Are Rioting youths anything new?

[Gromit]

// The Bullingdon Club was founded in the 19th century as a hunting and cricket club, but is now devoted to drink and dining. Membership is by invitation only and normally limited to alumni of leading public schools. New recruits are secretly elected before being informed of their good fortune by having their college bedroom invaded by way of a window and methodically "trashed".

The club's notorious dinners typically involve members booking a private dining room (under an assumed name) and drinking themselves silly before destroying it elaborately. They wear royal blue tailcoats with ivory lapels, and - having made merry - pride themselves in politely paying the restaurant's owners compensation in high-denomination banknotes. One former Bullingdon member, the journalist Harry Mount, has recalled "being rolled down a hill by a Hungarian count". Boris Johnson once admitted to "dark deeds involving plastic cones and letterboxes".

Yet the "high jinks" that took place on the night the photo was taken (at Canterbury Quad, Christchurch) are up there with the best of them. At some point after the dinner, the group walked through Oxford when one (thought to be Fergusson, though exact recollections differ) threw a plant pot through the window of a restaurant.

The burglar alarm was activated and police descended with sniffer dogs. Six of the group were collared and spent the night at Cowley police station before being released without charge.

"David Cameron was one of the four people who escaped," a witness says. "If it wasn't for his foresight, he'd have spent a night in the clink. //

http://www.independen...ass-of-87-436192.html

But everyone deserves a second chance, don't they?

[Sqad]

sandy...I appreciate your points and respect them....however this gulf between those who have and those who have not, has always existed in one form or another.

Even in Russia, before the end of Communism, preferential treatment was given to Party members.

Discrimination of one kind or another will always exist.

[Brenden]

Agreed Hooray Henry's should be treated the same, I am a firm believer in Equal justice, so how much will the rioters pay towards the damage, some can afford payments, they are/were working.

[sandyRoe]

I know that. But I can't help not liking it.

[Sqad]

Steve....no big deal ;-)

[emmie]

it was hardly rioting, gross stupidity i grant you, you are suggesting that they got off lightly because of the perception that its just rich hooray henrys, and had they been lower down the pecking order perhaps would have had a harsher punishment, so double standards apply.

[Gromit]

One of the recent rioters got 6 months for taking a bottle of water from Lidl. It seems a lot less than lobbing a plantpot through a restraunt window. I'm sure if the bottled water lad had the option of paying for it the next day he would had. But he didn't belong to a club for knobs, so didn't ge that choice.

[Sqad]

Gromit...ther should be a standard fine for looting, whether it was a 42inch TV or a bottle of water.....in my opinion........looting is looting.

[Gromit]

Agreed sqad. I also think there should for criminal damage. Smash a restaurant window and get a fine or prison, regardless of your great great grandfather making a fortune.

[avanalarf]

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for
authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place
of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their
households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They
contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties
at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."

Attributed by Plato to Socrates.

Not much has changed after almost 2500 years.

[Brenden]

I wish my ancestors had made a fortune.

[emmie]

gromit, plenty of knobs as you call them around, we have seen them on tv, in the papers, claiming it wasn't me i was just passing by or any excuse but hold their hands up and say i'm sorry. Everyone deserves a second chance, some have had that and more. I don't care for any politician especially, hoorays or not, but i care even less for the so and so's who have brought more shame to Britain that i thought possible.
sqad i totally agree

[Sqad]

avanalarf.....something must have happened in 2500 years, as i don't recognize that description in my experience of the 50's and 60's.

[avanalarf]

teds, mods, rockers, hells angels?

[Sqad]

avanalarf..........the minority.....and we had few mods etc in the schools.

[emmie]

http://news.bbc.co.uk...d_2511000/2511245.stm

[Gromit]

How many MPs were aloud to pay back the expenses they looted? How many 50 inch plasma TVs were 'acquired' from us tax payers by MPs? How many avoided prison because they handed over the dosh when caught?

Double standards.

[Gromit]

Allowed. (apologies)

[Sqad]

Gromit.....don't go on, we have agreed that there always has been double standards in one form or another and always will be.

[emmie]

agree, but some have gone to prison, for fraud, as to paying back the money, who knows how many, perhaps if one can access freedom of information, you could find out.