Will Hutton - good analysis of how the class "war" - by the rulers on the rest of us- has resumed
I too remember the Cabinets of ministers who had served in WW2; some like Ted Heath had even volunteered to fight fascism in Spain, years before then
They had a sense of responsibilty to the "post-war settlement" and the uc & mc had some understanding of the lives og the wc they fought alongside, some empathy.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/commentisfree/2019/sep/22/what-is-it-about-britain-that-has-produced-such-a-litany-of-failed-leaders
Faith in parliamentary democracy is plummeting; belief in strongman politics is rising;
the view that there is an elite, of which the political class is a member, intent only on feathering its own nest and pursuing its own sectarian interests, is widespread.
This mood is even more dangerous than Brexit – it strikes at the legitimacy of the institutions, even the idea of democracy.
The problem originated on the right but it has parallels on the left.
One of the by-products of the two world wars was that they bound the classes together.
The politicians, financiers, business and media leaders who rose to the top from the 1930s to the 1970s were sensitive to the toughness of the lives of ordinary men and women.
They had fought alongside and had depended on them;
they knew they weren’t the shirkers and societal enemies depicted by the right today.
Equally, men had seen their officers fight and die alongside their pals. Whatever their weaknesses and privileges, at bottom they could be trusted.
This was crucial for the construction of the Tory one-nation tradition – in politics and business alike.
Conservatives such as Harold Macmillan or Ted Heath had served in war.
Instinctively, they upheld the principles of the postwar settlement, just as business leaders wanted to run honourable companies that offered pensions, recognised unions and kept their own pay in touch with that of their workers.
It was what you did.
The entitlements that came with leadership were matched by responsibilities.
You might have political opponents and adversaries but they were never despised enemies.
Today, that has been shattered.
The private equity and hedge fund barons who fund Boris Johnson along with the “fuck business””^ prime minister himself feel only entitlement – and no serious responsibility.
They are entitled to great wealth because they are capitalist “buccaneers” who create wealth;
society is lucky to have them and plays no part in the wealth-creation process that is down to them alone.
Skills, infrastructure, science – they are nice to have but essentially second-order concerns.
The political task is to create a Britain fit for even more buccaneering, as free from tax and regulation as possible, especially free from the EU.
A NHS hospital is a place for photo-opportunities rather than representative of an institution in whose values you believe and curate.
Personally, your instinct is to go private, just as you were educated privately.
One of the breathtaking aspects of David Cameron’s memoir is his defence of austerity cast wholly in top-down terms.
....
Perhaps great democratic leaders emerge in much more porous, less class-siloed societies than our own; where their lived experience allows them to reach out to build broad coalitions.