The unsolved mystery of the Bullingdon Club

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~nerofly Apr 3, 2012

Five years ago there was something of a media stir surrounding a number of members of the British Shadow Cabinet and there former membership of the Bullingdon Club.

The Bullingdon Club is an exclusive diners club for students at Oxford University, renowned for boorish behaviour and the wrecking of expensive restaurants. Wikipedia puts it like this:

A number of episodes over many decades have become anecdotal evidence of the Club's behaviour. Famously, on 12 May 1894 and again on 20 February 1927, after dinner, Bullingdon members smashed almost all the glass of the lights and 468 windows in Peckwater Quad of Christ Church, along with the blinds and doors of the building. As a result, the Club was banned from meeting within 15 miles of Oxford.
While still Prince of Wales, Edward VIII had a certain amount of difficulty in getting his parents' permission to join the Bullingdon on account of the Club's reputation. He eventually obtained it only on the understanding that he never join in what was then known as a "Bullingdon blind", a euphemistic phrase for an evening of drink and song. On hearing of his eventual attendance at one such evening, Queen Mary sent him a telegram requesting that he remove his name from the Club.
Andrew Gimson, biographer of Boris Johnson, reported about the club in the 1980s: "I don't think an evening would have ended without a restaurant being trashed and being paid for in full, very often in cash. A night in the cells would be regarded as being par for a Buller man and so would debagging anyone who really attracted the irritation of the Buller men."
Dinners in recent years, being relatively low key, have not attracted press attention, though in 2005, following damage to a 15th century pub in Oxfordshire during a dinner, four members of the party were arrested; the incident was widely reported. A further dinner was reported in 2010 after damage to a country house.

In 2007 a photograph emerge of the Bullingdon Club, circa 1987. Featured in this photograph were two members of the shadow cabinet, David Cameron and Boris Johnson. For our international audience, David Cameron is now the Prime minister of Her Majesty's Government, and Boris Johnosn is, through a quirk of electoral apathy, the Mayor of London. This photograph can be seen here:

[link]

The photo was swiftly removed from public circulation and can no longer be published in the press for copyright reasons.

A story goes that these gentlemen were dining in a fine restaurant, when one of the members took it upon themselves to throw a plant pot through a window. The police were called, and the majority of the members were rounded up and spent a night in the cells. This included Boris Johnson, who was caught by police whilst trying to tunnel his way through a hedge in the Botanical Gardens. Luckily, by all reasonably remunerated accounts, was not involved since he had apparently gone home early.

This was all damaging enough, the plot was to thicken.

In 2008, another Bullingdon photograph was to emerge. This time the picture was to feature George Osborne, now Chancellor of the Exchequer (for the Americans, this is the guy who looks after the money). This can be viewed here:

[link]

But look! It would appear that two members have been (badly) edited out. Who could possibly be so terrible an aquaintance as to warrant such treatment?

An ongoing mystery to which we might never know the answer...

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Devious Comments

~Black-Allison Apr 4, 2012

Probably something dumb and not that cool. You know, like people who photoshop their exes out of their photographs.

~rockstar1009 Apr 3, 2012 Hobbyist Writer

Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie as Jeeves and Wooster. The behaviour fits, no?

~nerofly Apr 3, 2012

That would be awesome.

~Sculptitude7 Apr 3, 2012

The second photo definitely shows bad editing. As does “Luckily, by all reasonably remunerated accounts, was not involved since he had apparently gone home early.”
I presume that you meant ‘enumerated’ accounts, rather than ‘remunerated’ accounts, and merely overlooked insertion of David Cameron as the subject.

As to the ‘mystery’ of the two missing heads, I don’t know enough about the subject to hazard a guess at identity other than; a couple of equally over-privileged wankers.

~nerofly Apr 3, 2012

No, I meant remunerated, but yes, I forgot to put David Cameron.

~Sculptitude7 Apr 3, 2012

OK. I’m following the logic of how making recompense on an account could have possibly absolved him of involvement. But, what does that have to do with him going home early?

*CouchyCreature Apr 3, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

but don't they all look like a bunch of surly upper class twits taking themselves very seriously.

~nerofly Apr 3, 2012

I think that's the point.

*CouchyCreature Apr 3, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

...of the photograph? I guess so. They do it so well though.

~EnuoCale Apr 3, 2012 Hobbyist Writer

It was Colonel Mustard in the billiards room with the rope. I heard the victim got so aroused from being choked that he came himself to death.

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