Tonight, Keir Starmer stonewalls Piers Morgan in a Life Stories broadcast interview after being asked 14 times whether he has taken drugs. Piers challenges Starmer: “You did not spend all your time at Leeds University in the library, did you? So, a cheeky spliff here and there?” All Keir will confirm to Piers tonight is that “We worked hard, and played hard.” When pressed for more detail, Keir claims “drugs weren’t my thing.” Piers pushes him further for a “yes or no” response. Starmer, characteristically, stays on the fence.

Exasperated Piers quite rightly asserts “Given your clear reluctance to give me a straight, simple answer, am I right in assuming from your response that you have tried drugs but that you didn’t actually like them and didn’t want to take any more? … I’m not saying it was your thing, but you did try it. I mean, you’re reluctant to just say yes. You haven’t said no.” Guido can help on this very question…

Back in 1989 when the editor was spending his weekends orbiting the M25 helping to organise acid house raves, on occasions in the week afterwards he would find himself in the courts in relation to causing a public nuisance, various noise related civil offences, and suchlike. On one occasion a young barrister from the National Council for Civil Liberties argued, on our behalf, that Thames Valley Police had acted unlawfully by setting up roadblocks and confiscating sound equipment to prevent a Sunrise rave from taking place. It was “an incredible abuse of police powers”, he argued. We lost that case…

Whilst the rave organisers were waiting outside the court, the suited, and frankly square, young barrister chit-chatted with his sartorially psychedelic clients. Making small talk to pass the time, he told them (perhaps in an effort to boost his street credibility) that when he was younger he had taken LSD. That self-confessed acid tripper was Keir Starmer…