POSH
Friday, June 15, 2012 at 12:57PM Last night I finally went to see a play that opened at the Royal Court in London almost 2 years ago. If you get the chance, take a deep breath and go and see it.
It’s on at the Duke of Yorks theatre, it’s called POSH and it depicts the frightening antics of a group of very privileged young men who have arranged a dinner to celebrate the return of their very exclusive secret club.
Without much of a leap of imagination, the fictitious riot club is based on the Bullingdon Club of which our current Prime Minsiter, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Mayor of London were all members.
So, it’s just a bunch of young toffs who get up to japes and pay off anyone who complains, where’s the harm? What’s all the fuss about, the Prime Minister has far more important things to worry about.
A 'banned' picture of the Bullingdon club in 1987 featuring among others, (2) David Cameron and (8) Boris Johnson
In the 1970’s I worked in a restaurant in Oxford called ‘Colonel Bogeys.’ Yes, not a pleasant name but for a short time it was very popular. I worked as a kitchen hand and rarely had contact with customers, except one night when a group of rowdy young men (this was long before Dave Cameron’s time) arrived and took over one end of the large dining area. They were very drunk and all dressed in the same get up, a bizarre combination of dining suits, starched shirts and bow ties, like 19th century toffs.
Now, seeing as I had hair down to my ass at the time, on this particular evening it would have been tied in a pony tail, I’m hardly in a position to judge the dress codes of others, but this bunch were all wearing exactly the same laughable rags, down to identical buttons and collar studs.
As I passed by their table (I had been drafted in to being a waiter on this particular evening) carry a load of plates, one of these young men, a diminutive blonde kid, grabbed my apron and said ‘Oi.’
I carefully placed the plates on a nearby table, leant my face right into his so our noses were virtually touching and said quietly. ‘Don’t ‘Oi’ me chum, say excuse me.’
This response caused huge uproar among his chums and the restaurant manager quickly intervened and ushered me out to the kitchens. She then discreetly explained that these young chaps were all members of a dining club, it was ‘the sort of thing that happens in Oxford’ and that I shouldn’t cross them as they were all from very powerful, wealthy families.
I was, as you may be able to imagine, fairly shocked by this information. It quickly spread through the bedraggled kitchen staff, mutterings of revenge plans were hatched, even talk of waiting for this crowd of twats outside the restaurant and ‘doing them.’
However, even at our young age we all knew it was pointless, yes, we may indeed by capable of hospitalizing a few of them, but we knew they’d win in the long run, they always had and they always would.
To say this miniscule contact with the uber-elite of our small island has tainted my vision of our fair and pleasant land is to define understatement.
The pathetic, pitiful arguments put forward by members of such elite clubs that ‘it’s just the same with working class people, they behave just as badly’ or that it is some ways unfair to pick on this tiny group is only worthy of snide derision.
The fact that our current Prime Minister, no matter what his personal behavior was or is now, was once a member of such a foul cauldron of arrogance, ignorance and blatant bigotry tells us more about him than any number of policy horrors he’s ejaculating over our culture.
The play captures the frustration and anger these privileged young men experience as the paltry gains of the 99% represent to them an affront to the natural order. They were born to be in power, they scoff at our bumbling struggle toward some form of tragic equality. Anyone who isn’t like them, and there’s very few of them, is by definition scum. Women, white men who have to work, all black people, Europeans, not homosexuals strangely as many of them are just that, anyone poor, anyone struggling to feed their children and obviously anyone who doesn’t agree that they have an inbuilt, genetic level of right to rule.
Before the play we listened to a panel discussion expertly chaired by Alistair Cambell, the man behind the dodgy dossier, including Luciana Berger, Labour MP; Dr James Tilley, lecturer at Oxford in politics and international relations; Rachel Johnson, Editor in Chief of The Lady (a magazine) who is Boris (Bullingdon Club ’83) Johnson’s sister and the play’s very erudite director Lyndsey Turner.
It was short, interesting and made the entire evening highly stimulating. My 15-year-old daughter loved it, she found the play fairly disturbing. Indeed it is funny and deeply depressing at the same time.
