The Standards of a Country Are Set at the Top

I just thought I'd remind readers of my 2007 post on the Bullingdon Club - it's pertinent because we have a Bullingdon government - Cameron, Osborne, and Boris Johnson were all members.

Here's some choice bits from this article in the Oxford Student of what this club got up to:

Last December[2005], images of snivelling Bullingdon members were splashed all over the tabloids after all 17 members were arrested for wrecking the cellar of the 15th century pub, the White Hart, in Fyfi eld.

17 bottles of wine were smashed into the walls of the pub after the civility of a gourmet meal descended into a brawl, leaving a trail of debris that was compared by eye-witnesses to a scene from the blitz. The inebriated members started fighting, leaving one with a deep cut to the cheek, and the landlord recalls attempting to pull apart the fi ghting parties, only to have them set on each other once more, exclaiming, “Sorry old chap, just a bit of high spirits".

.........‘At another infamous Bullingdon garden party, the club invited a string band to play and proceeded to destroy all of the instruments, including a Stradivarius.

.........Cameron was member of the club at a time when it was de rigeur to engage in the ‘man of the people’ pursuits of washing down “a cocktail of drugs with an honest, working class box of chips and a five pound bottle of wine”.

Now compare to this blogpost, which was quoted in the Guardian, giving a live account of the 2011 riot.

It sounds stupid to say it, but the atmosphere amongst everyone else seemed like carnival – I actually saw a girl getting chirpsed (chatted up). There were plenty of people (my estimate is maybe as many of 50% of people there) hanging around, fascinated by everything and enjoying watching the 'entertainment'. They didn't seem to be in the wrong place, they wanted to be there and to see what was going on.

I got the feeling that they wouldn't get involved in smashing any shops in, but if there were goods dropped by looters, they wouldn't hesitate to pick them up and I actually witnessed this later on. Lots of these onlookers were females and young kids (10-13) and they came from ALL races. I didn't notice any racial tension, Walworth is a very diverse area and white and blacks were mixing together whether that was in watching or in looting.

Very similar, no?

Tory apologists for the Eton mafia's Bullingdon behaviour kept saying "they were young" and "it was just larks" and accused Labourites of being too dour and "Presbyterian" about it.

But what happens when you put someone at the top of the country who has taken part in this vandalistic behaviour for "larks" and it's dismissed as something that's allowed because they were young? Why, people who are young think it's OK for them to do it too - if the Prime Minister can have larks smashing restaurants in his youth and get away with it, why can't they?

Why are the riots happening now? Why not in 2008 after the financial crash? It's because the tone at the top has changed. We've gone from the dour Gordon Brown advising people to "try their utmost", to the "let's smash property for larks" Boris and "Leave Tuscany to deal with public disorder? You must be joking" Cameron.

Can Cameron really tell the nation with a straight face that this type of behaviour cannot be tolerated, when he was doing exactly the same thing at that age, and got away with it? He didn't even have the decency to turn himself in and serve his time. In his mind he deserved to get away with it scot free. And the rioters think the same way as he does.

They say fish rots from the head. We're going to have a continuous stream of disturbances till the Bullinngdon mafia are kicked out.