Personally, I’m not into drugs - never even tried them. But I also subscribe to the view which seems to sustain London as one of the most diverse and tolerant cities in the world: everyone can do what they like, as long as their actions don’t impact undesirably on others - that sort of thing.

So personally, I don’t really care that Boris has snorted coke and smoked dope, but if you know of anyone thinking of voting for him who might care, perhaps you’d like to mention it to them!

That said, it seems pretty pathetic for him to try to cast today’s young people as somehow more depraved than he ever was by suggesting that they are all using much stronger variants of the same drugs he once enjoyed himself.

Either say: “I did drugs, I shouldn’t have done, I’m sorry, and I therefore think we should stamp down on their use”, or say: “I did drugs, I don’t regret that youthful experimentation, and I therefore think we should go a bit easier on others doing similar experimenting.” Don’t try to have your coke and snort it (to coin a phrase) by suggesting things were different in the good old days.

If anything, the only significant difference was that in his day - if we believe the type of headlines he’s usually happy to use to propagate fear of crime - there was far less drug use than there is now, making his experimentation all the more delinquent than that of today’s young people, surely?

This evening, I saw a friend I hadn’t seen for a few weeks, and he asked me what I’d been up to, so inevitably the subject of stopping Boris came up. He agreed that Boris clearly shouldn’t be Mayor, then added:

“I don’t think he’ll win though, it’s not likely…”

I broke the news of the most recent polling figures - 49% to Boris, 37% to Ken, 12% to Brian - and his jaw dropped. “No…!” he exclaimed, in disbelief. “Oh no, that’s awful. That’s really spoilt my evening now.”

Of course, I apologised, but my encounter brought home the fact that there is a lot of complacency out there among people who don’t want Boris to be Mayor and just assume that he can’t possibly win this. It’s good complacency in a way, of course: they’re complacent about how sensible they assume the rest of London’s voting residents are. But sadly the opinion polls suggest otherwise.

So, although it may spoil their evenings, days or even weeks, please do take any opportunity to point out to your friends that Boris can win this election. He’s the odds-on favourite with the bookies, and leaps and bounds ahead in the opinion polls. It’s up to those of us who are aware of the threat he poses to make aware those who aren’t.

Pass on our apologies to your friends for any of their evenings ruined on this campaign’s behalf though, won’t you?