If, as has been argued, it was a play about a bunch of white working class boys, or a bunch of young black kids and let’s face it many such plays have been produced, and they beat up a barman, the force of law would have been down on them with vengeance.
However this tiny sub-set are effectively above the law, they are the children of the men who make and manipulate the law for their own ends. Through wealth and social connection they can play the game, cheat, steal, destroy and lie their way through life while at the same time, through careful outward behavior convince the rest of us that the country is in good hands with them at the helm.
5% of our population attends expensive private school, an even smaller precentage attend Oxford or Cambridge university. A full 60% of the current government, the cabinet, are from such backgrounds. They have won, they will always win, this is what we are left with at the end of the play. They will, always, win.
Reader Comments (4)
"an even smaller precentage attend Oxford"
That's not Oxford's fault though, the university does an enoumous amount of work in trying to widen access, encourage people who may not have thought of applying to do so, and the effects are actually pretty good - of all the people that get the requisite A level results, a very large fraction are offered places at either Oxford or Cambridge.
There's not much else that can be done except to get state schools to educate more of their pupils well enough that they're actually in a position to start a course at Oxford.
Interesting. It would be great if they made a vid of it. London is a bit of a trip for me...and I can`t swim.
I`d also like to see the same thing done with American elite cults. I wonder whos well moneyed swine would be the worse.
To ewan- Another issue with "lower class" people going to elite universities would be that they would be dealing with people who considers them lower than spit on the sidewalk. It would not be an easy thing to do. I have a good friend,who would describe himself as a "poor,dumb hillbilly,whos sister got a scholarship to Harvard Law. She did manage to stick it out,and got her degree,but the whole experience left her feeling like far less than equal. I`m sure there are plenty of success stories of this sort,but we don`t often hear the other side.
No point complaining about posh people.
These people have power because the majority surrender themselves to them like sheep.
As far as I remember, Margaret Thatcher, David Cameron and Boris Johnson were democratically elected.
If you feel less than equal to posh or upper class people, then perhaps you should change your mindset.
Here's another thing - some people often look down on me because I have an accent from the western suburbs of Sydney, Australia, but what is interesting is the people who look down on me are not the rich, but some members of the middle class who probably have less net worth than me AND I'm not rich. I live in a small house in rural NSW. Rich people don't seem to look down on me because of my accent or because I have much less money than them. I don't even dress well - I usually wear a tracksuit or overalls. I did not even know how to use a knife or fork properly until I had lunch with them. In fact, a number of rich people like it when I hang out with them and they even pay for my lunches on occasions. Some have even helped me out so I can attend events with my Electric Vehicle and all are supportive of my EV pursuits. A number of people from the middle class seem to discourage me from my EV pursuits, although some have changed their tune as soon as they saw my progress. It was the rich people who were a lot more encouraging.
If you don't like the banks, then don't use them. Use an alternative like maybe a credit union or building society OR create your own bank.
A lot of immigrant families stick together and they combine resources so that they don't have to rely on banks.
If you don't like oil companies, then don't drive a gas car. Drive an electric car.
If you don't like the education system, then educate your kids.
Another thing about rich people - they provide jobs and they create things. Look at Elon Musk who put the majority of his wealth into building Tesla Motors - the Electric Car. He created jobs and opportunities for others.
Look at Nathan Tinkler - Australia's richest man under 40 years of age. He came from a working class background. In fact, he was an electrician to start of with. Now, he's a billionaire (or close to it depending which way the stock market is going). He provides heaps of jobs and does a lot of good things for Australia. He is a down to earth person. He did not attend an elite school. Instead of complaining about others he made the best out of the situation he was in and created his own success in the process.
"5% of our population attends expensive private school, an even smaller precentage attend Oxford or Cambridge university. A full 60% of the current government, the cabinet, are from such backgrounds."
Hang on, how is this a bad thing? Oxford and Cambridge only accept the elite. Their admissions policies are biased towards state educated people. They produce the people who go on to take the top jobs and positions in the country, and the world. The fact that our government is filled with these academically brilliant people is surely a good thing, right?
Our government is supposed to represent the people, not be representative of the people. Why would I want a dumbass like me to run the country? I want the best people in government.