6 ms·

Inside Britain's Secretive Bullingdon Club

66 points by phesse14 11y ago

mcintyre1994 11y ago
> Yes, we would sometimes break plates or furniture or whatever, but we tried to be as polite as we could be to the people whose establishments we were in Reading about this group is just surreal.
- stuaxo 11y ago
  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1478131/Oxford-hellraisers-politely-trash-a-pub.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1478131/Oxford-hellra... On this page http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/08/10/zionist-brownshirts-in-the-uk-riots/ http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/08/10/zionist-brownshirts-... "adeUK" wrote: adeUK August 11, 2011 at 3:01 am The Bullingdon Club :- Such a Riot ! Call me Dave Cameron, Boris Johnson and George Osbourne were all members of the infamous Bullingdon Club whilst at Oxford. The club is renowned for two things the wealth of its members and getting absolutely blotto and smashing up the property. Apparently this is just high jinks and acceptable if one pays for the damage. Any landlord or restaurateur who wont be bought off and reports this activity to the police is seen as a bad sport. “Boris Johnson himself was seen fleeing down the highstreet & crawling on his hands and knees through the undergrowth after the window of an upmarket venue was shattered. ….of course back then there was no CCTV & boris Johnson face wasn’t plastered all over the internet.” [1] Andrew Gimson, who wrote a biography of Boris Johnson, said about the Bullingdon Club in the 1980s: “I don’t think an evening would have ended without a restaurant being trashed and being paid for in full, very often in cash. […] A night in the cells would be regarded as being par for a Buller man and so would debagging (An act of removal of the trousers) anyone who really attracted the irritation of the Buller men”. In recent years, dinners have been more low key but in 2004 a 15th century pub in Oxfordshire suffered considerable damage during a dinner, and four members were arrested. – BBC.[3] “A number of episodes over many decades have become anecdotal evidence of the Club’s behaviour. Famously, on 12 May 1894[11][12] and again on 20 February 1927,[13] after dinner, Bullingdon members smashed almost all the glass of the lights and 468 windows in Peckwater Quad of Christ Church, along with the blinds and doors of the building. As a result, the Club was banned from meeting within 15 miles of Oxford.[2] While still Prince of Wales, Edward VIII had a certain amount of difficulty in getting his parents’ permission to join the Bullingdon on account of the Club’s reputation. He eventually obtained it only on the understanding that he never join in what was then known as a “Bullingdon blind”, a euphemistic phrase for an evening of drink and song. On hearing of his eventual attendance at one such evening, Queen Mary sent him a telegram requesting that he remove his name from the Club.[9][14] Andrew Gimson, biographer of Boris Johnson, reported about the club in the 1980s: “I don’t think an evening would have ended without a restaurant being trashed and being paid for in full, very often in cash. […] A night in the cells would be regarded as being par for a Buller man and so would debagging anyone who really attracted the irritation of the Buller men.”[15] Dinners in recent years, being relatively low key, have not attracted press attention, though in 2005, following damage to a 15th century pub in Oxfordshire during a dinner, four members of the party were arrested; the incident was widely reported.[16] A further dinner was reported in 2010 after damage to a country house. [17] [18] In the last few years the Bullingdon has been mentioned in the debates of the House of Commons in order to draw attention to excessive behaviour across the British class spectrum,[19] and to embarrass those increasingly prominent MPs who are former members of the Bullingdon. These most notably include David Cameron (UK Prime Minister), George Osborne (UK Chancellor of the Exchequer) and Boris Johnson (Mayor of London).