Didn't the Self get fired from the Daily Telegraph for shooting smack whilst on then-Prime Minster John Major's private plane?

Yeah, and was apparantly banned from going anywhere number 10 as a result. Understandably really. Hardly a controversial decision on the part of the government, that one. They were trying to shake off the whole sleaze thing and I'm sure they must've thought that mere sight of Will Self wandering up Downing Street looking like something out of a Hubert Selby book wasn't exactly gonna help matters. I always thought he was trying a bit too hard to come across as a kind of British Hunter S. during that period.

Snorting rather than shooting, if I remember correctly.