HERE are three mind-boggling things that happened in Britain in the past few weeks.
First, the charity Oxfam advised its staff to avoid using the word “mother” in favour of “gender neutral” language in some circumstances.
Second, leaders of the Girl Guides and the Brownies were instructed to learn a new list of words including “aromantic”, “demisexual” and “agender”.
And, third, Tory MP Miriam Cates told at PMQs how schoolchildren are being taught there are more than 70 genders and how to have oral sex and “choke their partner safely”.
Apart from reflecting the sheer speed at which the world is going completely mad, what do all these things have in common?
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They reflect the rise of a New Elite, 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.
This New Elite — as I reveal in my latest book — is completely different from the old elite which used to run Britain decades ago.
Deeply hypocritical
Whereas that old elite had been defined by its extreme wealth, its inherited titles and its country estates, the members of Britain’s new ruling class are defined by very different things.
They are often defined by their elite education at the most prestigious Oxbridge or Russell Group universities.
They are defined by their postcodes in one of the big cities or university towns, where they not only hoover up the economic gains of globalisation but tend to marry and hang out with other members of the elite graduate class who share the same backgrounds.
They are defined by their professional, middle-class jobs in the knowledge, cultural and public sector institutions, such as the BBC, the universities and the creative industries, which give them an immense amount of cultural power over the national conversation.
They include the people who now lead the public bodies, the universities, the creative industries, the increasingly political celebrity class, like Carol Vorderman and Gary Lineker, the legal activists who argue their profession should no longer be impartial, or prominent left-leaning journalists, like Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and others, who similarly shape the national conversation around a particular set of minority values. Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell. Almost any Radio 4 presenter.
And, most of all, they are defined by their very liberal if not radical “woke” values which they are now imposing on the rest of the country through their tight control over the institutions.
The problem with all this, as my new book shows, is that on a whole range of issues — immigration, the small boats, gender, history, and British identity — the New Elite are now often in a galaxy of their own, holding views that are not shared by much of the rest of the country.
They want more immigration while many people want less.
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They want to speed up the pace of social change while many people want to press pause and slow it down.
They don’t think that stopping the small boats crossing the Channel is a priority, while most ordinary people do.
They think a man can become a woman and a woman can become a man, while most people do not.
They see Britain and other Western nations as being institutionally “racist”, whereas most other people do not.
And, increasingly, they only celebrate Britishness through the lens of inter- national liberal themes such as “diversity”, while many people want to spend just as much time celebrating things which make Britain distinct from everybody else, like its unique history and culture.
There have always been divides between the rulers and the ruled, of course. But in today’s politics, where these cultural issues have become far more important to people, this is a major problem.
And it is now being exacerbated by how a large section of the New Elite are also embracing a far more radical woke ideology, which they see as a crucial new source of social status.
Whereas the old elite used to display their status to other elites by pointing to their family titles, estates or membership of London’s exclusive clubs, today the New Elite project their status and sense of moral righteousness by demonstrating their allegiance to wokeness.
In the insular world of the New Elite, this belief system, along with its complex vocabulary — terms such as “white privilege”, “white guilt”, “pangender” or “agender” — is a crucial new marker of status, which they use to disassociate themselves from the “inferior” masses below.
It’s also deeply hypocritical.
Routinely, the New Elite demand things which signal their status to other elites, such as open borders, a relaxed approach to dealing with the small boats, or the sexualisation of children, which they will not have to suffer the effects of themselves.
This is why the writer Rob Henderson calls this new ruling elite the “luxury belief class” — they spread luxury beliefs which make them look good in front of other elites, which come with few costs to them but which negatively harm others in society.
It’s not the New Elite which has to deal with the negative effects of a new era of mass immigration. It’s the workers and the left behind.
Routinely ignored
It’s not the New Elite who have to deal with the disastrous effects of family breakdown, because they are more likely to get married, stay married and raise their kids within marriage. It’s the working class.
Over and over again, the disconnected New Elite are demanding policies which are not only opposed by much of the rest of the country but which disproportionately negatively impact other people.
This huge gulf between the elite and the masses is why, I think, so many people have been rebelling against the elite over the past ten years.
While the New Elite have convinced themselves that voters were duped into voting for populism, Brexit and Boris by social media, Dominic Cummings, Russia or what was written on the side of a big red bus, in reality many people simply want to reassert their values and voice, which they now feel are being routinely ignored.
And unless we can close this growing divide between the people who rule over us and the people who have to live with the consequences of their decisions then I for one am expecting many more revolts in the years and decades ahead.
- Matthew Goodwin’s book Values, Voice, And Virtue: The New British Politics (Penguin) is out tomorrow, price £10.99.
