the brilliantly leaping gazelle

In common with anyone with an I.Q larger than the radius of their kneecap, I was not in the least bit shocked by Michael Gove’s admission that, as reported in ‘The Guardian’

“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.”

But it was his assertion that he did it ‘on several occasions at social events’ being both so wonderfully non-specific whilst being candidly honest, which causes me to consider if he has a non-exclusive relationship with the truth. It is loose enough to allow for other revelations to emerge. How many is ‘several’ exactly? And how social were these ‘social events’?

And this only further confirmed my opinion of him as a self-serving opportunist who’ll say anything in his quest for power, when the BBC ran a story under the headline

Michael Gove: Cocaine ‘mistake’ a ‘deep regret’

Just once, wouldn’t it make a refreshingly honest break from all this faux-regret if someone said “ Yeah I took drugs and it was great, my only regret looking back is that I didn’t do more. God I miss those times.”

Because do you honestly think that the same journalists and cathode ray moralists who’ll condemn him haven’t – or are – themselves guilty of the same behaviour he is? Dominic Raab, another Tory leadership contender, realized this contradiction when he very subtly appeared to support him but slipped the knife in anyway. As ‘The Guardian’ reported,

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday, Gove’s leadership rival, Dominic Raab said he did not believe the admission would have an impact on Gove’s chances in the leadership race. He said: “I certainly don’t see it barring him from this race in any way. I rather admire his honesty.”

Raab, who has previously admitted taking cannabis as a student, added: “It was a long time ago and pretty few and far between. I have never taken cocaine or any class-A drugs.”

He said class-A drugs were “a bit different” but added: “I’m not going to cast any further aspersions on Michael or anyone else who is just honest about being human and doing the things that some young people do – not everyone, obviously – and holding their hand up and saying: ‘I got that wrong, move on.’”

As someone so pithily observed about Dominic Raab, ‘he looks like he should be a sympathetic hospital consultant, as opposed to what he is.’ A Conservative leadership candidate.