Lets not be too soft on Mr Cameron...

The consensus around the liberal blogosphere seems to be that we should accept David Cameron's line that his past is private and therefore it is inappropriate to ask whether he used recreational drugs when he was younger.

I'm not sure I agree. After all smoking cannabis was and remains a criminal offence. Criminal offences are not, by definition a private matter. Now Cameron's hug-a-hoodie rhetoric inoculates him from charges of hypocrisy somewhat, but he is still in favour of the criminalisation of cannabis use. Maybe he, and the other Tories who are trying to sweep this under the carpet, would care to give us a list of the other criminal offences that he considers to be purely private matters?

In political terms of course this won't hurt him (and it probably shouldn't), in fact Jonathan is spot on that the only real harm will be from reminding people that he went to Eton. The only risk is if evidence emerges to substantiate the rumours of cocaine use at university and beyond. Then a pattern would emerge and I think more serious questions would be asked (although again if he could show he had knocked it on the head before he entered politics and no evidence emerged that he ever dealt then he is probably ok).