Kings of Cool Contest...Michael Gove admits to taking cocaine on 'several social occasions' Archived Message Posted by Ken Waldron on June 7, 2019, 11:54 pm Cool enough to smoke...and as Bill would say, sensible enough "not to inhale...." We are surrounded by frauds: Michael Gove admits to taking cocaine on 'several social occasions' Tory leadership candidate says he took the drug as a young journalist, adding ‘it was a mistake’ Michael Gove has admitted to taking cocaine, joining fellow Tory leadership contenders in confessing to drug use. “I took drugs on several occasions at social events more than 20 years ago,” he told the Daily Mail. “At the time I was a young journalist. It was a mistake. I look back and I think, I wish I hadn’t done that.” The admission comes as Theresa May enjoys her final days in Downing Street, with a number of the prime minister’s Conservative colleagues vying to replace her. Gove, who the bookmakers have as third in the race behind Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, insisted his past crimes should not be held against him in the leadership race. “I don’t believe that past mistakes disqualify you,” Gove said. The environment secretary’s declaration comes ahead of the publication of a book about him by the journalist Owen Bennett titled Michael Gove: A Man in a Hurry. According to the book, he admitted to having used cocaine to his advisers during the 2016 Tory leadership contest when they were putting him “through his paces”. An inside source reportedly said Gove replied “Yes, cocaine” when he was asked if he had ever taken drugs. However, the former news editor at the Times was never asked the question publicly after May beat him in the second ballot of the race. “Gove was instructed not to give that answer in public, and told to fall back on the words David Cameron had used when he was running for leader, namely that politicians are entitled to a private life before entering politics,” the book claimed. The book is also said to reveal how Gove believes he provided a public service by edging out Johnson during the 2016 race and that he enjoyed “winding up” May during clashes between the two when she was home secretary. Gove reportedly discloses how he was warned he must help deliver Brexit in order to avoid being remembered as a “stooge” of Cameron, who appeared to regard him as a “court jester”. “The book is correct,” Gove told the Daily Mail. “I did take drugs. It is something I deeply regret. Drugs damage lives. They are dangerous and it was a mistake. “Obviously it will be for my colleagues in parliament and members of the Conservative party to decide now if I should be leader. I think all politicians have lives before politics. Certainly when I was working as a journalist I didn’t imagine I would go into politics or public service. I didn’t act with an eye to that.” Gove joins a growing number of Conservative politicians to have discussed their various transgressions with drugs. Wildcard candidate Rory Stewart told the Telegraph last week that he had smoked opium in Afghanistan at a wedding, but that his hosts, a poor family, had most likely put very little of the class A drug in the pipe and it had little effect upon him. The foreign secretary has also been asked whether he took drugs when he was younger. Hunt told the Times: “I think I had a cannabis lassi when I went backpacking through India ... That is almost as naughty as wheat fields”, he said, referring to May’s confession when asked the naughtiest thing she ever did. In 2005, on Have I Got News For You, leadership favourite Johnson said: “I think I was once given cocaine, but I sneezed and so it did not go up my nose. In fact, I may have been doing icing sugar.” Years later, he confirmed that he snorted cocaine and smoked “dope” as a teenager. http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/07/michael-gove-admits-to-taking-cocaine-on-several-social-occasions Message Thread: Kings of Cool Contest...Michael Gove admits to taking cocaine on 'several social occasions' - Ken Waldron June 7, 2019, 11:54 pm Ha bl**dy ha. This is unbelievable. Are they abandoning their Tory base? nm - Tomski June 8, 2019, 12:00 am It's the battle for "edgy" I suppose.... - Ken Waldron June 8, 2019, 12:11 am Ta for that insight Ken, but still I thought the blue-rinse ladies won't like it ... - Tomski June 8, 2019, 12:17 am Re: Ta for that insight Ken, but still I thought the blue-rinse ladies won't like it ... - Ceemac666 June 8, 2019, 2:27 am AAV : It's not the drugs, it's the hypocrisy - CJ June 8, 2019, 3:28 pm   Searching