M.Gove regrets using cocaine

Pep
Pep Posts: 501
edited June 2019 in The cake stop
So Michael Gove regrets having snorted cocaine in his youth.
This comes after Obama, Cameron, Johnson ...
Come one, these are politicians. They value PR above all and have so little care for honesty. Is it just me thinking maybe it's just a PR move to make himself looking more "normal", perhaps he never used drugs and just made up a story to be more likable? It helps when you have rich parents and risk appearing disconnected from people.

Your thoughts?
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Comments

  • darkhairedlord
    darkhairedlord Posts: 7,180
    Its owning the narrative. Saves having a Frank bough expose sometime in the next few weeks.
  • imposter2.0
    imposter2.0 Posts: 12,028
    I'd be more wary of any politician that said they hadn't done drugs at some point...
  • sungod
    sungod Posts: 16,432
    imo simply getting the dirt out early, by the time the voting starts it'll have been normalised

    plus a number of other runners for tory leader have used drugs, including johnson, it's early enough for this to be (re-)publicised, so that gove can't be singled out

    if it were to have emerged close to the vote, it'd be more likely to damage him

    anyway, it's evident that being a liar, or committing criminal offences, is not a problem for the tory party, perhaps it's what they look for in a leader
    my bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny
  • PhilipPirrip
    PhilipPirrip Posts: 616
    Such faux contrition, once someone realises a past action may affect future opportunities , is morally bankrupt.

    But then this is Michael Gove who used public money to fight FOI requests so morally bankrupt is par for the course.
  • Yep, it's a PR move.
  • Jez mon
    Jez mon Posts: 3,809
    A PR move to make himself more likeable? Nah, I imagine most of the Conservative membership are of the opinion that drugs are the devil. He's merely taken the chance to reveal it before someone else revealed it for him.
    You live and learn. At any rate, you live
  • crispybug2
    crispybug2 Posts: 2,915
    It’s a somewhat unlikely source but George W Bush came up one of the wisest and best observed quotes about the shite you get up to in your younger days


    “When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible!”
  • slowmart
    slowmart Posts: 4,474
    inept, incapable and simply not up the the job are not part of the conversation?

    But I snorted cocaine twenty years ago?

    Snorting coke off a whores ar5e at least implies imagination and a certain level of creativity which seems to be lacking from Goves apologetic narrative
    “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realize fishing is stupid and boring”

    Desmond Tutu
  • hadoken
    hadoken Posts: 29
    Pep wrote:
    So Michael Gove regrets having snorted cocaine in his youth.
    This comes after Obama, Cameron, Johnson ...
    Come one, these are politicians. They value PR above all and have so little care for honesty. Is it just me thinking maybe it's just a PR move to make himself looking more "normal", perhaps he never used drugs and just made up a story to be more likable? It helps when you have rich parents and risk appearing disconnected from people.

    Your thoughts?

    Gove is 52 years old, he did this 20 years ago which made him 32 years old, hardly youth! If he didn't know right from wrong in his thirties he's got no hope!!
  • Stevo_666
    Stevo_666 Posts: 58,149
    I wonder when we'll reach the point on Cake Stop where the only threads are political ones? Maybe there's one for this already? :wink:
    https://forum.bikeradar.com/viewtopic.php?t=13100964&start=460
    "I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,218
    So when it’s a posh boy it’s endearing and when it’s a poor man it’s a societal problem, right?

    What’s his voting record on drugs?
  • monkimark
    monkimark Posts: 1,451
    I don't really care that he took cocaine but i do care that he was justice secretary in a system that puts people in jail for 7 years for possession of cocaine yet thinks it shouldn't affect his chances of running the country.
  • Pep
    Pep Posts: 501
    Double standards.
    Anyone surprised?
  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 8,718
    Who has served 7 years for possession of cocaine?
    [Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]
  • Stevo_666
    Stevo_666 Posts: 58,149
    So when it’s a posh boy it’s endearing and when it’s a poor man it’s a societal problem, right?

    What’s his voting record on drugs?
    Want some ketchup with your chip?

    And missing the point yet again. I was saying there was already a thread for that sort of thing.
    "I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]
  • webboo
    webboo Posts: 6,087
    If he’d been caught in possession of Cocaine. He wouldn’t be able to get a job as a teacher, nurse, doctor, police officer, solicitor and a few more but it’s ok for him to become Prime Minister. :lol:
  • pblakeney
    pblakeney Posts: 25,586
    Let's be clear on one simple fact. He does not regret taking cocaine, as he is claiming or it wouldn't have taken 20 years. He regrets that it has become public knowledge that he took cocaine. Different.
    The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
    I am not sure. You have no chance.
    Veronese68 wrote:
    PB is the most sensible person on here.
  • chris_bass
    chris_bass Posts: 4,913
    PBlakeney wrote:
    Let's be clear on one simple fact. He does not regret taking cocaine, as he is claiming or it wouldn't have taken 20 years. He regrets that it has become public knowledge that he took cocaine. Different.

    Can you not regret anything that isn't public knowledge with making it public? Why can't it be both?

    I'm not saying he does or doesn't but you can't say he doesn't regret something because he didn't tell the public! I regret stuff I've not told anyone about let alone the national press!!
    www.conjunctivitis.com - a site for sore eyes
  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 8,718
    Well who knows why he regrets taking it. Maybe he now thinks the enjoyment was not worth it given the subsequent embarrassment in his political career, maybe he has a greater awareness of the harm the cocaine trade does, who knows.

    Ultimately who cares. If teachers are banned from teaching or doctors from practising medicine because of a 20 year old conviction for possession then more fool us for wasting their training when there is a shortage of both.

