US bans Nigella - are they right?

This. She should have been prosecuted and asked where she obtained the drugs from.

Rubbish.

From the US Dept of State Foreign Affairs Manual,
"an alien may ... be found ineligible if he or she admits
to committing the essential elements of a drug violation in lieu of a
conviction under INA 212(a)(2)(A)(i)(II) "

Let's also not forget that the laughably archaic US immigration card filled in on every flight asks about convictions and arrests, not personal public confessions, or 'moral turpitude' whatever the **** that is.

Land of the free

Not sure when you last got a flight to the US but these cards were withdrawn (replaced by ESTA) several years ago.

A friend of mine was barred from re-entering the US for more than 25 years until she finally gave in and paid an unpaid parking ticket she got on her last day in the country as a student. (Just thought I'd chuck that in there.)

Good grief. A spell in Guantanamo was probably next. Not paying your parking fines. Clearly grounds for capital punishment in many states.

Ironic, isn't it, that all US Embassy staff in London consistently refuse to pay congestion charge, on the spurious grounds that it is a 'tax', when almost every other country in London does pay.

I'm still amazed that Full of Suprieses has somehow not strayed this thread off as somehow trying to blame the Conservatives.

Quoted from the Independent newspaper:
"The US asks people if they have ever been arrested or convicted in relation to illegal drugs. It can decide to prevent entry to the country even if the person involved was never charged.

Thanks for the idea. My name does not have spaces in it, btw.

I picked this story because Nigella is hardly some tub-thumping radical, dangerous criminal or hijab-wearing jihadi. Au contraire. She comes from a top Tory family and is a high member of what passes for our 'establishment'. If the US feels happy treating someone like her like that, what about the rest of us?

I actually feel that the US is not a safe place for UK citizens to try to visit now. The legal codes they operate under are harsh, random and unaccountable.

I know she's not. But the US have rules for entry into their country.

I'm hazarding a guess that her past drug issue has also been compounded by the fact that she lied on her ESTAR visa waiver form. The yanks don't take too kindly to people telling fibs on official federal documents that are designed to protect US Citiziens.

The same place her other rich friends and prosecutors get it from I presume.

Along with millions of other people who tell white lies and little fibs about basically harmless stuff on those forms.

Shocking news. The US Dept of Homeland Security have banned Nigella Lawson from flying to the US, because of her recent drug-taking confession.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/10740907/Nigella-Lawson-barred-from-boarding-US-bound-flight.html

She hasn't been convicted of any crime, but apparently this doesn't matter to the US authorities.

I'm not a huge fan of Nigella, but it does raise a general point - that yet again, the US adopts a high-handed, authoritarian approach towards Britain and British citizens, which is not reciprocated. Numerous Hollywood stars and US personalities who have drug-taking histories have been welcomed to the UK.

We should stop letting the US bully us like this. We should start retaliating against these fairly regular insults. Another example is the way they demand extradition of our people on trumped up minor offences.