The return of the labour aristocracy
The recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation Inquiry into Income and Wealth shows widening gaps both between social classes and within social classes. At first sight, indeed, the figures suggest that the big divide in British society is not a Marxist class conflict, but one between a mass of poverty and a “privileged” layer, “privileged” only by having stable and moderately-paid jobs. Closer examination of the data reveals the class categories: capitalist class, middle class, working class, “underclass”. It also shows that differences within the working class have increased enormously. Those...