• Home
• UK Politics
• World Politics
• Policy
• Media
• Lifestyle
• Sport
• Contributors
• Topics

Why Bullingdon Matters

Scarlett MccGwire thinks the Bullingdon Boys had more in common with the rioters and looters than they think.

By Scarlett MccGwire

4 Sep 2011, 14:20

We might think of David Cameron as rather out of touch. Eton; born to rule; wisteria on expenses; the must-have new Downing Street kitchen and even the mere five holidays so far this year. Unsurprisingly, few of us believe that we are all in this together.

However, there is one area where his finger is on the pulse – young people behaving badly. Along with Boris Johnson and George Osborne, he is one of the few senior politicians to understand the exhilaration of youthful destruction. Cameron may not like to be reminded of his Bullingdon days, but his experience is important.

The riots may have many complex causes from the original fury at the police over the death of Mark Duggan through to criminal gangs seeing a chance for serious looting. Certainly the feeling of marginalisation from society played a part. But how much began as just mindless fun?
The Bullingdon Boys went out, had a meal, drank a lot and let rip in the restaurant, smashing anything they chose. And the rioters did the same. It was not about the breakdown of society, but the excesses of youth.

As a radio reporter, I covered the first night of the Brixton riots in 1981, which for the young and those with short memories, shook up the country as they went nationwide and lasted longer than the recent ones. I watched as a procession of youngsters raided a jeans shop. They were in high spirits and could not believe their luck; they even offered me a pair. Much later, it was frightening: cars were burnt and I was mugged.

Cameron et al should use their Bullingdon experiences of excess to good use. The Prime Minister told Evan Davis on the Today programme: ‘I think we all do stupid things when we are young and we should learn the lessons.’ After laying waste to many of the better class of dining venues in Oxford, he left and grew up. What changed him? And how can his transforming experience help to shape the future for the rioters?

Distancing the behaviour of the rioters from greedy bankers and fiddling MPs, Boris Johnson said that people were not stealing from a shop because Gerald Kaufman claimed for a flat screen television on his expenses. No, but like Kaufman, and Bullingdon Boris, they did it because they could. Would Cameron’s gang really have walked passed an open shop and not helped themselves, as he condemned on the Today programme?   

We know from the court cases that many of the people involved went out for a bit of action. Just like the Bullingdon Boys. Terrible things happened in those riots. The mob took over.  But our Prime Minister should remember his days of excess, which could be bought off with a cheque rather than a jail sentence, when he blames it on a broken Britain and a reprehensible underclass alone.