Here
is Ewen Fergusson, newly appointed by Boris Johnson to the Committee
on Standards in Public Life. I cannot think of anyone more suitable
for this job. He has wide-ranging experience of standards. Here he is
with Boris Johnson as a member of Oxford’s Bullingdon Club, an
all-male dining club, known for its wealthy members, grand banquets
and bad behaviour, including vandalism of restaurants, bars and
hotels. Membership is expensive, with £3,000 tailor-made uniforms,
and a tradition of spiteful personal and public damage. When Johnson
was a member the initiation rites included tearing up a £50 note in
front of the homeless. A former member told the Daily Mirror, “Women
aren’t allowed to formal dinners but at informal gatherings we
would make them get down on all fours like a horse, whinny, and bring
out hunting horns and whips. Yes they were degraded to some extent,
but it was all done respectfully.” Is there no end to this
posh-barbarism? But at least Jeremy Corbyn was stopped from being PM.
