionally took drugs recreationally in 20s vs currently drinks during the day age 65.
Yes you are correct, I'm more judgmental about one of those things.
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Done more for the ‘Just Say No’ movement than anything else tbqhwy
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"Occasionally took drugs recreationally in 20s vs currently drinks during the day age 65."
Yes I'm sure the House of Commons bar isn't stuffed full from lunchtime onwards.
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I thought the issue with Abbott wasn’t so much the drinking during the day (who on earth can care about that?) as the fact that she was illegally drinking on a TFL run train.
That’s either deeply ignorant or a proper “I’m above the law” moment - neither of which is a great look on the Shadow Home Sec.
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What Hoolie said, ffs.
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Wot arbiter said ffs.
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Is it *deeply* ignorant tho? Most train operators actually sell alcohol on board. I could easily have made the same mistake.
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David Cameron said that politicians deserve to be allowed a private life before politics. I think I can agree with that. And I couldn’t give a shit about that retard and her drink on a train ffs what’s with all the pearl clutching over that?
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is taking coke a big deal nowadays? its absoloutely everywhere across all walks of life. i bet most here have tried it before.
shouldn't be an impediment to becoming PM, see Cameron. no worse than alcohol , just legalise it FFS. job done
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It's a TFL line, she lives in London and the ban has been in place for a decade. There's no way she wasn't aware (and certainly hasn't claimed she wasn't). Not exactly on a par with serial killing as regards criminality either though.
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I don’t think legalising coke is the answer and I say that as someone who has enjoyed it socially numerous times.
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More of a Pepsi man myself.
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I had no idea alcohol was banned on TFL, tbh.
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Heh.
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I'm pretty sure many people are unaware of that fact, whereas everyone knows cocaine is illegal and most of us know how many people are killed and how many lives are ruined in poorer parts of the world so that city w**kers can get their fix in club toilets on a Friday night.
I can't say I would be seen drinking on the tube at 11am, and particularly not if I were the shadow home secretary, but it's very clear that it's one rule for Diane Abbott and another rule altogether for white male Tory wannabe prime ministers.
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I had no idea it was banned. I have seen countless people including office bods with a beer on the train/tube after a days work
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If he’d been seen in the strangers bar doing lines off a hookers arse then I’d agree with you, but we are talking about a historical offence rather than a current minor lack of judgement. Apples n oranges imo.
I still couldn’t give a stuff about either mind you.
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I absolutely refuse to believe that anyone who lives and works in London is unaware of this.
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Even in the face of people who live and work in London or have lived and worked in London in recent years telling you so? OK then.
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I didn’t know about it tbf. Many a Time I’ve had a cheeky can of cider on a tube albeit ate at night when I’m on my way home.
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Right anyway, shopping. Catch y’all later.
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Correct Anna. They are lying.
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This clearly makes Gove unfit for public life and absolutely rules him out as a suitable PM.
Penalties for middle class drug use need to be ramped up severely & he is not a person who could be trusted to make the required decisions.
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I'm not a liar, Buzz. I might be an annoying gobshite sometimes but I'm not a liar.
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I've honestly never seen a sign in the tube to tell people it's illegal
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Well the signs are there and it was publicised well enough at the time of introduction. Maybe if you didn't live or work in London just prior to and after 2008 it might take a month or two to notice. Not for a moment do I think that offences like this eg cycling on a pavement or driving at 32 in a 30 zone should be routinely prosecuted unless you're causing a problem to others which DA wasn't
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As a matter of interest, if any of these self confessed ingesters of various illegal drugs were Solicitors, would it be a matter for the SRA/SDT to get involved with...?
Both bodies are taking an increasingly puritanical and PC view of how Solicitors should behave these days, even in their private lives, so I suspect they would send in the Witchfinder General to investigate...
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(Roffing from the bus stop)
Most of the times I experienced it were at parties/gatherings absolutely rammed with solicitors but perhaps things have changed.
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They have signs about alcohol on the buses, but not on the tube
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I can't say I ever spend my time on public transport reading signs.
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It would be a mistake to legalise cocaine. I think the state would end up paying more to deal with the consequences than it would save in reduced enforcement costs. And in any case, i don't thnk it can be morally right to legalise something which destroys lives.
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Diceman, sensible approach perhaps. What about alcohol ?
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Alcohol is already legal /smartarse :)
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The innocent lives it destroys are those in Latin America. Users make their own choices.
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Debateable. A common trick of dealers is to offer "free" samples to get new users hooked. Usually in situations where the victim has impaired judgement.
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Apparently he confessed as a book is about to come out about it.
There are two ways of looking at it. One he was a journalist in the 90's so it's on a par with a bear admitting to having shat in the woods once upon a time. Alternatively he could have denied it but is admitting to it as he thinks he makes him look a bit more like the average middle aged conservative voter. I think the first option is the more likely.
As for Londoners who don't know there's an alcohol ban on trains why do you think most people you now seeing having a cheeky pre-drink on the way out on the Tube have it in a bag?
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Do the lives of people in Latin America not matter, Dux ?
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Explains Brexit - the feckers have been completely off their faces for the last 3 years
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Yes Tec, that is my point.
Sails never seen that before , frankly, not saying it does not happen though
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I also did not know the tfl rule. Seems a bit weird when you consider all the stinking hot food people are free to eat out of Tupperware.
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Gove and others showed bad judgement. which doesn't't qualify them for anything this important in the real world.
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Totally agree Chambers.
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Anna, yes, that was exactly my point. They're the people who really suffer. Something that metropolitan liberals snorting lines at North London dinner parties choose to ignore.
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Hang on - isn't Gove pro-Brexit and therefore cannot be part of the anti-Brexit "metropolitan elite" surely?
