Perhaps the most surprising thing about Tom Parker Bowles admitting he took cocaine is that anyone is surprised. It would be more surprising if he had not taken the drug.
Cocaine is the currency of the capital.
At any fashionable gathering, at smart restaurants, at funerals, at Christmas, New Year, cocaine is the drug of choice for the professional classes under 40. In the past year, I have seen it taken by a Conservative politician, several lobbyists, a Guards officer, two QCs, a solicitor, a senior stockbroker, a merchant banker and a score of media men and women, including PRs, publishers, writers, Fleet Street executives and television and film producers. After Eight mint. The lines of white powder, a row of sherbet soldiers on a china side-plate, passed around like port. No fuss, nothing to interrupt the conversation, just a snort through a tightly rolled note with the left nostril, then a snort with the right.