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UK: Cameron wins wide support on taking cannabis
Michael Settle, Chief UK Political Correspondent The Herald
Monday 12 Feb 2007 Politicians and the public yesterday gave a collective shrug at the claim, as a 15-year-old schoolboy at Eton, David Cameron smoked cannabis. The Conservative leader all but confirmed his youthful indiscretion when, faced with a small gathering of reporters outside his Oxfordshire home, he told them he was "not issuing a denial" but stressed how he would stick to his previously held line, saying: "I do believe that politicians are entitled to a past that is private and remains private." It was this line which Mr Cameron, 40, stuck to when suspicions about a youthful indiscretion with drugs first surfaced during the Tory leadership contest in 2005. According to a new biography Cameron: The Rise Of The New Conservative, serialised in two Sunday newspapers, the future party leader was caught up in a drugs scandal at his public school in 1982 - weeks before his O-level exams. advertisement Declaring he would "not be making any commentary" on the newspaper stories, he said: "I'm not issuing a denial, what I am saying is it's an important principle that politicians are entitled to a private past. "Today, I'm a member of Parliament, I'm someone putting myself forward to be Prime Minister. You are perfectly entitled to come and follow me round, put cameras up my nose, have a good look at me, even come and watch me cook Sunday lunch if you like, but I wouldn't recommend it." Dressed in a brown round-necked jumper and beige corduroy trousers, a relaxed Mr Cameron spoke to journalists outside his Cotswold home in the upmarket village of Dean, also the home of the late comic actor Ronnie Barker. He then left the house to take his children to church but not before bringing the press back a tray of steaming coffee. Politicians of differing party colours agreed that, given his age at the time, Mr Cameron's teenage drug-taking would have no bearing on his political career. Theresa May, shadow leader of the Commons, agreed: "To most people this is a non-story. What people will be interested in is what we, as a party, would do in government on the drugs issue. We have been absolutely clear on that, we would reclassify cannabis from Class C to Class B and would put more into drug rehabilitation." Last month, the Conservative leader said he would consider legalising cannabis for medicinal use if he won power but ruled out decriminalising it for recreational use. For once yesterday, Mr Cameron found an ally in John Reid, Home Secretary, who said: "It was Andy Warhol who said most statements could be answered with the question so what?'. This is one of those so what?' moments." He added: "Do we want to get to the level of ensuring that every politician who is elected or bids for leadership or takes part in national politics is a sort of plastic politician produced off some colourless and characterless conveyor belt? I don't think that would serve politics well." The biography alleges the Eton authorities called police in after suspicions were raised that a number of pupils had been involved with cannabis. Seven were eventually expelled. Drugs squad officers searched pupils' rooms for evidence of the drug, which was thought to have been smoked in parties where groups of around 10 boys gathered to listen to reggae records. Mr Cameron supposedly confessed to smoking cannabis after being hauled in front of headteacher Eric Anderson when he was named by another pupil. However, because he'd only smoked the illegal substance, and not traded it, he escaped expulsion and instead was confined to the school grounds for two weeks, fined and ordered to copy out hundreds of lines of Latin verse.
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