12: Tory Heaven - Marghanita Laski
After finishing The Victorian Chaise-longue a couple of weeks ago I was intrigued by the mention in the foreword of this other book by ML, so I sent away for a copy.
It's a satire published in 1948 and the relevance to the political situation today is so spot-on it's left me feeling quite stunned.
WW2 has ended and a small group of 5 refugees stranded on an island for several years finally make their way back to Britain. Their radio, their only link with civilisation, has told them that a Labour government has been elected, and this prospect dismays James, a young public school-educated man who's failed at every career he's tried, but is outraged that 'no-one had ever given him or his opinions the deference due to his social position.'
Once back home the amazing reality dawns - there's been a new Tory coup, a purge of all intellectuals and Socialists, and a rigid class-based system has been imposed, with everyone graded from A to E. James is immediately welcomed into the top echelons, fawned over and handed a plentiful supply of cash (gold sovereigns have become the currency reserved for As), as well as being installed in a comfortable central London flat and given his own tailor, hatter, and a few juicy directorships at firms which don't require him to attend the office.
Laski gets a lot of excellent comedy out of this - it's like Jacob Rees-Mogg's wildest fantasies brought to life - but the chilling aspects aren't hard to see...universal suffrage has been virtually wiped out, the working classes are relegated to servants, upper-class women aren't allowed to work or study, and intellectuals have been eliminated or forced underground. The final horror for one character is the discovery that the press is no longer free.
So although the book is highly enjoyable, it's also terrifyingly prescient in many ways. Laski was herself an intellectual, from a Jewish socialist background, and was highly savvy in matters political. I just wonder what she'd make of where we are now.