...Out To Dry in the 80s
David Cameron and Boris Johnson: Establishment cronies of the Bullingdon Club
Anyone with the briefest interest in politics and world affairs will be aware that Tory leader, David Cameron, is a hypocrite for marking
Nelson Mandela as a hero.
The viral memes (here and here) that have been doing the rounds on social media sites for a year or so refer to Mandela’s grave illness and continues "When he
does die, and David Cameron jumps on the Mandela bandwagon, remember
that in 1985 he was a top member of the Federation of Conservative
Students, which produced the 'Hang Mandela' posters."
Some establishment apologists and reactionary, right-wing commentators are attempting to paint a picture that is a little more opaque.
Cameron and the current
Tory head boys are acknowledged toffs, cast in the image of Harry
Enfield’s ‘Tory Boys’ that the Conservative Party under William
Hague tried in vain to rid itself of in the 90′s. Of course any attempt at a Blairite 'modernisation' of the Tories is doomed to failure because it is inherently a party of the rich, for the rich; much like the New Labour facelift which tired to deny, worse still sever the proletarian roots of the political wing of the trade unions.
But are Cameron and Co merely
upper-class buffoons or is there a truly malevolent vein running through
the clique? We must examine the post-war history of young Conservatism and also look back to their university years...
Following the Second World War and the Conservatives’ loss of power,
the Young Britons Organisation was reformed to cater for boys and girls
aged 6-16, whilst over 16s were accommodated by the creation of the catchily-named Federation of University Conservative and Unionists Associations (FUCUA), later rebranded as the
Federation of Conservative Students (FCS), and the Young Conservatives
(YC). The Federation of Conservative Students (FCS) was created as the
official university-based student-wing of the Conservative Party,
although many students were also members of the YC.
Those that seek to defend Cameron, such as the author of this misleading Buzzfeed piece, claim that Cameron can be absolved of any and all responsibility for the Hang Mandela and pro-Apartheid rhetoric of the time because our David was not even ‘political’ in University and there is little evidence he was a member of the FCS,
although he likely was a member of YC. The FCS became well-known for
its ‘Hang Nelson Mandela’ posters and badges, as well as, slogans such
as ‘Execute Arthur Scargill!’, or ‘Smash the NHS!’ ‘Kill the Wets’.
 |
| Hang Nelson Mandela, Federation of Conservative Students |
Some members of the top level of FCS negotiated with the BNP. Although divided into three main factions the FCS
leadership at the time were far-right, libertarian in outlook and fashioned themselves as
shock troops for the right-wing of the Conservative party, adopting the
moniker ‘Maggies Militant Tendency’. The satirical magazine Private Eye alleged
that members of the FCS at Aberystwyth wore springbok jerseys, racially
abused ethnic minority bar staff at the student bar and organised a
night out in Aberystwyth town centre to celebrate the anniversary
of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany.
This from The Guardian, 31st May 1986:
Tory student leader in ‘ racist ‘ party link / Paul
Delarie-Staines of FCS attempts to form pact with British National Party
in Hull by David Rose a leader of the Federation of Conservative
Students wrote to an organiser of the British National Party proposing
joint ‘direct action’ to disrupt the meetings of leftwing students.
Secrecy, he emphasised, was essential: ‘The Reds would simply go wild if
they got to hear of a BNP-FCS link.
I would personally be in danger of being expelled from the
Conservative Party.’ The author of the letter is Mr Paul
Delarie-Staines, the chairman of the federation’s 50-strong branch at
the Humberside college of Higher Education. Mr Delarie-Staines, who is
in his first year of a degree course in business information studies,
wrote on May 22 to Mr Ian Walker, a BNP organiser in Hull. He was, he
said, against several of the aims of the BNP, which campaigns for the
repatriation of black citizens.
Mr Delarie-Staines said he did not share the BNP view on immigration:
as a member of the ‘libertarian’ faction of the FCS he advocated the
free movement of labour, albeit with the caveat that ‘you come here to
work – or starve. ‘He went on: ‘I share a lot of your objectives.‘ These
included a return to leadership and statesmanship, the abolition of the
welfare state, and ‘the elimination of Communism in Britain – the mass
media, the trade unions, and the schoolroom. ‘Mr Delaire-Staines
continued: ‘Nevertheless, even though we have our differences, I know a
lot of BNP people at college do support the FCS (some are members of the
FCS). I can certainly envisage some degree of cooperation.
The Paul Staines in question is better known now as drunken right-wing blogger Guido Fawkes.
Norman Tebbit disbanded FCS in 1986 as he viewed it as too extreme;
they had accused former Tory PM Harold Macmillan of war crimes in extraditing
Cossacks to the Soviet Union.