[20][21] Hansard records eight references to the Bullingdon between 2001 and 2008.[22] [2] Photos of the Bullingdon Club Members http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/the-bullingdon-club/ http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/the-bullingdon-... MUST SEE An exploration of the shared past at Eton and Oxford of the two most powerful Conservative politicians in Britain: London Mayor Boris Johnson and party leader David Cameron http://www.channel4.com/programmes/when-boris-met-dave http://www.channel4.com/programmes/when-boris-met-dave [1] http://www.kurzweilai.net/forums/topic/the-bullingdon-club http://www.kurzweilai.net/forums/topic/the-bullingdon-club [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullingdon_Club http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullingdon_Club [3] http://singularinvestor.hubpages.com/hub/The-Bullingdon-Club http://singularinvestor.hubpages.com/hub/The-Bullingdon-Club Log in to Reply
m-i-l 11y ago
To see the photo including the current Prime Minister (David Cameron) and the current Mayor of London (Boris Johnson), and the photo including the current Chancellor of the Exchequer (George Osborne) and Nat Rothschild (of the Rothschild family), see for example [0]. But beware, some of the photos appear to have had people airbrushed out[1]. [0] https://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/the-bullingdon-club/ https://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/the-bullingdon... [1] http://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2008/oct/26/george-osborne-nat-rothschild http://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2008/oct/26/george-osbo...
- bhickey 11y ago
  The Bullingdon Club members are a nasty bunch. As Right Honourable Tories they back harsh drug policies all the while denying their youthful indiscretions. Separately two British journalists told me that Osborne was deep into cocaine when they were at Oxford. I don't care about his poor health choices, but the baldfaced hypocrisy is laughable.
  - m-i-l 11y ago
    That doesn't surprise me. I think there is an element of truth in the cocaine Conservative, champagne Socialist and latte Liberal stereotypes.
calibraxis 11y ago
Interesting how these aspects are distributed in different cultures. For example in the US, musicians of certain genres (and probably other artists) are expected to act that way. In the 2004 presidential election, frontrunners Bush and Kerry were both from the same elite Yale secret society, where they were trained to be members of the ruling class.
smoyer 11y ago
You have to wonder why the Brits keep electing these elites to top positions in the government (it's a little tougher to keep alumnae from being given positions in the corporate world). Of course, you have to ask the same question about US voters. And in a bit of irony, this topic and another discussion [1] of the government elites in the US vis-a-vis the Lawrence Lessig campaign are in the #2 and #1 spots on the HN front page. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10403507 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10403507
- gsnedders 11y ago
  > You have to wonder why the Brits keep electing these elites to top positions in the government (it's a little tougher to keep alumnae from being given positions in the corporate world). We don't. We elect a (one) Member of Parliament for the constituency we live in. Following the election, the leader of the largest party attempts to form a government (thereby making them Prime Minister), and they then appoint cabinet ministers. Most elections end up with people voting in favour of a party, regardless of who the party has nominated to stand in the election, and those viewed as "senior" members of the party are typically asked to stand in safe seats (regardless of where the seat is and whether they have any ties there!).
  - mynegation 11y ago
