It was bold from Starmer to go on Sun TV’s first show with Harry Cole. He should have known that Cole would be asking the more fun and personal questions. Still, when asked if he had ever taken drugs, Starmer stonewalled. Harry challenged Keir: “When did you last take illegal drugs?” All Keir would confirm was that “Harry, I had a good time when I was a student”. When asked what a good time was, Keir simply repeated the line “It means I had a good time.” Starmer, characteristically, stayed on the fence.
Guido reminds his readers of an anecdote of a square, slightly fresher faced Starmer. In 1989, the young barrister argued on our behalf that Thames Valley Police had acted unlawfully by setting up roadblocks and confiscating sound equipment to prevent a Sunrise rave from taking place. Amongst small talk with the rave organisers, Starmer told them that during his youth, he had experimented with LSD. Perhaps an attempt to boost his street-cred, though notably he didn’t say a hard no to Harry’s question…
Evening Standard owner Evgeny Lebedev appeared yesterday on the Drug Science Podcast to speak to former UK drugs tsar Professor David Nutt about his powerful experience with the South American psychedelic brew ayahuasca. Nutt has appeared today on Lebedev’s own podcast Brave New World to discuss Lord Lebedev’s firm belief “in the power of psychedelics as a cure for today’s mental health crisis“. The FDA is reviewing psychoactive substances, Australia has already legalised them for treating mental health issues…
We already know that use of magic mushrooms can boost economic productivity and make investors money. With research showing that left-wing individuals are dramatically more likely to be diagnosed with mental health conditions, psychedelics could solve rampant socialism too. No wonder the last Labour government criminalised harvesting and using naturally growing psilocybin mushrooms …
Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones told the Today Programme it wasn’t ‘appropriate’ to ask whether or not David Lammy was shopping prior to DPMQs instead of trying to sort out the released prisoner:
“He was preparing for Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions. He was preparing to stand in for the Prime Minister, the first ever black person to do so… He cracked a joke because his poppy had fallen off this suit, which he also addressed during the Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions… I don’t think it’s appropriate to get into the weeds of if he was shopping or not in the morning.”
