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UK: Tories stand up for Cameron in row over school drug scandal
Philip Webster, Political Editor Times Online
Monday 12 Feb 2007 Senior Conservatives closed ranks round David Cameron last night after disclosures that he was punished for smoking cannabis while at Eton. The Tory leader and his closest allies pointedly declined to deny the allegations, which are in a new biography and were splashed across the front of most Sunday newspapers. Rather than avoid the media, Mr Cameron spoke to reporters outside his constituency home and admitted that he had done things he “regretted”, but said that politicians were entitled to a private life in their past. Other politicians declined to attack him, with John Reid, the Home Secretary, suggesting that it was a “so what?” moment. But some Conservatives urged Mr Cameron to clear the air and suggested that it would not have been a story now if he had admitted it at the time of the leadership election. Lord Tebbit urged him to be “up front” about any past drug use. Mr Cameron and his team are not contesting the allegations but are refusing to confirm or deny them publicly because of his insistence that it is private. George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, said: “The public really don’t care.” Mr Cameron said: “Like many people, I did things when I was young that I shouldn’t have done and that I regret. But I do believe that politicians are entitled to a past that remains private.” He would not be “making any commentary” on the allegations. According to the book Cameron: The Rise Of The New Conservative, by James Han-ning and Francis Elliott, the future Tory leader was in a drug scandal at Eton in 1982. The book alleges that the Eton authorities called police after suspicions that pupils had been using the drug, and seven pupils were expelled. Mr Cameron allegedly confessed to smoking cannabis after being hauled in front of Sir Eric Anderson, the Head Master, when he was named by another pupil. Because he had only smoked the drug and not traded it he escaped expulsion, the book claims. Instead he was “gated” – confined to school grounds – for two weeks, fined and ordered to copy out hundreds of lines of Latin verse. Sir Eric, who is now the Provost of Eton, also taught Tony Blair at Fettes College in Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales at Gordonstoun. William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary and former Tory leader, said: “To me . . . it makes no difference at all.” He told Sunday AM on BBC One: “He has always been very clear that your life before you went into politics is a private life and it should be possible to have that as a private life and he has always been absolutely consistent about that.” Theresa May, the Shadow Leader of the Commons, told Sky News: “I think politicians are entitled to a private past. I think that’s right. Most of us go into politics because we become interested in becoming politicians. We are not spending our whole youth thinking, well, I might be a Member of Parliament, therefore I’m going to be extremely careful about what I’m doing in particular areas.” Last month Mr Cameron said that he would consider legalising cannabis for medicinal use if he won power, but ruled out decriminalising it for recreational use. “If you decrim-inalise, you increase the availability and make it more difficult for parents who are trying to keep their children away from drugs,” he said. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1368968.ece
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