This smooth talker sure know how to twist his wrong policy
by cutting expenditure for national security into a rally
call to score points.
Note that he mentioned
"If you are old enough to commit these crimes you are old enough to face the punishment"
yet he vehemently defend himself when he did it during his teens
What a two faced smooth talker
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/...meron_riot_condemnation_bullingdon_club_irony
War Room
Wednesday, Aug 10, 2011 12:11 ET
The irony of David Cameron's riot condemnation
The British prime minister was a member of a student club famed for smashing windows -- but in the name of elitism
By Natasha Lennard
The irony of David Cameron's riot condemnation
AP
British Prime Minister David Cameron
British Prime Minister David Cameron has been unequivocal in his condemnation of the
riots that have broken out across the London and other parts of the U.K. in recent days,
decrying the scenes of destruction as "sickening."
As a student at Oxford in the late 1980s, however,
Cameron was part of a members' club (the British equivalent of a fraternity),
which ritualistically smashed up local restaurants. Unlike the rioters, however,
Cameron's club, The Bullingdon, was exclusive and notoriously elite.
"This is criminality pure and simple and it has to be confronted and defeated,
" Cameron said on Tuesday, having returned from his vacation in Italy three days after
the riots first ignited in the British capital. He added: "If you are old enough to commit
these crimes you are old enough to face the punishment"
(referring to the fact tha many of those involved are in their early teens).
The prime minister has never applied such strong words to condemn the actions of his former club.
The Bullingdon Club -- a members' only dining society in the university preserved for
the most privileged of (male only) students -- is known for breaking the plates,
glasses and windows of local restaurants and drinking establishments and destroying college property in Oxford.
(The U.K. newspaper, The Independent, described it as a club "whose raison d'être has for more
than 150 years been to afford tailcoat-clad aristocrats a termly opportunity to behave very badly indeed.”)
New recruits are secretly elected and informed of this by having their college bedroom invaded and "trashed".
The Conservative leader's affiliation with the Bullingdon and its elite and riotous reputation
has at times haunted his political career. In the 2010 election, in which Cameron's Conservative Party
won a majority in Parliament for the first time since 1997, his opponents and the media frequently
brought up his Oxford past. A television documentary was devoted to one particular night in 1987
-- when both Cameron and the current London mayor, Boris Johnson,
were Bullingdon members – during which club members were arrested for causing
havoc in Oxford and broke a restaurant window. Cameron claimed he went to bed
early on the night in question, but the Financial Times reported in 2010 that he was "most definitely" at the party.
An old Bullingdon friend told the paper that Cameron's determination not be caught was "extraordinary."
Today's rioters and the Bullingdon club are diametrically opposed in terms of socio-economic background and racial diversity.
Cameron's college cadre were all upper-class and white; the rioters in London are from many
different racial backgrounds and are almost exclusively from council estates,
the British equivalent of project housing. Unlike the rioters,
the Bullingdon club's modus operandi involves leaving large sums of cash or checks behind,
to cover damages. It is not traditional, however, that they pick up brooms or face serious recriminations.
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by cutting expenditure for national security into a rally
call to score points.
Note that he mentioned
"If you are old enough to commit these crimes you are old enough to face the punishment"
yet he vehemently defend himself when he did it during his teens
What a two faced smooth talker
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/...meron_riot_condemnation_bullingdon_club_irony
War Room
Wednesday, Aug 10, 2011 12:11 ET
The irony of David Cameron's riot condemnation
The British prime minister was a member of a student club famed for smashing windows -- but in the name of elitism
By Natasha Lennard
The irony of David Cameron's riot condemnation
AP
British Prime Minister David Cameron
British Prime Minister David Cameron has been unequivocal in his condemnation of the
riots that have broken out across the London and other parts of the U.K. in recent days,
decrying the scenes of destruction as "sickening."
As a student at Oxford in the late 1980s, however,
Cameron was part of a members' club (the British equivalent of a fraternity),
which ritualistically smashed up local restaurants. Unlike the rioters, however,
Cameron's club, The Bullingdon, was exclusive and notoriously elite.
"This is criminality pure and simple and it has to be confronted and defeated,
" Cameron said on Tuesday, having returned from his vacation in Italy three days after
the riots first ignited in the British capital. He added: "If you are old enough to commit
these crimes you are old enough to face the punishment"
(referring to the fact tha many of those involved are in their early teens).
The prime minister has never applied such strong words to condemn the actions of his former club.
The Bullingdon Club -- a members' only dining society in the university preserved for
the most privileged of (male only) students -- is known for breaking the plates,
glasses and windows of local restaurants and drinking establishments and destroying college property in Oxford.
(The U.K. newspaper, The Independent, described it as a club "whose raison d'être has for more
than 150 years been to afford tailcoat-clad aristocrats a termly opportunity to behave very badly indeed.”)
New recruits are secretly elected and informed of this by having their college bedroom invaded and "trashed".
The Conservative leader's affiliation with the Bullingdon and its elite and riotous reputation
has at times haunted his political career. In the 2010 election, in which Cameron's Conservative Party
won a majority in Parliament for the first time since 1997, his opponents and the media frequently
brought up his Oxford past. A television documentary was devoted to one particular night in 1987
-- when both Cameron and the current London mayor, Boris Johnson,
were Bullingdon members – during which club members were arrested for causing
havoc in Oxford and broke a restaurant window. Cameron claimed he went to bed
early on the night in question, but the Financial Times reported in 2010 that he was "most definitely" at the party.
An old Bullingdon friend told the paper that Cameron's determination not be caught was "extraordinary."
Today's rioters and the Bullingdon club are diametrically opposed in terms of socio-economic background and racial diversity.
Cameron's college cadre were all upper-class and white; the rioters in London are from many
different racial backgrounds and are almost exclusively from council estates,
the British equivalent of project housing. Unlike the rioters,
the Bullingdon club's modus operandi involves leaving large sums of cash or checks behind,
to cover damages. It is not traditional, however, that they pick up brooms or face serious recriminations.
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