    But does not that mean that prime minister must also be a member of parliament, so at least people in one district voted for her or him? It is not the same as whole populace of UK votes directly for Pam, but still.
    - gsnedders 11y ago
      Yes, they must have won one constituency. In theory, the Prime Minister can be in the House of Lords, though since 1902 this hasn't occurred—in principle, the Prime Minister merely has to be capable of commanding confidence of the House of Commons (i.e., must be able to win any motion of confidence, and to be able to ensure supply). It seems highly unlikely for this to occur in future, however.
PythonicAlpha 11y ago
What is so special about it? We are at the verge of a new area of aristocracy. The new aristocrats are building their relationships and are shielding themselves from the plebs -- just the same as in the Roman empire: The "best" people of the world, don't need morals or standards, that belong to the outsiders. That is also the reason, we need more and more surveillance -- to protect the "best" people from the terrorists -- all people, that oppose this world-order.
abhv 11y ago
At Harvard, there is the Porcelian club. The initiation ritual is equally secretive and elaborate. The club is said to be the third largest land owner in Cambridge (behind Harvard and MIT), and that if you are a member who is not a millionaire by the age of 40, the club will make you one (so that every alum is). Winlekvii were members
DanBC 11y ago
Putting his penis in a dead pig's mouth is one of the least objectionable things about Cameron, which says a lot. (And it's probably not true, even though it was widely reported).
MathsOX 11y ago
> Stairway to Paradise: Between drags on her cigarette, one student says that she will be working for Goldman Sachs. As someone who worked at Goldman and is college-aged, I think this says quite a lot about the piece in general. Working at Goldman is not some kind of prestigious, difficult to obtain position. If you're in investment banking, that's laughable. If you're in the SSG, then that's only more mildly impressive. I did two-weeks in London where a few of the interns were part of the Pitt club at Cambridge (albeit, not quite as storied a group, but Cambridge's version of the Bullingdon Club) and seemed to revel in this prestige despite having decidedly worse placements in every way than myself. Only one of the three members were hired back full-time. If these kids went to work at interesting hedge funds in Mayfair then I'm inclined to suggest they have some powerful connections. But, by in large, these are 18-21 year olds with all the insecurities and lack of knowledge you'd expect. In the world of finance perhaps this club helps getting you an interview at an investment bank, that's about it. Once you see how these things work you become cognizant of the fact that stories like this are more based in what the members of the clubs want you to believe secretively, or rather a writer would like to suggest is some vast conspiracy to pontificate on his or her moral outrage, then having even the slightest basis in reality. Now, I would grant that having this kind of network gives opportunities to become more involved in politics (similar to what Cameron himself did) at an early age. That's fair, I suppose, however this notion of these secretive groups, with members who have intellects and connections that the average chap can only dream of ever obtaining is laughable. I'd encourage folks not to be drawn into articles like this, similar to the film The Riot Club, that seek to create heroic tragedies and spark mock outrage. Things are always more dull then they appear and most things aren't intricate conspiracy theories, which unfortunately HN seems to have a predisposition towards chatting about.
- countrybama24 11y ago
  SSG is only "mildly impressive"? By what metric? Those positions put you squarely in line for mega fund private equity jobs. If thats par for your course, you must be in some pretty rarified air I guess. The merits of those candidates is debatable, but the prestige of those positions really isn't.
  - 11y ago

