Lord Ashcroft alleges in an unofficial biography that PM took part in bizarre ritual at the drinking club, reported to encourage ‘ostentatious decadence’
*Picture depicting Piers Gaveston, the alleged lover of Edward II. The society which bears his name was formed at Oxford in 1977. Photograph: Universal History Archive
What have we learned about David Cameron today?
An unofficial biography of David Cameron written by the Conservative donor*Lord Ashcroft*contains a*series of allegations. They include that the prime minister spent time in a drug-taking environment at university, that he took part in a bizarre dinner club initiation ritual, and another claim about Cameron’s knowledge of the peer’s offshore tax status.
One specific allegation is that, in the Daily Mail’s words, Cameron took part in an initiation ceremony in which he “put a private part of his anatomy” into a dead pig’s mouth. It cites a source – a current MP – who claims to have seen photographic evidence. It allegedly took place at the notorious Oxford University drinking club, the Piers Gaveston Society.
Downing Street has declined to comment on the book but a Conservative source said No 10 did not recognise any of the allegations made on the front page of the Daily Mail.
What is the Piers Gaveston Society?
“Piers Gav” is highly exclusive, made up of a self-selecting group of 12 undergraduates. The men-only club, named after Edward II’s alleged lover, was founded in 1977
$$$$$$$and carries the motto: “Fane non memini ne audisse unum alterum ita dilixisse.” It translates to:
Truly, none remember hearing of a man enjoying another so much.$$$$$$$$$
The Mail reports that the club encourages “excess, high camp [and] ostentatious decadence”.
Piers Gaveston members are understood to be given obscure titles such as “Poker”, “Dispenser” and “Catamite”, and they all follow the Sicilian code of*Omertà*– or maintaining silence about the club. In fact, it prides itself on being a clandestine organisation.
What do people say about it?
Valentine Guinness, one of the founders of the society, once told the journalist Toby Young that the appearance of Piers Gav and other similar societies in the 70s “was a conscious effort to say, look, you know, the country may be in a mess but we’re still going to have a good time”.
And so they do. For its summer ball, members each invite 20 guests – preferably more women than men, who were last year given 72 hours’ notice, when they were told to turn up for a hired coach that would drive them to an undisclosed destination in the countryside. “Cross-dressing is as likely to feature as speed-laced jelly,” says the Telegraph of these parties. “The rules are simple – there are none.”
Cameron biography: Ashcroft makes new debauchery claims about student days
The journalist Danny Kemp went to the Piers Gaveston ball in summer 1995. He has a different take on the club. “I guess the first thing to say is that it really wasn’t very debauched,” he said. “I was invited by a friend of a friend who was in the Piers Gaveston Society. The most obvious thing is that it is meant to be raunchy fancy dress. This means a lot of people going in drag [myself included unfortunately], others in what back then looked like bondage-type gear
