Vaz keeps a dignified silence…well, a silence anyway

A couple of days ago Keith Vaz’s band-wagon alert went off and he called for the new energy drink Simply Cocaine to be banned.

He reckoned the name promoted drug use.

Lobbydog decided it would only be fair to speak to the drinks maker, a guy called Garry Shepherd, to see what he had to say about Vaz. This is what came out:

"Mr Vaz should concentrate on his job rather than go about stopping a British firm producing a drink with a humorous name on its product.

"Yves Saint Laurent produced a perfume in the 70s called Opium, but not everyone that bought it went on to become opium addicts – in fact, now it’s a well known accepted brand – and it does not follow that the people that drink this will go on to use cocaine.

"He’s treating his constituents and the people he represents like complete idiots if he thinks that people between 18 and 35, our target audience, cannot make a reasoned decision over this.

"We’ve got a huge banking crisis, there is global warming, a terrorist threat and our young servicemen are dying overseas and all he can do is get in front of the TV cameras and on the radio to get media coverage on an issue like this."

Mr Vaz said he would not be minded to respond to the absolute slating.