Cameron, Bullingdon and character

How much do people change between the ages of 20 and 40? This question is the key to whether David Cameron is fit to hold any political office, and indeed whether he can get any significant public support at all.
At Oxford, he was a member of the Bullingdon Club, which is pretty much the embodiment of the very worst of the public school character: an arrogant contempt towards the "lower orders" (porters, waiters, scouts); a yobbish criminality; and a wallowing in utterly undeserved and unmerited privilege. It's viciousness tempered by cretinism, and the strongest argument for class war I've ever seen - and I've seen a few.
It is only if Cameron is a very different person now than he was then that he could be remotely worthy of any public support at all.
So, do people change that much?
Obviously, Cameron's own words on this question are worthless.
Two things, however, lead me to doubt that he's changed much.
One is the opinion of good judges who've seen him at work outside politics. Sun business editor Ian King has described him as a  "poisonous, slippery individual". Jeff Randall's opinion is no higher. And I suspect that Tim Congdon's hostility is more than ideological. This matters, because these guys are good judges who don't share my prejudices.
Secondly, there's introspection. I don't think I've changed that much since I was at Oxford, as a near-contemporary of Cameron. Sure, I'm more liberal, less gregarious, wiser and better informed (if less intelligent). But I'm basically the same bloke.
In two respects, this should worry anyone attracted to Cameron. First, I spent years in an environment where my character was likely to change. If a working class midland Marxist can work for years in the City without much changing, how likely is it that Cameron's changed?
Secondly, one respect in which I've changed is that I'm more arrogant and less pleasant now than 20 years ago. If the same's true of any Bullingdon Club member, you should be scared - very scared.

Comments

[Peter Briffa]

I am.

[zorro]

I might not trust Cameron, you might not trust him, but he's going to be the next elected PM so you'd better get used to it! :)

Oh and there's no way in hell he could be any more "poisonous and slippery" than Broon or Bliar.

[James Hamilton]

Chris, I can barely read your Captcha, and anyway, you only get the right sort of chap in the Buller. Ask Damian Counsell. If you were contemporary to Cameron, I was to George Osbourne, who I remember as by some margin the most unpleasant character I had the misfortune to encounter in 3 years as a student. That Cameron not merely tolerates him but sees him as a close ally is a far better reason to worry than any amount of bottle throwing twentyish years ago.

[Dan]

Chris - does it matter that Cameron is total jerk? If we think that he has the political prowess to manipulate in order to acheive results should we worry? What is worse a PM that has no power (for example the PM of New Zealand, or John Major) or a strong leader with unfavourable personal qualities....? Surely Politics is about manipulation. Blair is particuarlly good at it as was Bill Clinton. Not so Mr Bush who just comes across to people who dont live in the middle states of America a complete turkey. My worry about Cameron is his ability to stamp his authority on Foreign leaders, not about wanting to play cricket with the chap.....

[Katherine]

Gawd, if the Bullingdon Club is anything like the Pitt Club (Cambridge drinking club for toffs) then - shudder.

[Simon]

What could change him? How about marriage and fatherhood?

[dave heasman]

Cameron was surprised to be invited to join the Bullingdon, and slipperily avoided most of the most disgraceful antics. Doesn't mean he's not a shit, of course. All I've heard about his "career" at ITV suggests he is.

I followed your link to "cretinism". I think Boris as a Tory MP saying "..that weird moment of shock - when I realised the cops were capable of making something up.. "
puts him head and shoulders above his fellows. To admit to not realising it before, and to keep it as a formative influence 20 years afterwards, are both praiseworthy and - weird in a Tory MP but there you go - moral.

[james c]

You need to do more than demonstrate that Cameron is a ****. You need to show that he is a bigger **** than others who aspire to be Prime Minister.

[Tabman]

I drew much the same conclusions as you (see Bullingdon Davey on Liberal Review).

Hattersley was trying to make much the same argument, but very badly, on Question Time last night. How strange it was that Dimbleby shut him up - you'd almost think he was a member of the Bullingdon too.

[john b]

"What is worse a PM that has no power (for example the PM of New Zealand, or John Major) or a strong leader with unfavourable personal qualities....?"

Assuming the relevant country isn't facing a total war for survival (which we aren't, whatever the Islamaparanoiacal neoclowns might believe), then the second is worse by a country mile.

For example, New Zealand stayed out of the Iraq farce, has posted economic growth comparable to the UK's, and hasn't embarked on any Grand Doomed Schemes to take away people's freedom and waste money.

The Tories under Major managed to lay the foundations for the current economic growth cycle, and to not push Thatcherism to the dangerous extent that a charismatic leader might have achieved (OK, rail privatisation was a bit of a disaster, but it was always intended as a plot to make life hard for Labour rather than a serious policy in its own right...).

[Christopher G D Tipper]

Tabman wrote:

"Hattersley was trying to make much the same argument, but very badly, on Question Time last night. How strange it was that Dimbleby shut him up - you'd almost think he was a member of the Bullingdon too."

Funny you should mention that. Take a look at the wikipedia page above under "Bullingdon Club".

[linda]

here's a question for Bullingdon Dave: how do you think it feels for a state school kid to arrive at their Oxbridge college to find out that their college-mates only want to be friends with their old public-school chums?

[Benjamin G A Cowley]

I think you should all grow up and get your own lives.

I don't think there's anybody living who has done everything throughout their life perfectly in every way.

Also, would you rather have an (hypothetical) uneducated, lazy PM who hadn't been a member of the club running the country or Mr. Cameron?

[Paulie]

Eighteen months later, and this is still one of my favourite posts on this site.

You should get it framed.