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Chums
- How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK
- Narrated by: Mark Elstob
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
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Chums
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Summary
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.
Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, David Cameron, George Osborne, Theresa May, Dominic Cummings, 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. Eleven of the fifteen postwar British prime ministers went to Oxford. 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 searing onslaught on the smirking Oxford insinuation that politics is all just a game. It isn't. It matters”—MATTHEW PARRIS
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What listeners say about Chums
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Patrick
- 07-06-24
Blatant elitism and hypocrisy
The central thesis you can read in the blurb but he makes a wonderful job of unpacking and deep delving that numbs the brain when you realise how blinkered we have been. Perhaps this Tory/Etonian/Oxbridge elite has had its day but I would be wary of predicting their demise, they will reinvent themselves and flip again like the noxious weeds that they are.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jiri
- 05-10-23
Fascinating!
I had no idea. That’s problem the best summary of this book. Yes, I lived through Brexit and Covid and all what preceded. I always knew something is different in the UK but had no idea how to name it. Now I understand.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 15-12-22
Interesting
Insightful view into the inner works of Oxford and the people who went on to become Britain’s biggest politicians
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 07-07-23
An entertaining listen let down by the end
For the most part this was a decent book, not groundbreaking but fairly entertaining to listen to, and giving a good impression of the atmosphere within Oxford university and the state of mind that its students may have had during their time there.
However chapter 16, and to a lesser extent chapter 17, seem to have gone out without going through the same editing process as the rest of the book as they are far more political, far less well written, and just generally feel more like yet another blog post about how the UK locked down too late during Covid or how Brexit and the Iraq war were the two biggest mistakes this century.
It's a shame because the rest of the book is fairly neutral and the author says himself at the beginning that this isn't meant to be another rant about how "they lied on the side of their bus." This is true for most of it but sadly it appears the author had to let it all out by the time this fairly short book ended.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 24-01-23
A well spun diary of unfettered privilege
Simon Kuyper tells the story very well about this unique sect of English, Eton and Oxford University characters who codded and manipulated everybody else, including themselves.
They and this book provide great entertainment for us all but happily they are unlikely to ever be in charge again.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- COLIN
- 28-10-22
Astonishing
A really good listen that delves into the personal upbringing of so many of the current policitical class that passed through Oxford in the 1980s and 90s and how the experience shaped them.
Well narrated and really interesting. Highly recommend.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Garrett Cole
- 09-02-23
Insightful
A particularly surreal experience to read while attending Oxford as a postgraduate. Genuinely insightful into the character of Britain, Oxford and the current ruling caste.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Vicuña
- 15-02-24
Scary stuff
I guess when we live in a so called democracy and we cast a vote for our favoured candidate or party we think we’re making a difference. I’ve long had doubts about politicians and successive governments. It always looks like an old boys network.
Chums explains why. Simon Kuper provides insight snd analysis of the impact of croneyism and the feeding trough known as Oxford. Frankly, it’s sickening to understand the extent to which a network ( predominantly male, of course) shapes politics and has done so for decades. We live in an autocracy, without doubt and I suspect little will change in the next few decades. Fascinating snd enraging in equal measure.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Linda T
- 05-06-24
Crooks
As my headline says crooks the majority of them. They may be Oxford educated but literally every one of them have been caught being nefarious.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Colin Lawrence
- 25-12-22
No wonder Britain is in such a downward spiral.
Excellently written book in a semi serious tone;)
Virtually the disaster of Brexit has much to do with poor grasping of analytics by the elite Toffs with their sense and of entitlement. The Oxford union is a debating club mimicking the House of Commons. Kuper delivers us a selected history of Oxford university with focus on the continuing education of Etonians who are honed in debating skills but virtually no substance.
Mark Elstob does a fine job.
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2 people found this helpful