Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK

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Gove grew into a recognisable Oxford character in outsized glasses, speaking with an exaggerated oratorical air even in daily life. When the future Guardian journalist Luke Harding arrived at Oxford in 1987, Gove led his freshers’ tour of the union. “He was basically the same [as in 2021],” recalls Harding. “He had this preternatural self-confidence, this faux-courtly manner. He seemed somewhat parodic, someone who wasn’t going to flourish in the real world.” Yet he has gone on to become the Jeeves to Johnson’s Wooster. How can you tell a man attended Oxford?” Victor Lewis Smith once joked. “Because he’ll tell you in the first sentence.” For most of us, the subject is irrelevant, boring and self-absorbed. Oxford is barely worth a day trip; the centre of the city looks pretty in summer, but most of it’s a dump, and a cup of tea won’t get you much change out of a fiver. I taught history at the University of Sussex, in Brighton, and much preferred it. Oxford doesn’t have a pier.

Chums by Simon Kuper — the Oxford breed of political bluff Chums by Simon Kuper — the Oxford breed of political bluff

On the one hand Kuper makes a compelling case for the complete and lasting overthrow of Britain’s chumocracy. For gods sake let’s end the days of our country being run by a group of Oxford educated public school boys. It’s not good for fairness , it’s not good for the millions of excluded young people who could perhaps offer an interesting vibrant future , and looking at the past 20 years it’s not much good for the country. a b "BSME Awards 2016 – the winners". www.inpublishing.co.uk. 16 November 2016 . Retrieved 2 July 2023.Shea, Christopher (16 February 2012). "The Bébé's Dad Speaks". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660 . Retrieved 1 July 2023. Of course this toxic, maligned template then gets forced onto the public at large with devastating consequences, which is how you end up with what the UK has been enduring for well over a decade. A disastrous system which is run by the same kind of people for the same kind of people, which is designed at its very heart to extract and exploit the neediest and poorest and society, whilst doing everything in its power and control to amass vast control and wealth for itself, whilst remaining totally devoid of compassion.

Chums: Updated with a new chapter eBook : Kuper, Simon

SK: They seem to be doing this more and more. I rewrote my last chapter of ‘Chums’ recently to reflect my admiration for things like this. And it’s difficult for Oxford to have to correct a very class-based school system. What they shouldn’t do, is what they used to do, and that’s to say that it’s not their fault. That they only accept the best, meaning the best prepared.However, despite the fun I had reading it, I would be falling into my own ideological biases if I didn't mention the sloppiness of Kuper's reasoning. The author seems to believe in a kind of Great Man Theory of History, wherein chaps from the elite think Great Thoughts, and then put those thoughts into actions, shaping world history as if there were no concrete social relations that they inhabited. Whether you agreed with the Brexit referendum or not, the fact that a populace had to be persuaded to either side cannot be ignored, but Kuper seems to think that isn't the case. Johnson’s gift turned out to be for winning office, not doing anything with it. He didn’t make much of his presidency, recalls Tim Hames, a union politician of the time: “The thing was a shambles. He couldn’t organise a term card to save his life. He didn’t have the sort of support mechanism that he realised in later life that he required.”

Chums by Simon Kuper – Review. How Oxford Tories Took Over Chums by Simon Kuper – Review. How Oxford Tories Took Over

Kuper's book Barça: The Rise and Fall of the Club that Built Modern Football appeared in 2021. It won the Sunday Times award for Football Book of the Year 2022. [29] Interview, Oxstu Profile (5 June 2023). "In conversation with Simon Kuper". The Oxford Student . Retrieved 2 July 2023.What does he think will happen to the class of public school educated folk that currently dominate the Tory party? “I think it’s possible that the Johnson, Cameron, Rees-Mogg generation will prove to be a last hurrah. But I think that class is very tenacious. Eton exists to educate the ruling class and if the ruling class has to do Stem degrees or have MBAs or the ruling class has to talk about diversity, they’ll produce boys who can do that.” The description of the system is good, but the analysis is a bit thin. Admittedly, Eton and Oxford do have a grip on the ruling class in the UK, but it would be far more interesting to understand why that might be? After all, the UK has more than one ancient and famous university, there is more than one ancient school. What is the grip of these institutions that helps them to maintain their place. It could be money and endowments, but these exist elsewhere. We are never quite given an insight into why that might be. Kuper also writes in Dutch, and his work frequently appeared in publications including the Dutch newspapers NRC Handelsblad [14] and Het Financieele Dagblad, [15] the literary football magazine Hard Gras, and the online newspaper De Correspondent. [16] Financial Times [ edit ]