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Cameron's cronies in the Bullingdon class of '87
Last updated at 18:37pm on 13.02.07
(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
For all its comic potential - those beautifully coiffed 1980s haircuts are true museum pieces - this is picture of David Cameron and his fellow members of Oxford University's Bullingdon Club is a serious matter.
For there is an argument that it is this picture, not any allegations about what the young Cameron may or may not have smoked at Eton, that could have the more damaging effect on the Tory leader's prospects at the next General Election.
More here...
• Cameron finally comes clean on cannabis claims
An awful lot of people, if not most of the population, have tried cannabis at some point; some enjoy it still.
Not very many have made a habit of dressing up in £1,200 tailcoats before getting hogwhimperingly drunk on champagne and destroying restaurant dining rooms.
Naturally, being young gentlemen, they pay for all the damage afterwards.
Such gestures of financial generosity have not always been enough to fend off the attentions of the Oxford constabulary.
In one of the most notorious incidents involving the Buller, as it is known, 17 members were arrested two years ago after trashing the cellar of a 15th century pub outside Oxford, the White Hart at Fyfield. Four spent the night in the cells, including the Hon Alexander Fellowes, son of the Queen's former private secretary, Lord Fellowes.
Young Fellowes - or Beetle, as he is known to friends - is not the only young man to get into serious trouble through the Bullingdon: many members have gone on to become respectable members of society, among them David Dimbleby, George Osborne, the late Alan Clark and Boris Johnson.
The Bullingdon Club was not always about drinking and destruction.
Founded more than 150 years ago as a hunting and cricket club, it is now - theoretically - a dining club which exists to support hunting, and has a traditional breakfast every year at the Bullingdon point to point.
But its notoriety was established as long ago as the 1920s, when Evelyn Waugh satirised it in Decline and Fall as the Bollinger Club.
Drink, not drugs, is the Bullingdon members preferred route to oblivion.
Cannabis - despite the 15-year-old Cameron's interest in it - is deemed to make members less prone to wanton destruction.
Bullingdon members are nothing if not imaginative in their drunken antics: one member was once locked in a portable lavatory before a second member, a Hungarian count, rolled him down the hill.
On another occasion at L'Ortolan, the Michelin starred restaurant in Berkshire, one member consumed so much champagne that he decided to forgo his starter and instead ate a wine glass, which he "munched on contendedly".
Oxford University's Bullingdon Club - The Members:
1. Sebastian Grigg
Still close to David Cameron, Grigg knew him from Eton and lives nearby, in Holland Park. Born into privilege - he is the oldest son of Baron Altrincham, Anthony Ullick David Dundas Grigg, and went to Eton before going to Oriel College - he is now a member of the moneyed aristocracy as a partner at Goldman Sachs.
He and his wife, former Times journalist Rachel Kelly, host an annual Christmas drinks in Lansdowne Crescent which is very much a fixture for Notting Hill grandees. Grigg made an unsuccessful bid to be a Tory MP.
2. David Cameron
Misdemeanours with cannabis aside, Cameron was clearly a surefooted operator at Eton, for by the time he arrived at Oxford he had the social connections to make joining the Bullingdon Club easy.
He still found time for work, though, getting a first in Philosophy, Politics and Economics before going on to work at the Conservative Research Department. Spells at the Treasury and Home Office, then seven years as communications head at Carlton TV. Elected MP for Witney in 2001, and became Tory leader in 2005.
3. Ralph Perry Robinson
A former child actor, he had a walkon part in the 1984 film Another Country, that study of public school homosexuality and betrayal.
At Oxford he once paraded round Oriel quad dressed as a monk and calling for virgins to be sacrificed. A former pupil of the Prince of Wales Institute of Architecture, he was recruited by Richard Rogers to help him design a virtual reality centre in Japan. He now lives in a village near Salisbury, Wiltshire, where he makes furniture.
4. Ewen Fergusson
Generally thought of as the "quiet one" of the group, Fergusson also had a wild side and is thought to have been responsible for a notorious Bullingdon incident in which a plant pot was thrown through a restaurant window, resulting in six members spending a night in police cells.
