{"id":68981,"date":"2023-03-31T09:00:03","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T08:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=68981"},"modified":"2023-03-31T09:00:03","modified_gmt":"2023-03-31T08:00:03","slug":"is-there-a-new-elite-or-is-it-that-the-old-one-is-totally-out-of-touch-with-what-the-country-really-thinks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2023\/03\/31\/is-there-a-new-elite-or-is-it-that-the-old-one-is-totally-out-of-touch-with-what-the-country-really-thinks\/","title":{"rendered":"Is there a new elite, or is it that the old one is totally out of touch with what the country really thinks?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sun ran an article<\/a> by Matthew Goodwin of the Legatum Institute yesterday, in which he promoted his new book.<\/p>\n

In that book he argues that a new elite exists in the UK. That new elite is neatly summarised, based on the article, in a tweet. <\/a>The elite are now:\"\"<\/p>\n

I am probably, by this definition, part of Goodwin's elite. I think I score 6 out of 7 (I have the wrong postcode).<\/p>\n

I suspect many readers rate somewhere on this list.<\/p>\n

According to Goodwin, this:<\/p>\n

New Elite [is] a new governing class which not only holds a completely different worldview from everybody else but is now imposing that worldview on the rest of the country.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He adds:<\/div>\n
\n

This New Elite \u2014 as I reveal in my latest book \u2014 is completely different from the old elite which used to run Britain decades ago.<\/p>\n

Whereas that old elite had been defined by its extreme wealth, its inherited titles and its country estates, the members of Britain\u2019s new ruling class are defined by very different things.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

So, wealth no longer matters.<\/p>\n

Nor does holding the high offices of state.<\/p>\n

Or having actual power in government.<\/p>\n

Neither does the embedded power of capital have consequence anymore.<\/p>\n

Come to that, patrony is dead.<\/p>\n

And so too is the power that attending elite public schools provides.<\/p>\n

No, being 'woke' and living in CB1 is what gives power now.<\/p>\n

Or is this just paranoia? After all, Question Time audiences cannot now find anyone who supports the government on many policies.<\/p>\n

And the Legatum Institiute is one of the Tufton Street think tanks, after all, with Matthew Elliott who has been nominated for a peerage by Liz Truss being one if its Fellows.<\/p>\n

So is this all mere distraction from reality? After all, when in 2017 the Legatum Institute did a survey<\/a> of British people to find what they really thought on policy issues they found this:<\/p>\n

The majority of the British public:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n