Michael Gove’s cocaine confession highlights Westminster disconnect with real life - The Yorkshire Post says

While we cannot expect politicians to be robots, everyone has made mistakes in their past and drug-taking is unfortunately prevalent throughout society, the simple fact is that an ordinary person confessing to past drug use would expect such an admission to have professional and potentially even criminal consequences for them.

In the race to Prime Minister, however, it is seen thus far as little more than a colourful back story, with Jeremy Hunt and Andrea Leadsom among those coming forward with stories of previous cannabis use.

Conservative peer Sayeeda Warsi, who is a former Crown Prosecution Service lawyer and co-chair of the Conservative Party, made an excellent point on how the issue undermines the idea that politicians such as the now-apologetic Mr Gove have put forward about shared British values. “We are expected to simply shrug our shoulders and forget about criminal activity for which as a lawyer I saw many young people serve custodial sentences,” she said.

The human cost of the drugs trade is also worth bearing in mind, having been linked to the knife crime epidemic plaguing the nation.

Metropolitan Police chief Cressida Dick told middle-class cocaine users earlier this year they have “blood on their hands” for financing a trade that results in gangland violence and the deaths of youngsters on the streets. The supply chain to this country from places like Colombia also destroys countless lives along the way.

Drugs ruin lives but not, it seems, political careers.