Before this prominent members included – Michael Forsyth (member of
John Major’s cabinet, knighted in 97 and appointed to the Lords in 99) and
John Bercow (current speaker of the House of Commons and the last chair
of the FCS. Bercow is something of a self-made man, and there is a
simmering animosity between him and Cameron. Son of a taxi-driver,
educated in state schools he is the ‘Loadsamoney’ Thatcherite compared
to Cameron’s ‘Tory Boy’ descendant of King William IV. Cameron’s father
was a stockbroker, mother served as a magistrate and he went to prep
school before Eton). Matin Callanan (leading the Conservative European
Parliament section and seen by analysts as one of the trinity really
leading the Tories along with Tom Strathclyde and Cameron).
YC, which shared members with FCS before their respective
disbandments, was not as extreme as FCS – at least overtly – and it was
suffered until William Hague’s decision to disband it in 1998. With less
emphasis on political fundamentalism it was something more of a social
club or marriage bureau, although responsible to a large extent for
Churchill’s re-election in 1951, akin to Ireland’s Young Fine Gael or
Ogra Fianna Fáil.
However this is not to say that Cameron was oblivious of the
right-wing nature of his political allegiance.In the Buzzfeed article defending Cameron we
only have the word of his official biographer that he wasn't
"political" as a student; despite the fact he took Politics at 'O' level, 'A'
level AND Degree; that he did work experience with his godfather,
who was Tory MP for Lewes; and that most of his ancestors sat in the
House of Lords. Are we really to believe he was not involved in politics
until he finished his degree...and then walked straight into a prestigious
job at Tory Party Central Office? For some reason, and I have no idea
why, I smell a rat. There is no reason why Cameron could
not have been a member of FCS whilst studying his 'A' levels, a full two years before he went to
University...where the apolitical [sic] Cameron went to study...Politics. Of course this is all speculation, as
are most of the "facts" cited in the Buzzfeed piece.
In 1989, 23yr old Cameron
was working at the Conservative Research Department and was seen as
future leader material. We do know for certain that he accepted an apartheid-lobbyist trip to South
Africa, whilst Nelson Mandela rotted in prison, on what was called a ‘sanction-busting jolly’ by critics. His host
was Strategy Network International (SNI), created in 1985 specifically
to lobby against the imposition of sanctions on South Africa. Thatcher
at this time had called Mandela a terrorist and the Conservatives were
defiantly anti-sanctions. While this is circumstantial it can be noted
that Cameron has surrounded himself with former FCS and YC members, the
very people that regarded themselves as more Thatcherite than Thatcher.
If
I said "Adolf Hitler was a diamond, stand-up bloke with fab policies" [he wasn't, obvs] could you infer
from that that I, at this moment in time, supported Hitler, his beliefs
and his manifesto? Yes, I rather think you could. Ergo, when Cameron
praises and worships Thatcher that is exactly what he is doing.
Did
Thatcher call Mandela a terrorist? Yep. Did Cameron support Thatcher's
anti-sanctions, pro-Apartheid policies? Yep. (he was actually a "rising
star" of the Conservative Research Department, lest we forget!). Did Tory MPs like Teddy
Taylor and the FSC call for Mandela's execution? Yep. Did Cameron attend
a sanction-busting all-expense jolly to Apartheid South Africa whilst
Mandela was incaerated on Robin Island by that very same regime? Yep. Are leading members of the
Cameron's Tory Cabinet - his personally hand-picked colleagues,
including leader of the House John Bercow - those responsible for the
Hang Mandela propaganda of the FSC in the 1980's? Yep.
Whether Cameron was actually directly involved in the production of the Hang Mandela material is pretty irrelevant; he was was complicit with the campaign. It depends how pedantic
you want to be but the key point, backed with evidence,
really is the fact that behind Cameron's platitudes lies someone who
helped the Apartheid state to continue for far longer than it should
have. It's his hypocrisy that is the issue, not his use of a photocopier
in 1985.
Unless
Cameron condemns Thatcher's pro-Apartheid, anti-sanctions,
Mandela-is-a-terrorist rhetoric he must still either complicitly support
it or be trying to whitewash it from history, because last time I
checked he still has his slimy little tongue lodge up Maggie's
maggot-infested arse.
The Bullingdon Club and Monday Club influence
on Cameron, his cabinet, speech writers, advisors and supporters is
more relevant than whether or not he wore a ‘Hang Mandela’ badge or tie
like so many of his colleagues. The select few that came through the YC,
FCS and the two example clubs are in charge and largely share the same
platform. They were anti-communist, pro-apartheid,
anti-immigrantion or straightforwardly racist (although Libertarian and
other peculiarities muddy the water here eg this account
by Derek Laud), anti-republican, anti-Irish, fanatically
pro-privatisation and defiantly upper class.
Cameron sports fifteen old
Etonians in his cabinet.
The privilege is strong and the sense of entitlement is natural.
