“The greatest peril of Imperialism lies in the state of mind of a nation
which has become habituated to...deception and which has rendered itself
incapable of self-criticism.”[1] J.A.
Hobson, “Imperialism: A Study.”
Immediately following
his successful appearance on BBC’s ‘Question Time’ programme, the author and
journalist Owen Jones dedicated his weekly
column in the ‘Independent’ to lambast the current UK political spectrum. He
rightly noted the almost complete banality of consensus of the three main
parties on the major issues of the day. From financial regulation, austerity to
foreign policy, it is literally a case of tweedledum and tweedledee when it
comes to their respective political positions. Yet, there was something all
very déjà vu about the article. It simply read as though it was based on a
reading of Peter Oborne’s book, ‘The
Triumph of the Political Class’ published several years ago on the
conformity of the ruling class. Oborne, who clearly belongs to the moderate (culturally,
at least) side of the Conservative Party, bemoaned the decline of traditional
British oppositional politics and its supplantation by a technocratic,
careerist ‘modernising’ class who rarely substantially disagree or venture
outside the Westminster bubble. Owen has every right to partly rehash this
argument even if it is executed with a good dose of left-wing spice.
