Posted by Donnie on Monday, 19 February 2007 08:19:58

davetheslave, do you know something we dont?

Posted by davetheslave on Monday, 19 February 2007 09:03:22

One of the most interesting facts to come out of the "Cameron and Cannabis" storm in a teacup was that at Oxford, Cameron (and Boris) were members of the elite Bullingdon Club. This is a drinking club for "the elite of the elites", where the members book a table in a restaurant, get hammered, smash the restaurant up, and then throw wads of cash at the owner to stop them from calling the cops. Roy Hattersley puts it like this, in today's Guardian:

"To be fair, smashing up restaurants was only the climax to the club's idea of a good evening out. The wanton vandalism was always preceded by members drinking themselves into near-insensibility and vomiting on each other. It was only then that they began to throw the crockery about, break the chairs and tables, and shatter the windows. The owner or manager of the establishment was, of course, lavishly compensated for the wilful destruction and paid a bonus to ensure that he did not report the criminal damage to the police. At Oxford, the leader of the Tory party enjoyed the company of rich louts."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2016050,00.html

Of course, I have no evidence that Cameron (or Boris) ever vandalised restaurants themselves; only that they were members of a club which specialises in this behaviour. In 2004, five members of the club were arrested for trashing a pub in the viscinity of Oxford.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/oxfordshire/4066329.stm

I have no problems with Cameron enjoying the odd toke as a schoolboy, or for that matter, as an adult. It harms no-one but himself. However, I feel that yobbish behaviour of this sort would be completely unacceptable, and should exclude him from public office if he had acted in this way. The only reason that ex-members of the Bullingdon Club don't have criminal records is because they have the money to buy off justice. That isn't right, and shouldn't be accepted from a potential prime minister.

Posted by coolcatmillie on Monday, 19 February 2007 09:48:40

It’s a bit rich if you ask me?
There he was in the 80s… part of a “gang” who took part in anti-social behaviour, and last week was telling everyone who listened the importance of social responsibility.
The only difference in what is happening today is the nature of crime has change, and the children who do take in petty criminal damage now get ASBOs not “cash” from privileged parents to pay the victims to replace the damage they have caused.
Maybe David Cameron should be doing a little soul searching and ask himself what made ‘him’ want to be part of this elite ‘gang’, and maybe he will find some answers?
Is it because he knew that he would not face police charges, which is perhaps the same reason that many youngsters today feel that they can ‘get away with it’.

Posted by StevenL on Monday, 19 February 2007 17:41:53

Birch the little toerags I say.

Posted by davetheslave on Monday, 19 February 2007 20:52:02

Well it seems that Dave & Boris definitely got away with it in any case. Personally, I find it pretty scary that a party which alleges to represent the whole country has a grand total of 15 Old Etonian frontbenchers. Did I hear Dave talking about a meritocratic society?...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullingdon_Club

Posted by kozmicstu on Monday, 19 February 2007 20:58:29

davetheslave, you forgot the party line - it's not where you come from, but where you're going that counts

Also, this happens to be a line from a very good song by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Posted by davetheslave on Monday, 19 February 2007 21:14:55

Well, judging from the exploits of the Bullingdon club, if they hadn't been coming from toff families, they would have been going straight to prison :-)

Seriously, I agree that there is no need for inverse snobbery, but doesn't it strike you as an awful coincidence that so many of the most competent people just happened to go to Eton? Why are the other party frontbenches not stacked with Etonians?

 

Comment edited by davetheslave on Monday, 19 February 2007 21:15:31

Posted by kozmicstu on Monday, 19 February 2007 21:25:05

A lot of politics is about who you know, I agree. On the other hand it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation - Labour party supporters don't generally send their children to Eton, therefore generally few people being educated at Eton will have been brought up in a Labour supporting household and therefore Etonians are less likely to join the Labour Party than the Conservatives. On the flipside, Conservative households are more likely to send their kids to Eton and so the Conservatives end up with more people from Eton among their ranks.

In other words, because of the very nature of private schooling and the nature of the political system, you could make a pretty solid bet that Eton would start to put out lots of Conservative Party members within a few generations. It's therefore a pretty safe assumption that the Conservative Party would start to fill up with Old Etonians. The Labour party would be looking more to the state school system, as their bread and butter supporters are more likely to be putting their children to state education.

At least, that's how I see it.

Evolution, Morpheus... Like the dinosaur :-)

Posted by davetheslave on Tuesday, 20 February 2007 13:44:37

For a pretty funny take on the Bullingdon Club issue, see this video from Gweirdo:
http://www.recessmonkey.com/2007/02/15/bullingdon-club/
Be warned! It's not exactly gentle on poor DC.