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Members & staff of UKIP past & present. Committed to reforming the party by exposing the corruption and dishonesty that lies at its heart, in the hope of making it fit for purpose. Only by removing Nigel Farage and his sycophants on the NEC can we save UKIP from electoral oblivion. SEE: http://juniusonukip.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/a-statement-re-junius.html

Saturday 29 November 2008

Gawain Towler: Don't sit on the Grass


From my dusty files:


The Evening Standard (London) October 4, 2000


'My parents tell me they'd rather I had a joint than got drunk'; ... AND EVEN THE YOUNG CONSERVATIVES THINK SHE IS BONKERS

THE YOUNG Tories of old had a reputation for drunken abandon - the organisation has since been rebranded as Conservative Future to improve its image - but drugs of any kind were apparently always taboo.

However, at least some of the new generation have managed to combine a love of strong policies on law and order with a discreet puff of cannabis.

Shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe's proposal today that there should be zero tolerance of cannabis use received a mixed reaction among younger delegates in Bournemouth - with several young Conservatives, including a would-be MP, admitting they had smoked the drug.

The most open on the subject was 18-year-old Cara Cuthbertson, a politics, business and English student at Llandudno College, who said that not only does she smoke cannabis regularly but does so with the approval of her Conservative-voting parents. "I don't think this new policy is a good idea at all," she said. "Drinking makes people violent and that is a real social problem, especially where I live in Wales. But people who are stoned tend to want to stay indoors where they don't cause any trouble. I smoke dope and my parents have smoked it. They tell me they'd rather I had a few joints than get drunk as it is less harmful.

"I wouldn't advocate legalising cannabis because I think a lot of older people would have a real problem with that."Perhaps surprisingly, given Miss Widdecombe's hard line, even a young would-be MP was today prepared to admit having smoked joints - and having inhaled. Prospective parliamentary candidate for Glasgow Maryhill, Gawain Towler, 32, said: "When I went before the selection committee I had to tell them that I had smoked pot as a student a few years ago. But they didn't seem to have a problem with that."

End of article.

Gawain Towler is currently a UKIP MEP candidate in the South West.

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