    Personally I'm tranquil about a future PM having taken drugs, I've taken them myself (not for many years), everybody in my social circle did and i would think most contributing to this forum have at some time on same scale too. I'm not an advocate of cocaine use at all, I've never taken any either but I mean come on who really cares.
    [Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]
  • pblakeney
    pblakeney Posts: 25,586
    Chris Bass wrote:
    PBlakeney wrote:
    Let's be clear on one simple fact. He does not regret taking cocaine, as he is claiming or it wouldn't have taken 20 years. He regrets that it has become public knowledge that he took cocaine. Different.

    Can you not regret anything that isn't public knowledge with making it public? Why can't it be both?

    I'm not saying he does or doesn't but you can't say he doesn't regret something because he didn't tell the public! I regret stuff I've not told anyone about let alone the national press!!
    You can be more generous than me if you wish. I see other motives, and hypocrisies.

    "The environment secretary said he believed the "mistake" should not be held against him in his bid to become prime minister."
    The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
    I am not sure. You have no chance.
    Veronese68 wrote:
    PB is the most sensible person on here.
  • kajjal
    kajjal Posts: 3,380
    Well who knows why he regrets taking it. Maybe he now thinks the enjoyment was not worth it given the subsequent embarrassment in his political career, maybe he has a greater awareness of the harm the cocaine trade does, who knows.

    Ultimately who cares. If teachers are banned from teaching or doctors from practising medicine because of a 20 year old conviction for possession then more fool us for wasting their training when there is a shortage of both.

    Personally I'm tranquil about a future PM having taken drugs, I've taken them myself (not for many years), everybody in my social circle did and i would think most contributing to this forum have at some time on same scale too. I'm not an advocate of cocaine use at all, I've never taken any either but I mean come on who really cares.

    Who cares ?

    The people being terrorised by the organised crime operations behind its production and distribution, the health care professionals & law enforcement having to deal with it, the addicts / users who’s families are impacted by this and also people through no fault of their own by the actions of people under the influence of drugs.
  • rjsterry
    rjsterry Posts: 27,483
    PBlakeney wrote:
    Chris Bass wrote:
    PBlakeney wrote:
    Let's be clear on one simple fact. He does not regret taking cocaine, as he is claiming or it wouldn't have taken 20 years. He regrets that it has become public knowledge that he took cocaine. Different.

    Can you not regret anything that isn't public knowledge with making it public? Why can't it be both?

    I'm not saying he does or doesn't but you can't say he doesn't regret something because he didn't tell the public! I regret stuff I've not told anyone about let alone the national press!!
    You can be more generous than me if you wish. I see other motives, and hypocrisies.

    "The environment secretary said he believed the "mistake" should not be held against him in his bid to become prime minister."

    He could certainly expand on why he now regrets doing it and why he thinks it shouldn't now hold him back if he wants that to be a more believable narrative. If that were to be reflected in a change of direction on drug policy as part of his pitch to be PM, he might have fewer accusations of hypocrisy.
    1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
    Pinnacle Monzonite

    Part of the anti-growth coalition
  • robert88
    robert88 Posts: 2,696
    He's only trying to compete with Monsieur Johnston.

    Johnson admits using cocaine as a teenager

    It appears it was not penetrative as he sneezed at the crucial moment.
  • sungod
    sungod Posts: 16,432
    there's also the grass, don't recall any claim that johnson didn't inhale that
    my bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny
  • Matthewfalle
    Matthewfalle Posts: 17,380
    posh drug for a posh Tory fascist. sums it up really.

    we believe he only 'fessed up to it now because it was coming out in a book next week/week after anyhow.

    and he is 2nd in the leadership polls after johnson ......


    blimey - may, johnson, gove ...... is this really the best they have?

    #hypocrit
    #fascist
    #Toriesarefascists
    Postby team47b » Sun Jun 28, 2015 11:53 am

    De Sisti wrote:
    This is one of the silliest threads I've come across. :lol:

    Recognition at last Matthew, well done!, a justified honour :D
    smithy21 wrote:

    He's right you know.
  • dowtcha
    dowtcha Posts: 442
    I used to take alot of class A drugs in my 20's and 30's. I thought that was an expensive hobby till I took up cycling.
  • Matthewfalle
    Matthewfalle Posts: 17,380
    Dowtcha wrote:
    I used to take alot of class A drugs in my 20's and 30's. I thought that was an expensive hobby till I took up cycling.


    :D
    Postby team47b » Sun Jun 28, 2015 11:53 am

    De Sisti wrote:
    This is one of the silliest threads I've come across. :lol:

    Recognition at last Matthew, well done!, a justified honour :D
    smithy21 wrote:

    He's right you know.
  • frisbee
    frisbee Posts: 691
    At least he didn't do anything truly unforgivable, like drink a Mojito on a train.
  • chris_bass
    chris_bass Posts: 4,913
    posh drug for a posh Tory fascist. sums it up really.

    we believe he only 'fessed up to it now because it was coming out in a book next week/week after anyhow.

    and he is 2nd in the leadership polls after johnson ......


    blimey - may, johnson, gove ...... is this really the best they have?

    #hypocrit
    #fascist
    #Toriesarefascists

    Posh drug? Hardly, probably the 2nd most common (or should that be house of common?) these days, maybe pushed into 3rd by e/mdma!

    #whocares
    www.conjunctivitis.com - a site for sore eyes
  • john80
    john80 Posts: 2,965
    To be honest at least give has been mashed out his tits. May apparently ran through a field of wheat. I can't imagine a childhood so pathetic as this.