The Triumph of the Political Class

By Peter Oborne

A book review by Staff Writer of t1ps.com

The Triumph of the Political Class costs GBP18.99 in the Square Mile Bookstore and can be bought by clicking here

This book came out a couple of years ago but I find myself thinking of it several times a week. Its thesis is not one that gets much broadcast time in the media because the political elite of our nation is so intrinsically linked to the media elite. They are all those folks inside the Westminster Village. In the US the same cadre are described as being those inside the Beltway. As such what Oborne describes is not a British phenomenon but one affecting all of our declining Western economies.

The essential point Oborne makes is that whereas 50 years ago MPs from Labour were mainly working class with a few hard nosed middle class hard left socialists chucked in while the Tories were largely upper middle class, today the political (and media) classes are almost uniformly Middle Class. Moreover they have, in almost all cases, not done a proper job in their life. The odd one did a bit of law but that hardly counts. They have just become a professional ruling cadre. So you look at the CVs of our leaders and you see common threads. Cameron (public school, Oxford, PR man, MP), Osborne (public school, Oxford, policy wonk, MP), Clegg (public school, Cambridge, lobbyist, MEP then MP), both Millibands (public school, Oxford, policy wonks MP), Balls & Ruth Kelly (public school, Oxford, journalist, MP). The list goes on and on and there are very few exceptions (William Hague and Oliver Letwin have both had proper jobs once upon a time). And the new Tory intake of 2010 did not change matters much, stuffed as it was with PR men and lobbyists.

So what does this mean for those of us outside the beltway? Firstly there are no vast ideological differences which split the cadre. The differences are not between the cadre members but between the rest of us and the cadre members. So we saw with MPs expenses that the mainstream press did not blow the lid until late in the day when the Telegraph broke ranks, it was bloggers such as Guido who won the war. And the MPs responded by sticking together. Over half our MPs stole taxpayers cash. 4 are to be prosecuted. Those of us outside the beltway live to a different standard: we would have been sacked for theft and we wanted all bent MPs sacked and/or prosecuted. But our rulers stuck together.

And we see it again and again on tangible policy issues. When a Ghurkha cuts off the head of a dead Taliban leader the political classes think this is awful. The rest of us understand the circumstances and want to give him a medal. On a daily basis the war in Afghanistan divides our leaders (yes it is winnable but our soldiers must not offend local sensibilities/break H&S regulations) from the rest of us (pull out soon but while we are there fight as if we mean to win). Perhaps it is because MP's sons are in the cadre so do not go to Afghanistan. It is other peoples children who are dying. The real debate on welfare separates our leaders (we must control it) from ordinary taxpayers (the system is a joke change it). On sentencing for repeat offenders, immigration, the EU, 24 hour drinking, you name it: the great dividing line is between them and us, not between them and them. Hence we face an increasingly regulated, authoritarian and wasteful society. And it is one that will become more so as today's leaders and tomorrow's leaders are drawn from a body that never has to face the real effects of what has been created. If you do not need to create wealth in the private sector, you do not have he burdens of being an employer (or employee) in a world where the bottom line matters, if you life in a safe West London oasis, if your kids do not have to go to rubbish State schools and private medicine is an option, you live in a different world to the rest of us.

The EU. Well Oborne notes that the political classes are not just a British affair. So it is natural that our leaders feel far more at home with the elite of other EU member states than they do with the great unwashed (that is 99% of the population) back home and hence they stick together pushing through measures which the ordinary man on the street, homme sur la vie or herren do strasse (I am not sure about my German) disagrees with profoundly.

Oborne (who could be part of this elite were he not so delightfully awkward and who has also covered himself in glory with his work on Zimbabwe) describes this whole process in detail: the history, how it works and the effects. He cannot find a cure. I am not sure there is one. But it is enlightening to read how we got into this mess and why it will only get worse.

The Triumph of the Political Class costs GBP18.99 in the Square Mile Bookstore and can be bought by clicking here