Notice To Blairites 1 / Greatest Achievement

"Our greatest achievement was Tony Blair."

Thus spake reviled ex Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to a gathering of her oily 1950s throw back acolytes at the now infamous gathering at the Botleigh Grange Hotel in 2002.

We are reminded of this by Owen Jones in his excellent book, "The Establishment - and how they get away with it".

Jones goes on to itemise the ways in which Populists have lost ground against Elitists (see Left/Right vs Populist/Elitist) during and since the Thatcher/Blair years. It is a chilling read which should focus the attention of any aspiring Populist.

As an example, he points out how opinion polls run in 2013 found that 75% of voters supported the idea of government setting gas and electric prices, 70% supported renationalisation of energy, and 66% supported bringing the Post Office and British Rail back into public ownership. What is chilling about this is that, in this democracy of ours, there is no real political voice for these voters. As one might expect, they are completely ignored by Conservatives, but even most Labour MPs are too timid to air such views. So, in a nutshell, this means that our democratic leadership and its opposition are completely out of step with the wishes of the majority of the body public.

Is this how democracy is supposed to work?

Of course not, and much of the failure resides with the "drain stream" media which, owned by corporate interests, unsurprisingly, supports corporate interests - to the exclusion of all else. And they do so with such vicious enthusiasm that most aspiring Populist politicians are cowed into keeping their heads well below the parapets.

But are there any Populist politicians left in British politics? Jones points out that after the Labour victory of 1997, 1 in 25 MPs had previously been private consultants and lobbyists. In the election of 2010, this figure jumped to 1 in 8. Over 25% of MPs were business people (over 41% of Tory MPs). Meanwhile, MPs with public sector experience dropped dramatically. In 1997 17% of MPs had been teachers; in 2010 only 5%. In 1997 15.8% had been manual workers; this dropped to 4% in 2010.

We are in the throes of government of the Populists by the Elitists for the Elitists, but, for the most part, are too dumb to wake up to this.

See Part 2 for an examination of "revolving doors"...

See Part 3 for an examination of "think tanks".....

For more by Deacon Martin:

http://hubpages.com/@vrdm

www.deaconmartin.com