66 points by phesse14 11y ago

mcintyre1994 11y ago

> Yes, we would sometimes break plates or furniture or whatever, but we tried to be as polite as we could be to the people whose establishments we were in Reading about this group is just surreal.

stuaxo 11y ago
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1478131/Oxford-hellraisers-politely-trash-a-pub.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1478131/Oxford-hellra... On this page http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/08/10/zionist-brownshirts-in-the-uk-riots/ http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/08/10/zionist-brownshirts-... "adeUK" wrote: adeUK August 11, 2011 at 3:01 am The Bullingdon Club :- Such a Riot ! Call me Dave Cameron, Boris Johnson and George Osbourne were all members of the infamous Bullingdon Club whilst at Oxford. The club is renowned for two things the wealth of its members and getting absolutely blotto and smashing up the property. Apparently this is just high jinks and acceptable if one pays for the damage. Any landlord or restaurateur who wont be bought off and reports this activity to the police is seen as a bad sport. “Boris Johnson himself was seen fleeing down the highstreet & crawling on his hands and knees through the undergrowth after the window of an upmarket venue was shattered. ….of course back then there was no CCTV & boris Johnson face wasn’t plastered all over the internet.” [1] Andrew Gimson, who wrote a biography of Boris Johnson, said about the Bullingdon Club in the 1980s: “I don’t think an evening would have ended without a restaurant being trashed and being paid for in full, very often in cash. […] A night in the cells would be regarded as being par for a Buller man and so would debagging (An act of removal of the trousers) anyone who really attracted the irritation of the Buller men”. In recent years, dinners have been more low key but in 2004 a 15th century pub in Oxfordshire suffered considerable damage during a dinner, and four members were arrested. – BBC.[3] “A number of episodes over many decades have become anecdotal evidence of the Club’s behaviour. Famously, on 12 May 1894[11][12] and again on 20 February 1927,[13] after dinner, Bullingdon members smashed almost all the glass of the lights and 468 windows in Peckwater Quad of Christ Church, along with the blinds and doors of the building. As a result, the Club was banned from meeting within 15 miles of Oxford.[2] While still Prince of Wales, Edward VIII had a certain amount of difficulty in getting his parents’ permission to join the Bullingdon on account of the Club’s reputation. He eventually obtained it only on the understanding that he never join in what was then known as a “Bullingdon blind”, a euphemistic phrase for an evening of drink and song. On hearing of his eventual attendance at one such evening, Queen Mary sent him a telegram requesting that he remove his name from the Club.[9][14] Andrew Gimson, biographer of Boris Johnson, reported about the club in the 1980s: “I don’t think an evening would have ended without a restaurant being trashed and being paid for in full, very often in cash. […] A night in the cells would be regarded as being par for a Buller man and so would debagging anyone who really attracted the irritation of the Buller men.”[15] Dinners in recent years, being relatively low key, have not attracted press attention, though in 2005, following damage to a 15th century pub in Oxfordshire during a dinner, four members of the party were arrested; the incident was widely reported.[16] A further dinner was reported in 2010 after damage to a country house. [17] [18] In the last few years the Bullingdon has been mentioned in the debates of the House of Commons in order to draw attention to excessive behaviour across the British class spectrum,[19] and to embarrass those increasingly prominent MPs who are former members of the Bullingdon. These most notably include David Cameron (UK Prime Minister), George Osborne (UK Chancellor of the Exchequer) and Boris Johnson (Mayor of London).[20][21] Hansard records eight references to the Bullingdon between 2001 and 2008.[22] [2] Photos of the Bullingdon Club Members http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/the-bullingdon-club/ http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/the-bullingdon-... MUST SEE An exploration of the shared past at Eton and Oxford of the two most powerful Conservative politicians in Britain: London Mayor Boris Johnson and party leader David Cameron http://www.channel4.com/programmes/when-boris-met-dave http://www.channel4.com/programmes/when-boris-met-dave [1] http://www.kurzweilai.net/forums/topic/the-bullingdon-club http://www.kurzweilai.net/forums/topic/the-bullingdon-club [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullingdon_Club http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullingdon_Club [3] http://singularinvestor.hubpages.com/hub/The-Bullingdon-Club http://singularinvestor.hubpages.com/hub/The-Bullingdon-Club Log in to Reply

m-i-l 11y ago

To see the photo including the current Prime Minister (David Cameron) and the current Mayor of London (Boris Johnson), and the photo including the current Chancellor of the Exchequer (George Osborne) and Nat Rothschild (of the Rothschild family), see for example [0]. But beware, some of the photos appear to have had people airbrushed out[1]. [0] https://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/the-bullingdon-club/ https://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/the-bullingdon... [1] http://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2008/oct/26/george-osborne-nat-rothschild http://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2008/oct/26/george-osbo...

bhickey 11y ago
The Bullingdon Club members are a nasty bunch. As Right Honourable Tories they back harsh drug policies all the while denying their youthful indiscretions. Separately two British journalists told me that Osborne was deep into cocaine when they were at Oxford. I don't care about his poor health choices, but the baldfaced hypocrisy is laughable.
- m-i-l 11y ago
  That doesn't surprise me. I think there is an element of truth in the cocaine Conservative, champagne Socialist and latte Liberal stereotypes.

calibraxis 11y ago

Interesting how these aspects are distributed in different cultures. For example in the US, musicians of certain genres (and probably other artists) are expected to act that way. In the 2004 presidential election, frontrunners Bush and Kerry were both from the same elite Yale secret society, where they were trained to be members of the ruling class.

