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Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK (Paperback)
Simon Kuper

Power. Privilege. Parties. It's a very small world at the top.

Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, David Cameron, George Osborne, Theresa May, Dominic Cummings, Daniel Hannan, Jacob Rees-Mogg: Whitehall is swarming with old Oxonians.

They debated each other in tutorials, ran against each other in student elections, and attended the same balls and black tie dinners. They aren't just colleagues - they are peers, rivals, friends. And, when they walked out of the world of student debates onto the national stage, they brought their university politics with them.

Thirteen of the seventeen postwar British prime ministers went to Oxford University. In Chums, Simon Kuper traces how the rarefied and privileged atmosphere of this narrowest of talent pools - and the friendships and worldviews it created - shaped modern Britain. A damning look at the university clique-turned-Commons majority that will blow the doors of Westminster wide open and change the way you look at our democracy forever.

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Media Reviews

'Brilliant... traces Brexit back to the debating chambers of the Oxford Union in the 1980s' James O'Brien

'A searing onslaught on the smirking Oxford insinuation that politics is all just a game. It isn't. It matters' Matthew Parris

'A sparkling firework of a book' Lynn Barber, Spectator

'Exquisite and depressing in equal measure' Matthew Syed, Sunday Times

What We Think

We think that it's true that having a big chunk of our important politicians coming from a handful of schools isn't ideal. If you think the same and want to dig deeper into that, or if you disagree and you want to see the evidence for the other side of the argument, then Chums is a good place to start.

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A Bit More Info

The Author

Author: Simon Kuper
Nationality: English

The Book

Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Published: 2023-03-30
First Published:
ISBN: 9781788167390

The Place

Continent: Europe
Country: Britain