The Sun exclusively reveals that a Coldstream Guards Officer, Major James Coleby, has been filmed snorting a ‘powder like substance’ from a sword while on duty at St James’ Palace.

I don’t know the officer involved but I will be very surprised if the ‘powder like’ substance is cocaine as The Sun implies. In my experience it’s not the Guards Officers’ drug of choice. They tend to prefer the endorphin rush derived from extreme sports or close quarter combat. It’s a much more intense, dangerous and addictive high than the cocaine alkaloid.

It’s far more likely Major Coleby was partaking of a line of nasal snuff tobacco. No longer fashionable but perfectly legal. Just as the sword from which Major Coleby ingested the snuff is an anachronism  in modern warfare, so too is the taking of snuff an anachronism that pervades amongst Guards Officers.

This strikes me as tawdry journalism on a slow news day, creating a scandal where none exists. Tony Gallagher, who I much admired for breaking the MPs expenses scandal while at The Telegraph and who now edits The Sun, sinks a little lower in my estimation.

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