The son of former rugby international turned British ambassador in Paris Sir Ewen Fergusson, Ewen Junior - Rugby and Oriel - is now a partner in the banking and finance section of City law firm Herbert Smith.
5. Matthew Benson
Born into proper money - his family were wealthy merchant bankers - Benson spent three years working for Morgan Stanley before setting up a property consultancy.
Now a director of Rettie and Co, an Edinburgh-based property company, he married in 1997 Lady Lulu Douglas-Hamilton, ex-wife of Lord Patrick Douglas-Hamilton, at a ceremony which involved a ruined castle being rebuilt over three floors.
6. Sebastian James
Another Bullingdon blue blood, James is the son of Lord Northbourne, a major landowner from Kent. Something of an entrepreneur, his business ventures have included a DVD rental business, Silverscreen, and a dotcom business, ClassicForum, which was supposed to be an eBay for rare books.
7. Jonathan Ford
The president of the Bullingdon - a post to which Boris Johnson aspired, but never succeeded in attaining - the Westminster-educated Ford was elected to the post because "he had a mad genius about him".
After Oxford, where he read modern history, he had a spell in the City as a banker with Morgan Grenfell before going into financial journalism. He is now deputy editor of a financial website, and married to Susannah Herbert, literary editor of the Sunday Times.
8. Boris Johnson
He looked much the same then as he does now, albeit a trifle slimmer, and was regarded in much the same light: ludicrous, but with an ambition that is not to be underestimated. Beaten by Ford for the post of president of the Buller, he made up for it by becoming president of the Oxford Union.
Editor of the Spectator from 1999 to 2005, and MP for Henley since 2001, his chief occupations outside journalism and politics would seem to be amusing television quiz show audiences and being unfaithful to his wives (two, at the last count).
9. Harry Eastwood
Another old Etonian, after Oxford Eastwood worked in corporate finance at Storehouse, the retail group. Later tried his hand at setting up his own business, co-founding a firm called Filmbox which aimed to operate vending machines for people to rent videos from. They were persuasive enough to get backers to stump up £450,000, but the business was a failure before it even got off the ground. Is now commercial director for a company called Monkey.
Reader views (13)
@Andrew and @Paul Roberts, Chichester,
"The one thing all these 'gents' have in common is that they would have got absolutely nowhere without their family connections. They were cosseted through public school, cosseted through university (Oxbridge always reserved a disproportionate number of places for Old Etonians, Old Harrovians etc)"
I studied politics philosophy and economics at Oxford, the same course as Cameron. I went to a local authority grammar school in the middle of a council estate. Oxford selects on academic ability only. The fact is these people were very very able at a very young age. Lots of people go to leading public schools and Oxford or Cambridge and do not end up particularly successful, becoming school teachers or local solicitors, running pubs or travel agencies, going into the city and failing....it happens.
Fees at leading public schools are say £25K per years. If you go to a comprehensive the state spends say £6K on you per year. You get what you pay for and inevitably proportionally more pupils from leading public schools are equipped for quite demanding Oxbridge courses; the courses are demanding, I was there.
I voted Labour. I do not particularly like these people, but the British class system is not as simple as Andrew and Mr Roberts suggests.
- John, London, 20/05/2010 11:39
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Presumably Mike Taylor would be just as happy for the residents of the local council estate to appear the next time he dines out and smash the restaurant to bits?
No, didn't think so.
For you, assume you feel that kind of entertainment is the privilege of those whose daddies will foot the bill (I'm assuming that they weren't self made millionaires by the time they got to university).
I particularly enjoyed your comment on what constitutes the dragging down of this country. If the Camerons of this world weren't spoilt rich boys they would be probably serving sentences for vandalism, being found drunk and disorderly and a variety of other offences (yes, they are criminal offences) I await Camerons policies on law and order with interest, I wonder how hypocritical he will be when turning to youth crime.
In short, the man is a joke, (just a rich one who can get away with it!.
