Video of Eton boys protesting

[Sprongs]

What do you think of this video?
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10774559/amp/Eton-schoolboys-launch-protest-fears-school-wants-scrap-hunting-society.html
I was quite surprised. Reading mumsnet posts I have always had the impression that Eton is fairly progressive these days - brilliant bursary program and the intelligent rather than those with tons of money and family estates are getting in on merit rather than being put down at birth.

But this felt like watching something from 100 years ago. Both in what they were protesting about - their beagle hunting pack being threatened - and the fact that it talks of families with estates offering to house the pack. I also thought it was rather intimidating for younger boys to witness.
Made me feel very different about the school, and that it wasn’t one I would pick (if we can ever afford!)

What a very odd post,it is possible for a school to have an excellent bursary policy and for boys that come from a moneyed background to be intelligent and get in on merit.
What you witnessed was whats known as a Leggit,a long standing tradition that shows the boys displeasure over something,the matter is rather more complicated than the report youve read,as a matter of fact ds3 says thats the smallest leggit hes witnessed in his time at the school,let me assure no one finds leggits"intimidating" why on earth would they..

Why an odd post to say I found a video very odd? Surely just an opinion!
I found it all rather creepy.

What in heavens name was "creepy" about it..

When I first watched it I thought it was archived footage. It sounded like a bunch of entitled, braying young men from the 1950’s exactly the image I thought Eton was trying so hard to dispel. Completely tone deaf to modern sentiments about animal rights and beagle hunting too.

let me assure no one finds leggits"intimidating"
You can’t claim that, you have no idea how others feel about it, you can only speak of yourself.
Protests, in general, can be intimidating to some to witness. So it’s not a huge leap for the OP to presume that this one also would be.

Eton has produced the 2 Prime Ministers who have laid waste to the UK in the 21st century due to their egos and sense of entitlement. It's a fucking disgrace even without hunting.

@nolanscrack I think the vile language the older boys used would be intimidating to the younger boys yes.
Protests are supposed to be intimidating, that is how they work.
Would admire more if they were protesting about Russian war on Ukraine or energy prices rather than their beagle hunting pack. Which I am told often behaves illegally and breaks the hunting act.

Sprongs-Why pretend the video"made you feel very differently about the school"?
I dont think its done anything of the sort,you just saw it as a chance to have a little ill informed rant against Eton..fair enough,but be truthfull.

You are right i obviously cant speak for everyone,but if any boy is intimidated by a leggit -they are in the wrong school

@nolanscrack As I explained, I had a feeling from posts on here that the new head was moving things forward and that it was embracing a high number of bright bursary kids.
But how must they feel when they find themselves in that crowd protesting about that outdated (not to say often criminal) activity?
I think the head sounds great. Boys and parents from certain parts of society clearly don’t agree. What do you think of him, as a parent?

Also I am not anti Eton at all. I am very definitely anti illegal hunting.

"boys and parents from certain parts of society""..lol..

@nolanscrack Do you think Eton’s PR team are LOL about this being in every newspaper?

Its not in every newspaper.but if it was it.doesnt bother me and wont bother anyone with actual knowledge of the situation/subject but its always fun to see the anti Eton posters getting upset about things they have no knowledge of..
Doubtless there will something else for you to get het up about in the near future,but I must thank you for reminding me that I need to make sure DH wears his Eton Beagles tie this weekend..All the best from this part of Society..

@nolanscrack well as long as long as you remind him what the law is then. Because every monitoring organisation in the country is going to be trying to nab that pack now that they know that the Mail, Telegraph etc will post photos of them illegally hunting

Im pretty sure that he knows what the law is,but thanks for your concern.".Every monitoring organisation" has ..as you put it..been trying to "nab" them for some time..so nothing new there,but hopefully the sabs will have a few nice days out in the countryside.you never know ,it might improve their disposition.but i wouldnt advise you to go, if you think the boys in the video used "vile" language ,you really wouldnt want to hear the language used by the "monitoring groups"🙄

'Mr Henderson 'feels strongly' about changing perceptions of Eton as an 'old fashioned pillar of social and male elitism'. Sounds like a great Head to me. The whole ethos of Eton is grim to me though, it's a place where you learn that you are more entitled than most and that the rules don't apply to you - you've just got to look at Boris. If this guy is challenging all that sort of crap then that's great. And getting rid of cruel blood sports is another bonus, their illegal hare hunt just further demonstrates they don't think they have to follow the rules - what a grim place.

All that rubgy puts hairs on your chest, what chance have you got against a tie and a crest? Etc

Yanbu OP but this bunch of muppets will be plundering the country in a scant decade's time, just as their fathers did and their father's fathers before them.

Well I'm anti Eton. Had a few old etonian colleagues in a previous job. One had been a scholarship boy and reportedly been bullied; he was very chippy and difficult.

Another came out with a classic establishmentarian suggestion when asked to review applications for a job. 'Well we'll just focus on the ones we know'. Sure.

None of them, or of the ones from similar boys' schools, ever seemed quite certain that women are fully human. Then they wondered why they couldn't retain female staff...

The fee paying school sector is a machine for reproducing a non-meritocratic elite, an opportunity-hoarding racket. I doubt whether any amount of outreach and scholarship programmes will change that.

@Sprongs Certain posters can't resist the urge to argue when it's suggested that Eton might not be practically perfect in every way

So your DH was part of this club? Colour me shocked.

Eton-living rent free in your heads😂
Excellent musical taste by Hondlay-One of the band liked Eton so much he sent his son their and another of course has used private education for his children,Viva La Revolution..😉

These days an Eton education is rarely a plus outside a dwindling circle of society. Current and past Prime Ministers have done a fine hatchet job on its reputation as anything other than a breeding ground for male entitlement and arrogance. This video is just another example of that.

Clearly good grammar can't be bought!

Nothing about the video is surprising, at all. These institutions were designed to produce a particular blend of emotional damage, and hard-wired arrogance, and they have had a good deal of practice. They churned out the British officer class, capable of slaughtering a village of women and children and then sitting down calmly to a boiled-egg breakfast. They churned out the sociopaths who dominate the Tory party and are, as we speak, cheerfully presiding over the needless deaths of the sick and vulnerable. Of course hunting would be a part of their culture; it's a stylised, class-bound initiation into an elite which considers the suffering and death of lesser beings (and people) a trivial matter.

I am not ill-informed, as @nolanscrack assumed the OP must be. I have a great deal of experience of elite schools and their consequences. I would not let those people within a hundred yards of my children.

@nolanscrack you appear to be a lone voice on here in not liking the attitude of the new head who lets hope is getting rid of this ghastly, illegally behaving society for good.
I think I would mind the language in the video less if it was at least in aid of a decent cause. I can excuse the monitoring groups as they are also in support of the right cause as seen by the vast majority of the country - I live rurally and you would be amazed how many people here are turning their backs on illegal hunting where once they turned a blind eye as the hunts were seen as good for community. That doesn’t wash here anymore.

I'm actually the only one on here with first hand knowledge of the school ,let alone Hendo(please show me where I've said I dont like his attitude?),none of you have the faintest knowledge of the background to the video,but I must say that its been fun watching all the frothing at the mouth brigade ranting about something they know nothing about and have even less influence over..where else would someone in a thread about a protest at a school link it to slaughtering villages,eating boiled eggs and sociopaths,.deranged...but funny...