Boris

After reading trishers post on fagging, perhaps we should consider the possibility that Boris suffered abuse, may explain his eractic behaviour

Well recorded Churchill suffered much at school , he was damaged .

Except that fagging ended decades ago, only occurred in a handlful of top schools so that anyone under 50, currently climbing the greasy pole probably never experienced it and the majority of boarding school never had the system anyway.

Tom Brown !

Published in 1857 and featuring the 1830s to 1840s.

Yes, poor little boy

Interesting article about Louis Theroux being Nick Clegg's fag. Not the abusive relationship that hppened in the past, but it obviously still existed. Theroux is 48.

Forgot to do link!! www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7607920/General-Election-2010-Nick-Cleggs-fag-had-an-easy-ride.html

There are some people who could be thought to exhibit behaviours that fit the criteria used to describe sociopathy, these include:

Being glib and superficially charming
Lack of empathy
Lack of remorse
Grandiose sense of self
Manipulative
Poor behavioural control
Impulsivity

Perhaps it's not their "fault". Maybe it's something in their background/schooling that has made them that way (though I don't think psychologists have been able to definitely and specifically attribute personality disorders to either nature or nurture). Personally, I don't think people with a fair proportion of these traits are the ideal people to be in positions of power, even if some people find them entertaining.

Not the abusive relationship that happened in the past, but it obviously still existed
fetching errands, polishing shoes, being at the beck and call of an older pupil - but not necessarily providing sexual favours we hope.

Does it do any harm? Do the younger ones learn that we have to work and life is not just handed to us on a silver plate, and that their turn for privileges will come?

Think we can dismiss fagging linked to abuse for Boris, ?

I would imagine the younger ones learn that their parents don't parent and the victim becomes the perpetrator.

I don't think it's fair to dismiss possible abuse for Boris, after all there must surely be some reason why an apparently very clever man just keeps on opening his mouth and putting his foot in it. Of course it might be his early career in HIGNFY which convinced him everything he says is funny.

Need there be a reason? So ‘nature or nurture’

trisher

after all there must surely be some reason why an apparently very clever man just keeps on opening his mouth and putting his foot in it.
Either, as my mother would have said "he's too clever for his own good" or, as DH would say "suffers from verbal diarrhoea"
(sorry)

How do we know he is very clever?

He won a scholarship to Eton and then one to Oxford. He graduated with a 2/1 so he can't be stupid.

With that scholarship record he should have got a first, which suggests that without the discipline of school his innate buffoonery and wish to show off got in the way of his application. Then as Foreign Secretary he couldn't be bothered to read his briefs....

Apparently he thought he should have a first as well!!!!
He was a member of the Bullingdon Club so maybe he was too busy drinking and vandalising things.

It probably rankled that Cameron did get a first.

He won a scholarship to Eton and then one to Oxford. He graduated with a 2/1 so he can't be stupid.
I did Latin too but don't quote it every day as I can't remember much of it - so I must be more stupid than Boris!

Then as Foreign Secretary he couldn't be bothered to read his briefs....
We all know those who did very little homework, very little revision but still managed to get good results - they think they can go through life getting away with it.
Somewhere in their future careers they will come unstuck.

Does getting a first make you clever? Call me Dave seems to have messed up rather badly.

Maybe there is, as I was told by my mum, 'clever' and then there's common sense or 'nous' as it's sometimes called in Yorkshire. Boris and Dave both seem to be lacking in it.

I agree that educational achievement may show one type of cleverness and common sense another.

Unfortunately the definition of common sense as used in the downmarket tabloids tends to be "folk that agree with us"

I think it is very telling that some posters on GN like to boast about their university education, as in attempts at sarcasm, like "so my university education didn't go to waste then" which prompts the reply "so you've had a university education? no-one would ever have guessed"

I'm guessing that those who are so insecure as to make such boasts have achieved very little since they graduated.

ooh, nasty, varian!!