Peter Hitchens is on splendid form.
In particular:
I think BBC presenters especially should be asked outright on air if they use illegal drugs, or allow their children to do so, if only so that we can enjoy the awkward pauses that follow.
And:
If we could see just half a dozen rock stars, rock brats, BBC presenters and politicians doing time for cannabis possession, then I think I can guarantee you a satisfying drop in cannabis use, and a general improvement in the mental health of the nation.
All we need to do now is dissolve the wretched Association of Chief Police Officers, those liberal friends of crime, and enforce the law of the land.
But he is quite wrong to talk about an entire generation. In the Sixties and Seventies, most people were too busy working to be involved in that sort of thing. Then as now, people the same age as undergraduates were getting up at six o’clock in the morning in order to pay for the rather more relaxed lifestyles of their higher-born contemporaries.
Indeed, even of those of us who have attended university in the last forty years, no fewer than half (and probably a great deal more than that) have never used any illegal drug, while most of the rest have done so only once or twice.
Like old Communists, Trotskyists and fellow-travellers, and like members of the Bullingdon Club, past or present habitual drug users comprise a tiny number of people, yet are found with staggering frequency in positions of power and influence. Where they are always utterly unrepentant. Just like old Communists, Trotskyists and fellow-travellers. And just like members of the Bullingdon Club.
The whole thing cries out for vastly more investigation.
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David - you say that
ReplyDelete"of those of us who have attended university in the last forty years, no fewer than half (and probably a great deal more than that) have never used any illegal drug, while most of the rest have done so only once or twice"
you then say
"The whole thing cries out for vastly more investigation"
Does that mean you don't know whether what you say is true or not? If it is true, where was this cited?
The paragraph between the two that you quote makes it clear that the latter does not refer directly to the former.
ReplyDeleteMy point is that hardly anyone has ever been an habitual drug user (or a Marxist, or a member of the Bullingdon Club), yet those who have been are very frequently found in the upper echelons. How did this come to pass?