22/10/2007 00:00:00
UK: We all do stupid things as teenagers say MPs
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CAMBRIDGE MP David Howarth today shrugged off claims his favoured
candidate for the Liberal Democrat leadership Chris Huhne once published
an article advocating tolerance of Class A drugs such as opium, LSD and
heroin.
Mr Howarth branded their appearance at the weekend as "a smear".
And county Tory colleagues Andrew Lansley and Jim Paice agreed student
indiscretions were not a reason to disqualify the Eastleigh MP from high
political office.
As the Lib Dem leadership campaign hots up with 53-yearold Mr Huhne
claiming he has the experience for the top party job and his 40-year
rival Nick Clegg promoting his talents as a communicator, the party's
environment spokesman was tackled on the article which appeared under
his byline in the Oxford University student magazine Isisin 1973.
He insisted he could not remember writing an article as a student
advocating the tolerance of the use of Class A drugs like opium and LSD.
He did not deny authorship of the piece, however, and has admitted he
was "a revolting teenager in both senses" at the time. He stressed the
article did not reflect his current opinions about drug policy. The
Sunday Timesprinted extracts from the article, which said opium, LSD and
amphetamines should be "an accepted facet of our society".
It said: "There are a number of people who are open-minded about
experimenting with drugs. This tolerance is welcome, and it is only with
the aid of this tolerance that drugs can be put in their correct
unsensationalist place as a social phenomenon with great and respectable
antecedents."
He told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: "I don't remember writing it, but I
have written an awful lot since then and there is a lot I don't remember.
"These are clearly not my views. Frankly, I certainly admit to being a
revolting teenager in both senses of the word, so on that basis, I would
simply draw a veil over it."
Mr Howarth - who has admitted smoking cannabis as a Cambridge
undergraduate - is a leading supporter of Mr Huhne.
He said: "What Chris said seems to be perfectly reasonable. I suspect
that it's just a smear.
"He didn't say he wrote it. He may just have edited it. As he said as a
journalist he has written or edited thousands of pieces."
Shadow Health Secretary and Cambridgeshire South MP Mr Lansley said:
"There are a lot of people around who did things as teenagers and
students they now regret as youthful indiscretions.
"Personally, I don't think you can hold such things against people many
years in the future."
Tory farming spokesman and Cambridgeshire South East MP Jim Paice said:
"Frankly I don't think it matters what Chris Huhne may or may not have
written in 1973. These are clearly not his views now.
Everybody does things in their youth they regret. I hate to think of
what I might have been up to at the same age.
"It's no disqualification from political office or leading the Liberal
Democrats.
"You can't do that on the basis of what someone published 34 years ago."
The revelation came as both Mr Huhne and 40-year-old Cambridge graduate
rival Mr Clegg - who has admitted burning down a greenhouse full of
prize cactuses in Germany while drunk as a 16-year-old - tried to show
why they were the best candidate to succeed Sir Menzies Cambell as Lib
Dem leader.
But Mr Clegg said: "What this is about is how we can reach the millions
of people who I am sincerely convinced share our Liberal values of
fairness and internationalism.
"I wouldn't be standing if I didn't feel I had qualities which mean I
can espouse and exemplify these policies and reach out to people and try
to bring people to our cause who are presently either not voting for us
or not voting at all."
But Mr Huhne - a former economist and financial journalist - stressed
his experience would make him "more comfortable" with key issues in a
time of growing economic turmoil.
He added: "Obviously, if you look at our CVs we have had slightly
different experiences. I am 13 years older and have more grey hair, and
there is no getting round that fact."
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk
http://astore.amazon.co.uk/webbooks05
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=12927
Author:
Cambridge Evening News via UKCIA
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