At the start of the election campaign there was widespread condemnation of the Tories’ anti-Gypsy agenda, so Guido is shocked to see that amongst the bills rushed through by the government at the end of parliament was a bill to criminalise the picking of magic mushrooms by druids, hippies and pagans. The Home Office boasts that the bill will be law before the Glastonbury festival takes place. (See previous.)

So possession of pretty harmless psilocybin mushrooms will now be an offence comparable to possession of Class ‘A’ Heroin. Guido has enjoyed many evenings with giggling friends after ingesting ‘shrooms and thinks this law is ridiculous. What a bunch of New Labour kill-joys.

Druids and pagans have harvested the naturally occurring, wild growing, psilocybin mushrooms for thousands of years in the British Isles for use in rituals. Imagine the outrage by Muslims if the Green party called for the outlawing of the Halal slaughtering of animals. Why is there so little outrage at the threat to jail ‘shroomers? Druidism is the original indigenous religion of the British Isles, so not content with destroying centuries of legal liberties, Blairites now seek to criminalise four millennia of religious tradition. Why, what harm do ‘shroomers do? It is just another of the government’s over-bearing interfering ways in our private lives.

Guido recommends the excellent Food of the Gods: A Radical History of Plants, Drugs and Human Evolution by Terence McKenna to those interested in the subject.