Saturday, October 15, 2005

Who cares about what someone did decades ago?

The Conservative Party leadership election has become obsessed with drugs this week. Given that the media have never forced Tony Blair to answer the question of whether he took drugs in his youth one has to ask why so much pressure has been put on David Cameron. Hopefully this will now ease.

What I find particularly shocking is the way that many media commentators claim that anyone who's been a student at any point since the mid 1960s will have tried drugs. This is simply bollocks. These days an increasing number of students don't even smoke tobacco and many will have no truck with anything else. A lot wouldn't even know how exactly to take them. However the media carries on in ignorance of this - perhaps the ones who should be answering their question are rather closer to them than they make out?

1 comment:

James Burdett said...

It is quite clear why the drugs thing was given so much attention. David Cameron represents a strand of Conservatism that actually wants to win an election. Those who stoked the rumours think that idealogical purity is paramount even if it means going on a journey to the lunatic fringe. I agree with you most of the students I know haven't tried anything harder than alcohol and pro-plus...Ah well that must be the difference between the real world and the media bubble!!

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