Adrian Buck’s Reviews > Chums: How A Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over The UK > Status Update

"I suspect that we'll see a fall in the numbers of British pupils going to private schools, as wealthy parents work out that the fortunes they are paying in fees may actually hamper their kids chances of getting into Oxbridge." - introduction of taxation of private schools should accelerate this, more foreign pupils pushing up fees, pressure for the government to invest in state schools.

"The dilettiantish Oxford I knew has been replaced with something quite professional and money driven" - the public schools too? Taunton's Oxbridge places?

"I'm sure they didn't percieive this as corrupt. They just needed solutions urgently...Class solidarity kicked in." - why then the cover ups?

"I [Rory Stewart] feel their is a deep lack of seriousness in British politics...the people debating are not asking serious questions" - Journalists included. In what way did people like Paxman undermine the publics perception that politics was a serious business?

"Admittedly, the comparision between the Cambridge and Oxford sets isn't entirely fair: though both betrayed Britain's interests in the service of Moscow, the Brexiteers did it by mistake" - again no analysis of the foreign interests in the outcome of Brexit.

"In the end, Cummings focused the Leave campaign on two issues that many ordinary Britons did care about: immigration and the National Health Service" - should be much more about the demand side of Brexit.

"Brexit was...it was an anti-elitist revolt led by an elite: a coup by one set of Oxford public school boys against [an]other, backed by an Australian Oxford public schoolboy media magnet masquerading as an anti-elitist" - Murdoch was at an Australian grammar school, did study PPE at Oxford, but was a member of the Oxford University Labour Party.

"But when Cameron demoted him to chief whip, in 2014 lopping £30,000 off his salary on top him everything else. Gove was devastated." - ouch!

"...whereas their predecessors like Ken Clarke and Dennis Healey had been regulars at European get-togethers, even the most Europhile of the present generation didn't make those trips". I remember Cameron touring Europe trying to get some support for Britain before he called the Brexit referendum.

"You'd have some parliamentary committees that would have considered [Brexit]. You'd have a ton of work done. You'd have several years of informed debate...and people can vote at the least with some information. "