Sixty Joyless De-Britished Uncrowned Commonpoor Years (1949-2009)

Elizabeth II Vice-Regal Saint: Remembering Paul Comtois (1895–1966), Lt.-Governor of Québec
Britannic Inheritance: Britain's proud legacy. What legacy will America leave?
English Debate: Daniel Hannan revels in making mince meat of Gordon Brown
Crazy Canucks: British MP banned from Canada on national security grounds
Happy St. Patrick's: Will Ireland ever return to the Commonwealth?
Voyage Through the Commonwealth: World cruise around the faded bits of pink.
No Queen for the Green: The Green Party of Canada votes to dispense with monarchy.
"Sir Edward Kennedy": The Queen has awarded the senator an honorary Knighthood.
President Obama: Hates Britain, but is keen to meet the Queen?
The Princess Royal: Princess Anne "outstanding" in Australia.
H.M.S. Victory: In 1744, 1000 sailors went down with a cargo of gold.
Queen's Commonwealth: Britain is letting the Commonwealth die.
Justice Kirby: His support for monarchy almost lost him appointment to High Court
Royal Military Academy: Sandhurst abolishes the Apostles' Creed.
Air Marshal Alec Maisner, R.I.P. Half Polish, half German and 100% British.
Cherie Blair: Not a vain, self regarding, shallow thinking viper after all.
Harry Potter: Celebrated rich kid thinks the Royals should not be celebrated
The Royal Jelly: A new king has been coronated, and his subjects are in a merry mood
Victoria Cross: Australian TROOPER MARK DONALDSON awarded the VC
Godless Buses: Royal Navy veteran, Ron Heather, refuses to drive his bus
Labour's Class War: To expunge those with the slightest pretensions to gentility
100 Top English Novels of All Time: The Essential Fictional Library
BIG BEN: Celebrating 150 Years of the Clock Tower

Friday 16 March 2007

The Bullingdon Club

There's something about dressing up in your old blue waistcoat and tail finery, getting stonkingly scorched on champagne with your aristocratic friends, and then politely trashing the neighbourhood pub. Some kids get all the fun.

Below is a picture of David Cameron and Boris Johnson and other fellow King Scholars and Old Etonians from 1987, as members of the highly secretive and elitist Oxford dining society, the Bullingdon Club. Its modus operandi to this day is to book a private dining room under an assumed name, then physically destroy it. Very large amounts of cash are then offered to the upset owners to pay them off for the destruction -- a Buller tradition which dates back to Victorian times.

(1) Sebastian Grigg, (2) David Cameron, (3) Ralph Perry-Robinson, (4) Ewen Fergusson, (5) Matthew Benson, (6) Sebastian James, (7) Jonathan Ford, (8) Boris Johnson, (9) Harry Eastwood

Now I may be exactly the same age as these upper class gents, but I'm not envious in the slightest. We had even more fun in our military mess kits, and cut even more of a dashing presence wherever we went, dancing the ballroom night away and gorging ourselves not infrequently in self-destructive binges. Thankfully our excesses didn't involve the trashing of private property and other such reckless abandon, but we still had a smashing and hogwhimperingly hell of a good time.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6409757.stm

By the looks of this article that photo has actually been banned from publication, just something to be wary of

The Monarchist said...

I'm not too worried. I plucked it from the Daily Telegraph, who don't seem to be too concerned about the "banned photo". That train has left the station.

Sir Edward Heath said...

Surely your heart must nearly burst with pride when you first see your son in his "waistcoat and tail". A proud moment.

Keir said...

Wishing you all a great St. Paddy's Day! It's on a Saturday so take advantage of it!

mrcawp said...

I remember when this happened. The Club has since fallen into general disrepute amongst even likely candidates; and is extremely small, apparently numbering few, if any, above two or three. Unsurprising. It's time has passed. Their activities were largely indistinguishable from council estate oiks; the only difference was the costume. Little hogwhimpering, I'm afraid.