- Paul Roberts, Chichester, 08/01/2010 23:21
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The one thing all these 'gents' have in common is that they would have got absolutely nowhere without their family connections. They were cosseted through public school, cosseted through university (Oxbridge always reserved a disproportionate number of places for Old Etonians, Old Harrovians etc) and are within sniffing distance of power only because the Conservative Party is still in thrall to people of this kind. New Labour's greatest crime, among many others, is that they have handed the election to a group whose mindset is still firmly in the 19th century. What a sad place Britain is!
- J T Mcturk, Miami USA, 31/12/2009 21:03
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Mike, I would be ashamed to be in such a club. The fact isn't that people are jealous. The fact is these members flaunted their status by getting drunk and trashing places, causing havoc. People who think this club is pathetic haven't got an inferiorty complex, why should they? It's just toffs dressing in ridiculous clothes (just the coat cost over £2,000) Then to add insult to injury they just threw money at the destruction caused.
"Oh sorry I smashed up your restaurant up, i'm drunk on champagne. here's the money to cover it. tata chap" What an insult.
Connections do get you everywhere, they have talent yes but without their status they would never be in the position they are in now, and I'm sorry it's hard to argue against that fact.
- Gemma Richardson, Wrexham, Wales, 07/10/2009 22:43
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I'd rather have this lot in charge than Prudence Brown & his load of Scottish cronies
- Jc, Northampton Bankrupt UK, 16/07/2009 09:08
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I'd rather have this lot running the country than the dull, sanctimonious lefties in power now!
- K Bankhead, Wakefield, 13/07/2009 21:57
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The tenth man is a gentleman called Simon Deware.
No one talks about him.
- Jack, Tottenham. London, 06/05/2008 07:08
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Mr. Jagger I think you are somewhat misplaced with your criticisms, these men have generally turned out to e extremely sccessful, as the article more than details. This 'social class' as you say is in fact the most important in the British economy as it is them who, for the most part operate the entities that make the economy work.
Sebastian Grigg, a partner at Goldman Sachs, the largest investment bank in the world. The bank itself has the power to cripple large companies and whole economies. To become a partner, one must excel.
David Cameron, Tory leader.
Ewen Fergusson, partner in a large city law firm. Evidently talented.
Matthew Benson set up his own successful property consultancy after working with finance heavyweights Morgan Stanley. Evidently Talented.
Jonathan Ford, doing quite well for himself in financial journalism.
Boris Johnson, spent years as editor of the Spectator, and has an undeniable rare genius and raw ambition, despite his eccentric demeanor.
Connections will only get you so far, so you must have the talents to fall back on. Evidently these men are despised by a jealous public, but that is only because their background allowed them privileges that many people do not have, such as joining the Bullingdon. In itself, the club is a fast-track to success and not many people would refuse access to such a short-cut.
- Peadar, Ireland, 08/03/2007 12:08
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Let's elect David Cameron as Prime Minister. He'll be in touch with the concerns of ordinary people, won't he?
- Michael, Oxford, 02/03/2007 08:47
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So who is the tenth man?
- Andrew, London, UK, 02/03/2007 08:40
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Useless parasites. Looking at their later "achievements", most seem utter failures, kept afloat by inherited or married-into money. Maybe the UK should try something like a decent old-style revolution and exterminate this social class (as a tribute to the 21st century you can keep them alive but put them to some useful occupation). And Mike Taylor: So it's ok to damage someone else's property as long as you pay for it afterwards? Are laws only for poor people?
- Mick Jagger, Berlin, 20/02/2007 12:33
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So where's the issue here? Cameron was a young man who liked having fun, is that so unnatural?
No, the problem as I see it resides with those who cannot come to terms with their own inferiority and, therefore, are consequently resentful at the success and renown of others.
It's what's dragging the country down.
For myself, I would have been proud to have been a member of such an august gathering.
- Mike Taylor, Manchester England, 19/02/2007 16:30
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The least said the better.
- Ben Lewis, Perth, W/Australia, 15/02/2007 05:57
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