Haha. British politics.

[eastgermanautos]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/08/world/europe/britain-brexit-elite-politics.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

[Burney]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/08/world/europe/britain-brexit-elite-politics.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

What a very silly article. It ignores (or simply doesn't know) some fundamental and I would have thought obvious facts. Is it really so odd that people who have worked together for a long time on the same side in the same city should also be friends and move in the same social circles? Yes, Johnson and Cameron were both at Eton, but have never been particular friends and - their membership of the Bullingdon aside - weren't friends at Oxford, either. Neither were friends with Osborne, either.
In terms of background, Gove couldn't be more different to Johnson and Cameron. He's Scottish and he was state educated until he got a scholarship to a private school.
The article also totally fails to understand the nature of Oxford. Oxford is a collegiate university, meaning that people may go to different colleges there and almost never cross paths with contemporaries who attend other colleges, so saying 'they all went to Oxford' is - while true - rather meaningless. Cameron went to Brasenose, Johnson to Balliol and Gove to Lady Margaret Hall - all Oxford colleges.
Oxford is also one of this country's two elite universities and is the one that is much more politically oriented, particularly in the form of the Oxford Union. This means that pretty much anyone with an interest in or bent for politics will seek to go there. Since the war, all of our elected Prime Ministers - Labour and Conservative - who went to University (Churchill and Major did not, while Brown was never elected) went to Oxford. So the 'they all went to Oxford' thing is again rendered fairly meaningless.

[SWv2]

Surely all that needed to be pointed out here is the ridiculous situation of an American laughing at or poking fun at UK politics.

Donald ****ing Trump.

[eastgermanautos]

What do I know? However, the second half of your post seems to contradict the first. On the one hand you say that they don't have close contacts. On the other you say that people go there for its politically-minded bent. Surely, if you wanted to become a politician, or had that streak in you, you would want to go to Oxford?

In general, though, I get you. My lawyer was at Harvard at the same time as Ted Cruz, and they don't exactly go hunting together. :-)

[IUFG]

226

quite right, sw.

[Burney]

What do I know? However, the second half of your post seems to contradict the first. On the one hand you say that they don't have close contacts. On the other you say that people go there for its politically-minded bent. Surely, if you wanted to become a politician, or had that streak in you, you would want to go to Oxford?

In general, though, I get you. My lawyer was at Harvard at the same time as Ted Cruz, and they don't exactly go hunting together. :-)

Yes, people can cross paths and make contacts via the Oxford Union, but that doesn't make them friends. Gove and Johnson were both Presidents of the Union, but nobody would describe them as friends. In fact, David Cameron wasn't particularly political at University at all (I know as my brother in law shared a house with him in his third year), but still went on to become PM, so it doesn't really follow that this is some sort of clique.