Bartlet or Blair?

Hi Michaelab,

Sorry off topic again but,

That is not true. Look at some of the big names in popular music. Elvis Presley, Bon Scott (AC/DC), Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison (Doors), Florence Ballard (Supremes), Tim Buckley, Nick Drake, Thin Lynott (Thin Lizzy), Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones (Rolling Stones), Frankie Lymon, David Ruffin (Temptations) and Sid Vicious (Sex Pistols) were just a few stars who were seriously addicted to drugs and paid the price. Just a quick scan of my cd collection soon shows a large number of artists and groups that had members addicted to drugs. People like James Brown, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Eric Clapton, Robbie Williams & Van Morrison have been addicted to & have survived. There has been plenty of actors who have been addicted.

I have known of a few people in business, sales & the city, who have been drug addicts. It started off not being a problem at first. But with some, they lost their jobs, had less bonuses and reduced income or increased their drug use, this is then when things really become a major problem.

As a Dj and man about town, I have seen a lot of drug use and abuse. This usage is from people from all walks of life. It is very true that people at the bottom of the pile may not be able to afford their fix. So crime is an option. There is a lot of drug related crime.The rich & famous have the money and can get away with it up to a point.

I'm not fully sure about this but home office figures show that drug usage is widespread across the classes & social groups.

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/hors224.pdf

If you look on page 21 & onwards of the report, it looks at the socio-economic groupings. It shows wide & big drug use in the well off sections of society. Quite a number of these will be addicted to drugs.

I had a cousin who died from a drug overdose, so I do think about this quite a bit.

SCIDB

 

I think what the Lib Dems haven't grasped is that if you were to take all the wealth in the UK and redistribute it up equally then, with a few exceptions, the poor would blow it all (probably on oven-ready chips, lottery tickets and Argos jewellery IMO ) and the rich would invest it wisely. Within a few years the poor would be poor again and the rich would be rich again - it may not be fair but that's the way of the world.

Matt.