smoyer 11y ago

You have to wonder why the Brits keep electing these elites to top positions in the government (it's a little tougher to keep alumnae from being given positions in the corporate world). Of course, you have to ask the same question about US voters. And in a bit of irony, this topic and another discussion [1] of the government elites in the US vis-a-vis the Lawrence Lessig campaign are in the #2 and #1 spots on the HN front page. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10403507 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10403507

gsnedders 11y ago
> You have to wonder why the Brits keep electing these elites to top positions in the government (it's a little tougher to keep alumnae from being given positions in the corporate world). We don't. We elect a (one) Member of Parliament for the constituency we live in. Following the election, the leader of the largest party attempts to form a government (thereby making them Prime Minister), and they then appoint cabinet ministers. Most elections end up with people voting in favour of a party, regardless of who the party has nominated to stand in the election, and those viewed as "senior" members of the party are typically asked to stand in safe seats (regardless of where the seat is and whether they have any ties there!).
- mynegation 11y ago
  But does not that mean that prime minister must also be a member of parliament, so at least people in one district voted for her or him? It is not the same as whole populace of UK votes directly for Pam, but still.
  - gsnedders 11y ago
    Yes, they must have won one constituency. In theory, the Prime Minister can be in the House of Lords, though since 1902 this hasn't occurred—in principle, the Prime Minister merely has to be capable of commanding confidence of the House of Commons (i.e., must be able to win any motion of confidence, and to be able to ensure supply). It seems highly unlikely for this to occur in future, however.

PythonicAlpha 11y ago

What is so special about it? We are at the verge of a new area of aristocracy. The new aristocrats are building their relationships and are shielding themselves from the plebs -- just the same as in the Roman empire: The "best" people of the world, don't need morals or standards, that belong to the outsiders. That is also the reason, we need more and more surveillance -- to protect the "best" people from the terrorists -- all people, that oppose this world-order.

abhv 11y ago

At Harvard, there is the Porcelian club. The initiation ritual is equally secretive and elaborate. The club is said to be the third largest land owner in Cambridge (behind Harvard and MIT), and that if you are a member who is not a millionaire by the age of 40, the club will make you one (so that every alum is). Winlekvii were members

DanBC 11y ago

Putting his penis in a dead pig's mouth is one of the least objectionable things about Cameron, which says a lot. (And it's probably not true, even though it was widely reported).

MathsOX 11y ago

> Stairway to Paradise: Between drags on her cigarette, one student says that she will be working for Goldman Sachs. As someone who worked at Goldman and is college-aged, I think this says quite a lot about the piece in general. Working at Goldman is not some kind of prestigious, difficult to obtain position. If you're in investment banking, that's laughable. If you're in the SSG, then that's only more mildly impressive. I did two-weeks in London where a few of the interns were part of the Pitt club at Cambridge (albeit, not quite as storied a group, but Cambridge's version of the Bullingdon Club) and seemed to revel in this prestige despite having decidedly worse placements in every way than myself. Only one of the three members were hired back full-time. If these kids went to work at interesting hedge funds in Mayfair then I'm inclined to suggest they have some powerful connections. But, by in large, these are 18-21 year olds with all the insecurities and lack of knowledge you'd expect. In the world of finance perhaps this club helps getting you an interview at an investment bank, that's about it. Once you see how these things work you become cognizant of the fact that stories like this are more based in what the members of the clubs want you to believe secretively, or rather a writer would like to suggest is some vast conspiracy to pontificate on his or her moral outrage, then having even the slightest basis in reality. Now, I would grant that having this kind of network gives opportunities to become more involved in politics (similar to what Cameron himself did) at an early age. That's fair, I suppose, however this notion of these secretive groups, with members who have intellects and connections that the average chap can only dream of ever obtaining is laughable. I'd encourage folks not to be drawn into articles like this, similar to the film The Riot Club, that seek to create heroic tragedies and spark mock outrage. Things are always more dull then they appear and most things aren't intricate conspiracy theories, which unfortunately HN seems to have a predisposition towards chatting about.

countrybama24 11y ago
SSG is only "mildly impressive"? By what metric? Those positions put you squarely in line for mega fund private equity jobs. If thats par for your course, you must be in some pretty rarified air I guess. The merits of those candidates is debatable, but the prestige of those positions really isn't.
- 11y ago