“You must believe in something. I believe I’ll have another drink.”

The return of MPs to the hallowed halls of Westminster after their summer break has not gone well for the Government. P.M. Sunak came back empty-handed from the G20 summit in Delhi, to media seething with stories of schools riddled with crumbling RAAC; a bold breakout from Dickensian Wandsworth; water companies routinely dumping sewage with impunity and a stagnant economy.

Yet he and his party continue to tout Britain as the epitome of reason and democracy, setting an example to the world. Over the last decade or so, not only has this ceased to be the case. But, recent excesses of the self-sustaining nomenklatura from which both party and influential figures are drawn have, as times got tough, sacrificed noblesse oblige for more blatant self-interest. Sunak may claim he’s stopped the rot, but his post-Boris-and-Brexit shortcomings have done little to restorethe public faith in leadership of the country.,

Carnegie UK is a think-tank keen on tracking the health of our democracy. What they have found through YouGov polling is not good, viz:

• 76% don’t trust MPs to take decisions that will improve their lives,
• 73% don’t trust the UK Government on the same measure. 
• 46% selected honesty and integrity as important values for the government to exemplify
• 41% now say that democracy is not working. 
• 32% see the biggest threat to our democracy as a loss of trust 
• 16% see corruption as the second-biggest threat
• 61% don’t believe the current UK Government reflects these values at all, 

The Government’s justification for behaviour that has led to this seems to be ‘the national interest’ – but the ‘Government’ and the ‘state’ here are not synonymous. When the two diverge to the extent that the Government starts acting in its own interest and to the detriment of the interests of the state, this no longer qualifies as democracy because it consists of a myriad documents and protocols which rely on any incumbent Government to act in good faith.

What seems to underly this is inequality—a growing disparity berween an elite who benefit from “the system” and the bulk of the population who do not. While the tide of prosperity was raising household financial boats from the 1980s to the 2008 financial crash, nobody much minded others getting rich while they were prospering themselves. A decade of austerity has sharpened the contrast and the cost of living crisis made the division stark.

With few exceptions, the elite is easy to define and a self-propagating nomenklatura, largely based in south-east England and educated at “public” (i,e. fee-paying private) schools. In the UK population, as a whole, 7% attend private schools, but:

• 39% of the Cabinet went to private schools
• 29% of the House of Commons went to private schools
• 52% of the House of Lords went to private schools
• 48% of the FTSE350 companiy CEOs went to private schools
• 57% of the Sunday Times Rich List went to private schools
• 44% of national newspaper columnists went to private schools
• 43% of influential editors and broadcasters went to private schools

This may not be a complete definition of the elite who form Britain’s nomenklatura, but it is a pretty representative sample of who runs Britain. And they are increasingly running it for their own benefit, rather than any democratic principle that benefits all equally

But even the USA, a country with a much-vaunted Constitution, is not immune to similar, if not more severe, threats to democracy. The fallout from Trump’s behaviour in refusing to accept his 2020defeat and the mass of Republicans lining up behind him dwarfs any of his many peccadillos before and during his presidency. With four massive legal cases proceeding against him, he is doubling down and remains the front-runner as the Republican candidate for next year’s election. This has left more than just his Democrat opponents aghast.

This month, thirteen presidential institutes from Herbert Hoover to George Bush released a joint statement, expressing concern about the health of American democracy, saying:

 “While the diverse population of the United States means we have a range of backgrounds and beliefs, “democracy holds us together. We are a country rooted in the rule of law, where the protection of the rights of all people is paramount.” 

“We call on elected officials to restore trust in public service by governing effectively in ways that deliver for the American people, who must engage in civil dialogue,, respect democratic institutions and rights; uphold safe, secure, and accessible elections; and contribute to local, state, or national improvement.” 

Traditionally, ex-presidents do not comment on politics. Although no names were mentioned, it was clear the vitriol and disinformation coming from trump and his MAGA adherents were intended as targets.

The nomenklatura in the States are easier to spot. Instead of bank balance and accent, there it is a simple matter of bank balance alone. Also, instead of private schools, it is Ivy League universities that are the finishing schools for their elite. And because of complete lack of limits on how much money can be thrown at politics, the blatancy with which money talks far outstrips its more subtle interaction in the UK.

, As Trump and MAGA Republicans pump billions into disinformation, gerrymandering and obfuscation., it is small wonder presidential institutions of all stripes are raising the alarm in defence of democracy in such an unprecedented manner.

The UK may not suffer the same scale of open abuse of the system by those who can. But we have no political institutions of equivalent stature to the voices of past presidents to defend against to incremental erosion of democracy. The resulting  inequalities will be damaging to democratic engagement and any sense of common  galitarian future for our country.

*Nomenklatura;, In the former USSR, a list of individuals drawn up by the Communist Party from which candidates for vacant senior positions were selected

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