Revealed: Secret recording shows CUCA members scoffing at burning money in front of homeless

The dystopia continues…

Earlier this year, The Tab revealed footage of CUCA member Ronald Coyne, dressed in White Tie, burning money in front of a homeless man.  

Today, The Tab can exclusively reveal jokes made at a CUCA event just two weeks after the story was broken, with one member shouting “It should have been a £50 note” followed by raucous laughter.

The event in question was a ‘Dessert Party with Alan Mak’, the MP for the Havant constituency in Hampshire. Although the event on Facebook has since been deleted, it was advertised by the Lent term Chairman, in an article titled ‘In defence of Cambridge University Conservative Association’ published by The Tab after the original incident. They said they were “shocked and outraged” by Coyne’s actions.

Ironically, it was captioned ‘cake not conspiracy’

The event was due to take place on 24th February, with Alan Mak MP answering questions presented to him by members of the association present. An audio recording of the event, provided by a source present to The Tab, shows members at the dinner laughing at the actions of the student, defending them, stating “if a man can’t do a stupid thing like that in his first year…. I think that’s really bad”  – an innocent evening of political discussion taking a decidedly darker turn.

After Mak gave a speech on how to become involved in politics, discussing the necessity of avoiding becoming a “professional politician”, one member present asked Mak “’Do you think Ronald Coyne did a greater disfavour (laughter in the background) … did a greater disfavour to Cambridge University or the Conservative party?”

Not a laughing matter

Mak responded that the money burning student was “not representative of the Conservative party in any sense of that word”, only to be interrupted by one attendee shouting “It should have been a £50 note”.

This was followed by 11 seconds of loud laughter. Burning a £50 note in front of a homeless person has been rumoured to be an initiation ceremony for the notorious Bullingdon Club in Oxford.

You know the one

Mak continued after the interruption to assert that he believed the incident had not damaged the university either, stating: “people are smart enough to understand it’s probably just the isolated attitudes of one individual.”

However, the discussion of events did not end there. Discussing a petition composed to expel the student in question from University, another attendee argued: “I think this is really horrible, if a man can’t do a stupid thing like that in his first year without this, if I could use this expression, ‘virtue signalling’…. I think that’s really bad.”

There was a mumble of agreement from the room, with one student voicing direct agreement with the speaker but stating “I don’t want to go into it”.

There was more laughter as someone in the room suggested moving onto another “non-scandal related” topic of discussion, and the rest of the event ran as normal.

The Tab has been informed that this event took place in Gonville and Caius College – where CUCA events have frequently taken place this past year.

Cambridge University Conservative Association were offered comment on multiple occasions but failed to respond to The Tab’s requests. 

The University of Cambridge declined to comment, saying that as it was a private event it would be inappropriate to comment on the matter.