science

Piggate

Piggate is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Piggate rather than just read about it. In short: "Piggate" refers to a claim that, during his time at Oxford University, then-British prime minister David Cameron inserted his penis and/or scrotum into a dead pig's mouth as part of an initiation ceremony for the Piers Gaveston Society. The anecdote was reported by Michael Ashcroft and Isabel Oakeshott in their unauthorised biography of Cameron, Call Me Dave, attributing the story to an anonymous Member of Parliame…

Key takeaways

Piggate belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Piggate to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Piggate from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

"Piggate" refers to a claim that, during his time at Oxford University, then-British prime minister David Cameron inserted his penis and/or scrotum into a dead pig's mouth as part of an initiation ceremony for the Piers Gaveston Society. The anecdote was reported by Michael Ashcroft and Isabel Oakeshott in their unauthorised biography of Cameron, Call Me Dave, attributing the story to an anonymous Member of Parliament who was allegedly a contemporary of Cameron's at the University of Oxford. Extracts from the book were published in the Daily Mail on 20 September 2015, prior to its publication. Downing Street sources responded by saying that Cameron would not dignify the anecdote with a response, while friends reported him saying that it was "utter nonsense." Cameron said later that "a very specific denial was made a week ago." Ashcroft and Oakeshott failed to receive a response from the purported owner of a photograph of the alleged incident. No corroborating evidence has been produced to support the anecdote. In an interview, Valentine Guinness, one of the Piers Gaveston Society founders, said that as far as he knew, Cameron "may well have attended one of their parties" but was never a member.

Anecdote It was alleged in Call Me Dave – an unauthorised biography of the former British prime minister David Cameron by Michael Ashcroft and Isabel Oakeshott – that, as a student at Oxford University, former British prime minister David Cameron inserted "a private part of his anatomy" into the mouth of a dead pig, as part of an initiation ceremony for the Piers Gaveston Society. Ashcroft and Oakeshott recount that a Member of Parliament and contemporary of Cameron's at the University of Oxford told them the anecdote at a business dinner in June 2014. They initially assumed the statement to be a joke, but the MP repeated the anecdote some weeks later, and for a third time with more detail some months after that. The MP said he saw photographic evidence of the event, describing the dimensions of the alleged photograph and naming an individual who he claimed now possessed the image. Ashcroft and Oakeshott failed to receive a response from the purported owner of a photograph of the alleged incident, and since the extract's publication no corroborating evidence has as yet been produced to support the anecdote. In their book, Ashcroft and Oakeshott commented that "Perhaps it is a case of mistaken identity. Yet it is an elaborate story for an otherwise credible figure to invent." Speaking to Channel 4 News in September 2015, Oakeshott said: "We couldn't get to the bottom of that source's allegations ... So we merely reported the account that the source gave us ... We don't say whether we believe it to be true". Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in October 2015, Oakeshott said that the source of the allegation "could have been slightly deranged" and said that "there is no need for burden of proof on a colourful anecdote where we’re quite upfront about our own reservations about whether to take it seriously". The anecdote first came to public attention when extracts from the book were published in the Daily Mail on 20 September 2015, prior to its publication. A YouGov poll shortly after the story originally broke showed that 66% believed the allegations, compared to 24% who did not.

Background Ashcroft had long been a supporter of the British Conservative Party and was its biggest donor, having donated around £10 million, before dropping his support for the party in 2013 due to conflicts with David Cameron, especially his refusal to give Ashcroft a senior role in government despite his donations. Some commentators have interpreted the pig story and other anecdotes in the book as Ashcroft's revenge and reignition of the feud.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Piggate

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Piggate claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Piggate before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Piggate ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Piggate

In research: Piggate appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Piggate in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Piggate is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2015 in British politics, 2015 in the United Kingdom, Animals in politics, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Piggate outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Piggate in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Piggate means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Piggate out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Piggate in simple terms?

Why does Piggate matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Piggate?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Piggate.