Accrington Web - Bullingdon Club

Quote:

Originally Posted by cashman (Post 926975)

I think thats a way of saying "I can't justify Camerons actions",:dflam:

No-one can -only the man himself has the possibility of doing this....
The Bullingdon Club has been tolerated (almost with affection) in Oxford for a long time -initially because the class system meant that they (the aristocrats) were allowed to get away with anything (excepting murder probably!). Then, having become an institution within an institution, they were regarded as a part of the tradition which envelops the place. I suspect that Evelyn Waugh's book and the wonderful 1980's series of Brideshead Revisited helped to make them almost legendary there and regarded with a sort of patermalistic benevolence, "boys will be boys" ....as long as no-one gets hurt.
In the same way, the gangs of youths which are now causing so much trouble in large towns and cities in the UK (and world-wide) have been present for many years and largely tollerated within society. "Boys will be boys" applied here too for groups congregating and drinking a few cans, smoking cigarettes, maybe smashing the odd bottle, a bit of light anti-social behaviour, as long as they didn't exagerate.... Each decade has seen them in various guises, mods, rockers, hippies, new romantics etc
I doubt that your average teenager hanging about in town has ever heard of the Bullingdon Boys but there are similarities between them. Except that your average teenage gang seems to have shifted it's limits wrt 20 or 30 years ago, these days they grow up in a "have it all" society and really want to "have it all" - the Bullingdon Boys-past and present already "have it all and more". The hypocrisy lies in denial -but then Cameron did want to hug a Hoodie at one point -perhaps he had glimpsed himself as a young man....