Issues in Cultural Political Economy (ICPE): LABOUR IS THE NEW ELITE

Normally we tend to associate the elite with the upper class society: Aristocracy, royalty, unbelievable rich people, Wall Street, the Bilderberg club, Donald Trump… But what happen when the people who preach to be our representatives and claim to fight for everyone’s rights, end up being the new elite. R.A.W Rhodes spent few days fallowing members of Tony Blair’s government with the aim to describe their everyday life at the office, he spoke to Secretaries of State, ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries, ministerial advisers… among others.

The writer describes the main character of this chapter as the “elected politician who heads a central government”, which is, in my opinion, an appropriate definition of what a Prime Minister should be, and it is, in a small way. Because, yes, of course, the Prime Minister is elected, at least in democratic countries, and actually, his (generally and mostly “he”) main job is to lead a government. So far so good. But the Prime Minister usually fits in a reduce, really, really, really, (we get is small right?) reduce group of people. He is most of the times a man, middle-age, white, university-educated, Oxbridge, of course, and has done public service. Great Britain has had seventy-six Prime Ministers, 100% of them were white, two out of seventy-six were woman, almost half of them have studied in Oxford or Cambridge, forty-one out of seventy-six, and all of them have committed public service. It’s not me, anyone that has studied probability knows that this is not a coincidence. However, are we responsible about it? Not at all? Did we elect them? Or are we just playing the game they want us to play? Are we actually conscious? We just don’t care?

“Privilege go with the turf. He has the exclusive use of his own toilet although there are two others within twenty metres” If you take this phrase out of context and ask anyone, how will they react? I did this experiment with some of my friends, here are some of their answers:

- An Egyptian Emperor

- Are you reading about medieval times? I thought you were studying PPE not history

- Spanish king

- White family member during the USA segregation

- An idiot

Imagine their reaction when I told them this was said in 2007 as a description of British Prime Minister.

The Labour Party's origins lie in the late 19^th century, when it became apparent that there was a need for a new political party to represent the interests and needs of the urban proletariat, in the 21^st century they don’t seem to follow that premise anymore, instead they talk about “the cocktail party test”, discuss “about how to win contract after the war”, and always have time for tea at five. This system doesn’t work, it’s simple. Let’s change it.

“The corporations don’t have to lobby the government anymore. They are the government.”

Jim Hightower.