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Was more west London for me tbf.
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Genuine question - if there are no signs on the underground or London overground telling you that it is an offence to drink alcohol, how are you supposed to know?
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I was working in central London in and around 2008 and I didn’t know about it either. So much for publicity campaigns. Mind you I missed out on the whole ‘no smoking on train station platforms’ thing too. There were genuinely no signs which is why I didn’t get fined (Bristol Parkway for those who like to spreadsheet my exploits).
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Chambers, his bad judgement in taking cocaine as a journalist 20 or so years ago , is something that profession along with many others do regularly. I don't condone it, but should that preclude him from running for PM.
We work and socialise with people who do it routinely, I am sure.
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Good, Dux. Just checking. I agree entirely.
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"We work and socialise with people who do it routinely, I am sure."
reasonably sure I don't. I wouldn't want to be friends with a coke head
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Hoolie, fair does you may not knowingly socialise with friends and acquaintances who do coke, but I suspect you do, same for colleagues , it would be highly unlikely that people in your fir that no one does or has done coke.
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No I'm pretty sure my friends and colleagues aren't class A drug users. It's not a normal thing to do outside a certain moneyed London centric type.
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Hoolie, you may be correct about friends and colleagues doing coke, but it is not the moneyed class just doing it.
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Linda I can’t speak for your colleagues but to say only “certain moneyed London centric types” take class A drugs is hopelessly incorrect.
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@ sorry so only people who are moneyed sniff marching powder?
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I can promise you that isn’t true. It’s easier and faster to order than pizza down here, place is bloody awash with it because of so few police.
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Actually I don't really care if Gove did take coke. He's still a gormless looking and sounding buffoon.
Mind you, they all are.
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@ sorry , misread your post.
What Chambers said
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How did people miss the well publicised Saturday night Tube party the weekend before drinking on the Tube was banned?
Hoolie my first encounter with coke definitely wasn’t in London. I’m fact I believe the first was in Newcastle and the second was in Bristol and the third in Leeds.
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You would have to have a pretty narrow circle of friends pretty much anywhere in the UK not to have at least one or two who liked the odd line of coke from time to time (at least in their 20s and 30s) in the mix and the idea it is limited to 'moneyed London types' is hopelessly inaccurate. Coke in the UK is not really any more expensive than booze.
I think it is actually much more prevalent in provincial cities than in London.
There are signs on the tube explaining drinking alcohol is banned (although they are not massively obvious) and they sometimes make announcements about it at night as well but enforcement is pretty much non-existent.
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heh @ all the "all the cool kids do it"
Coke is for boring losers and no my friends aren't druggies ta
Gove wanted one time drug use to debar people from teaching forever. His pet project. he's a massive hypocrite (and also it would be embarrassing to have a PM that claps like that)
at least Sarah vine hasn't tweeted all weekend so there's a small upside to all this
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heh @ Coke is for boring losers.
Mick Jagger
Bob Dylan
Andy Warhol
Eric Clapton
Pope Leo XIII
Shakespeare (mebe).
Boring losers the lot of them....
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Somehow one knew instinctively that the ban on alcohol was Boris Johnson grandstanding
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I am completely happy with my opinion
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Some desperate drug users on here
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Some class (A) contributions on b3ta...
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Loads more people do it than puritanical rof realise.
I was at a party speaking to someone employed by a well known charity this weekend - she started berating me for being a Tory and voting brexit (I didn't tell her obv, but someone else did). I pointed out that the cocaine she was taking was not "fair trade". She didn't like that.
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No I'm saying the opposite ebitda
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shit I've just read your second message
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Thing I don’t get is why he came out with it? Presumably he was given the chance to put his side to a tabloid sting or scoop. Be interesting to know who has it in for him. Bojo seems to be getting an easy ride.
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Apparently the Daily Mail was about to publish an extract from a biography that confirmed it:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/09/behind-the-story-of-michael-gove-cocaine-use
How the biographer found out is of course an altogether different matter.
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He has said he has never lied about it and denied filling in any forms etc on which he lied- I am betting that is not true (eg on visa applications to the US) and it will come out and that will finish him.
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This looks like the old visa waiver form to me (assuming the terrible link works):
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://i.stack.imgur.com/NhlML.jpg&imgrefurl=https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/5416/what-is-the-use-of-the-questions-on-the-us-visa-waiver-form&h=1638&w=1252&tbnid=CcoTqkaYXNsBIM&q=us+visa+waiver&tbnh=150&tbnw=115&usg=AI4_-kSKClaGdyd1JaF4uoDSQlLDB6UpUw&vet=1&docid=n3wHDdlmluPW9M&itg=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiqzZa8z97iAhX_QxUIHfLIDGkQ_h0wFnoECA0QBA
It only talks about convictions rather than use.
On the other hand the new ESTA form is super direct:
“Have you ever violated any law related to possessing, using, or distributing illegal drugs?”
So a recent visit means he has definitely lied, unless you allow for an "innocent until proven guilty" which I guess technically means even after you have admitted something you haven't actually broken the law unless convicted.
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Partner I worked for had a QC offer him a line at the chambers party.
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There was a piece in the times about this saying party members living in Clapham or Putney won’t give a toss but those living in a Hampshire village will be mortified and look very dimly on it
I for one think so what
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There was a piece in the times about this saying party members living in Clapham or Putney won’t give a toss but those living in a Hampshire village will be mortified and look very dimly on it
I for one think so what
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Its all about hypocrisy ebitda - teachers get banned from the profession for life for taking cocaine - so how can one argue one is fit to be PM while throwing people in prison/barring them from their profession for exactly the same thing?
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Because he deeply regrets his actions.
Deeply. Regrets. His. Actions.
Deeply.
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