Champagne socialism at its best: The Guardian is funding Peterhouse May Ball

The paper who love to bash boozy Oxbridge institutions like the Bullingdon is now sponsoring one of the oldest ones there is.

As sandal-wearing Guardianistas will be thrilled to hear, their newspaper is sponsoring an elite white tie bash at Peterhouse, Cambridge’s oldest college.

A marriage made in heaven by any standard, the left-leaning paper has joined forces with the once notoriously Thatcherite college to put on one of only two white tie balls this year.

Comfortably alongside the bubbly

If Peterhouse’s last effort is anything to go by, the ball is going to cost a cool £200,000 – something Guardian readers will surely be pleased to hear.

Such a sum could have gone to other causes. Like paying the fees for a whole year of Middle East studies undergrads. Or nine nurses’ salaries.

Much better it’s spent on a ball for which double-tickets start at £350. Indeed, as one Petrean put it, much better it is given to the college with the “highest tweed jacket to undergraduate ratio in the university”.

So twenty-first century

But in all seriousness the newspaper’s move into May Ball sponsorship may be a worrying sign it has lost its way. Only earlier this year, the Guardian hosted a champagne tasting.

The Spectator could hardly contain their glee on hearing of this new philosophy.

The publication, which describes itself as the oldest continuously published magazine in the English language, “is glad to see champagne socialism so publicly back on the menu”.

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Still, it wondered if King’s College would, with its hammer and sickle, “have been a more appropriate one to sponsor?”

Not so, according to Matthew Fellows, Peterhouse’s May Ball President.

A bastion of the… elite?

In Fellows’ opinion his college and The Guardian make the perfect couple.

Undoubtedly a man of the people, Matthew said: “Of course our Ball will have all of the luxuries of a white tie May Ball such as Champagne all night, alongside some of the most exceptional and exclusive food at any Cambridge Ball, however this year we are offering something very special that goes beyond this.

“Our Ball has been designed around the guests themselves, giving a night of true elegance showing off the (often neglected) progressive creativity and open-mindedness currently in College.

“Whether this is our (now 2 month) oak-aged cocktails that have been crafted by our drinks team or the sourcing of small batch Caorunn gin to be served all night, we feel that care and attention has gone into every part of making this a genuinely beautiful, warm experience.

“The Guardian sponsorship is a reflection of this.”

Speaking of a “warm experience”, Peterhouse can boast an impressive alumni including alleged prostitute murderer Rurik Jutting, Tory vampire Lord Michael Howard and inverted-commas comedian Milo Edwards.

Two-month-old cocktails. Caorunn gin. The Guardian. Sounds right to me.