Osborne ‘regretful’ but mystery continues

Membership of the Bullingdon club, the riotous (and very elitist) Oxford University drinking society, has been the cause of intense embarrassment for both David Cameron and George Osborne, who today admitted on BBC Radio 4's The World at One that he had made a mistake in his handling of meetings in Corfu with the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. However, it appears that there are others who might be even more ashamed of their wild past. Today's Daily Mail carries a 1992 group photograph of the shadow chancellor and his Bullingdon chums, but suggests that two club members might have been air-brushed out.

The bodies of two ghostly figures can be seen amid Osborne and and his former friend Nathaniel Rothschild. Near the middle of the picture the lining of one of the £1,000 royal blue tail coats worn by club members is visible. Yet no one is attached to it. There is also what appears to be a disembodied shirt lapel. Again, the body is there but no head.

One Bullingdon member, Chris Coleridge, the brother of Nicholas Coleridge, the Conde Naste magazine boss, confirmed that the published version of the picture - with the apparitions - is the same as his own copy, but is perplexed because all the members appear to be included in the snap. He says: "It is really weird. I can only assume that it is something the original photographer in Oxford did at the time. As far as I can remember we are all in the picture.

"I don't think anyone has been taken out. It must be just one of those things," he adds, before venturing an explanation. "It is possible the phantom figures in the pictures were accidentally added because of teething problems with digital technology, which was in its infancy when the photograph was taken."

Whatever the truth of the matter, there is no doubt that Osborne and Cameron squirm everytime the "Buller", infamous for wrecking restaurants, is mentioned. This might explain why permission to show the Cameron-era photo was suddenly withdrawn by the Oxford photographers, Gillman & Soame.

And Osborne cannot appreciate the titbits that have been leaked to the press about his own experiences with the club. It was recently reported that he was nicknamed 'Oik' because he had gone to St Paul's public school instead of Eton or Harrow, where most members were schooled.

Meanwhile, talking to the media about the Deripaska meetings for the first time in almost a week, Osborne told The World at One: "I neither asked for money nor received any and I didn't break any rules but I think I did make a mistake." He said:  "It's not what you say or do but how it looks... To be honest this didn't look very good and that's something I regret."
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