MPs and Illegal Drugs

[Guest]

This thread won't be popular with many and I don't mean it personally towards anyone on here. I am absolutely sick to the back teeth of hearing revelations about MPs and past drug taking. Mensch, 40, wife of the manager of Metallica, second marriage, admits to "probably" having been on them - substance unspecified - when with Nigel Kennedy in the 1990s. "We all do idiotic things when young". We then have Tom Watson piping up "It seems that someone has been digging into the youth of Louise Mensch. "I admire her for what she has done. The fact that they would go back 20 years and try to dig up into her private life is frankly disgusting." And then from Kennedy himself, that really vicious little comment on her behalf "Louise is pretty scary and I would warn anyone that it's not a good idea to mess with her." Yeah, right Nigel, who? Like the police you mean?

This all emerges "coincidentally" because journalists "got" the story just as she falls out with Piers Morgan over phone hacking. It appears she was "outed". And, of course, it follows on from many Labour members talking about their use of soft drugs when it seemed that the PM was on the back foot because of questions about the harder stuff. Well, I don't admire her for what she has done. I don't admire the wealthy privileged (private school education,once close to HRH Princess Badiya bint El Hassan of Jordan, mother once big on a County Council) sticking two fingers up to the law and us plebs, then just sailing into Parliament. I don't admire all the pontificating in Committees about what others should and should not be doing lawfully just a few years down the line. I don't admire the fact that this was a "confession" under force that was not at all heartfelt - the "probably", the airy tone of "it wasn't much really", the lack of specifics. I don't admire the arrogance and the gross hypocrisy. Furthermore, I don't admire the fact that we have got the still immature, amoral and very unadmirable taking the key decisions.

I've been to gigs and festivals on more occasions than many have been to a beach. I didn't need illegal drugs. I was a drinker - not now - and remain addicted to the cigarettes. Of course, in the world of our ex-druggy representatives both are simply appalling and must be stamped out. Perhaps the problem for them is that they are lawful (or not sufficiently middle class). Anyhow, actually, I don't believe that in every case this is just in the past. Sorry but I would like the tabloids to dig out every bit of information they can on the current illegal drug taking habits of MPs just as they waged war on the expenses claims. This is not the same as the protection of the rights of the vulnerable, like Sara Payne or the parents of Milly Dowler, nor is it the same as the protection of the rights of those with colourful, legal, sex lives. It is not even the same as protecting celebs or ordinary citizens who are or have been on illegal drugs. It is a question of whether our law makers are at root disrespectful to the law. If so, they should get out.

[Mandryka]

Nigel Kennedy's comments made me chuckle inordinately and raised him several bars in my estimation.

Mensch/Bagshawe comes across badly on television, wears far too much make-up and is entirely typical of the kind of cancer that has taken root in the Conservative Party.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Lat watch yer blood pressure .... somewhat disproportionate judgement there ... there are no saints, we would never find politicians who were entirely sensible in their youth ... and would we want them? and such disapproval plays straight into the shock horror tabloid tactic ... she is clearly being monstered for her comments and questions in hackgate ... i gather she has apologised for what she said about Morgan ...

what ms mensch replied to hack

Although I do not remember the specific incident, this sounds highly probable. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Nigel Kennedy, whom I remember with affection. Additionally, since I was in my twenties, I’m sure it was not the only incident of the kind; we all do idiotic things when young. I am not a very good dancer and must apologise to any and all journalists who were forced to watch me dance that night at Ronnie Scott’s.

[Lateralthinking1]

I can understand where you are coming from Calum and respect your point of view. Still, I come at this from a number of angles:

One is that I always thought it was absolutely diabolical - and downright hypocritical - that "everything starts with an e" MPs took the jackboot to innocuous OAPs and the like who just enjoyed 20 Benson. I will never get over seeing them shuffling out into the rain when I was at the Legion in Corfe Castle like the dispossessed. Course our Parliamentarians wanted to (over) protect their kids which was largely an indication of their own guilt and lack of self-constraint. The ban should have been firmly on age grounds.

Next, I believe without any shadow of a doubt that the financial crash was a cocaine fuelled one. That with all of the implications on jobs and pensions. It was rife in the city. Personally, I also know that a very senior civil servant who very much helped to shape economic policy here, and who was a friend for 25 years, was secretly on the stuff and that, as it turned out, was only a small part of the life "compartmentalising" which cast a very different light on the development of policy itself.

Third, drugs aside, the issue of MPs and criminality. What percentage of the pompous old stuffed shirts in the 50s, 60s and 70s were or had been law breakers? Tiny. Now it is almost the lot and it really is dismal beyond belief.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

... death taxes and hypocrisy will always be with us eh?

[Lateralthinking1]

Two of them. On the third, it depends how the cryogenics go. Fridges full of ex-Bullingdon men with Dave and Boris haircuts. Ah, the future of the world is safe and we can all sleep easily.

[Anna]

I don't care how many MPs may have taken drugs in their youth, as long as they are not sharing a bong in The Cabinet Office now. Surely it shows that they were young and experimented with sex and drugs and rock and roll like their consituents did ?

We have all done the equivalent to dancing in Ronnie Scott's out of our minds with Nigel Kennedy, have we not?

p.s. I don't get the Benson & Hedges Corfe Castle link and the ageist stuff

[johnb]

Oh for heaven's sake calm down.

Show me someone who has lived an entirely blameless life, who has never done anything that would be frowned upon and I will show you someone who is dull and insipid.

[LHC]

While I agree that drug taking is not and should not be regarded as a trivial matter, I also think that a requirement that MPs should have led entirely blameless lives before entering parliament is both unrealistic and potentially dangerous.

It would give far too much power to the muck-raking tabloids and could also deter people who might make excellent MPs from seeking office simply because they might have done something stupid in the past. It would also mean that people in public office would be more open to blackmail in order to cover up any past misdemeanours. I am much more interested in what MPs believe and do now, rather than what they did in the past.

Turning to the case in point, it is clear that Louise Mensch has been targetted because of her spat with the odious Piers Moron. It is an example of the type of revenge on public figures that Murdoch's papers were known to take. While in no way condoning her behaviour many years ago, I think her 'publish and be damned' response to this attempted blackmail by the press is admirable. If other MPs had acted like that in the past, News International would not have been able to gain the power it did.

Finally, the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces was long overdue. It was not done to spite old people or smokers, but was necessary to protect the health of non-smokers forced to inhale others' smoke.

[Lateralthinking1]

On post 8, Obama, Mandela, Rowan Williams, the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Tony Benn, Ann Widdecombe, Shirley Williams, possibly Caroline Lucas.

On 7, smokers are more likely to be working class and older, MPs are more likely to be wealthy and younger. I certainly don't think that anyone who has even once taken an illegal substance should have ever had a leg to stand on with regard to any decisions about smoking. The similarity was both are drugs. The distinction was only one represented lawfulness. The cost to this country of bankers on coke has been far more disastrous to health than secondary smoking ever was. I'm vehement on that.

On 9, I could accept MPs of average wealth having had past misdemeanours as we need more of them in politics. It might be the only way we'd get more there. Generally, I'm cool on cannabis use among the general population but don't indulge myself. My view, no doubt unreasonable to many, is that the price the well-off must pay for having power is to have higher than average standards.

[Flosshilde]

Lateral, I agree with Calum that you need to calm down a bit. You seem to feel somehow virtuous because you had (have?) a dependency on drugs that are currently legal, and which are, in you view, 'working class'. You also seem to object to one of the major public health measures in recent times - the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces. Don't you think that the improvement in the health of pub & bar staff is beneficial?

[Anna]

Oh for heaven's sake calm down.

Show me someone who has lived an entirely blameless life, who has never done anything that would be frowned upon and I will show you someone who is dull and insipid.

Oh me Sir, Please Sir, choose Me Sir!!! Innocent as the day that I was born Sir, Dull and Insipid, it's Me Trademark Sir, I make a fortune out of it fanks to that Max Clifford and them Tabloids!

[Serial_Apologist]

Oh me Sir, Please Sir, choose Me Sir!!! Innocent as the day that I was born Sir, Dull and Insipid, it's Me Trademark Sir, I make a fortune out of it fanks to that Max Clifford and them Tabloids!

Just as I thought, young man. Now, take your hands out of those pockets, wipe your nose - no, NOT on your sleeve! - and run along.

[Lateralthinking1]

Smoking - Should have been made illegal for those born 1991 and later. Ban in restaurants. Pub managers to choose.

Young middle class elites - Need very careful constraining. They are mainly hypocritical tricksters. They have got the age thing going - ie younger people are so much poorer than older generations and this needs to be addressed. What you will get is them orchestrating it so that the money is redistributed between the generations in 80% of the families while those families get nothing more in total. The top 20% sit less than prettily on top of the pile still raking it in.

Just as they have warped the arguments on drugs so that 90% of the energy has been targeted at a legal substance, so they are using age to divert from the real issue which is inequality between families. Direct parallel there I think - and it is a trend!

[johnb]

Just as I thought, young man [replying to Anna]. Now, take your hands out of those pockets, wipe your nose - no, NOT on your sleeve! - and run along.

Errr ... perhaps I should have a word with you sometime!