Public school. These are the "elite" of our nation don't forget.

Another modern-style faux apology. "I did nothing wrong, but I'll apologise anyway". Can everyone just stop apologising? The whole currency of apologies has been devalued and it started with automated apologies on the trains. No, if you were sorry that this service was three days late, you'd say so, not click a switch. And buses that say "Sorry, I'm not in service" on the front. Stop it, stop it, stop it, STOP IT.

What Mitchell should be apologising for is for letting his personality accidentally sneak out in public.




And breathe

When I used to watch Harry Enfields character "Tim Nice-but-Dim" I always thought it was a far-fetched parody, the pupils sat watching at Rugby and Eton at the time obviously took it to be a role model.

We have always had them but I think the difference is these days there are far more of them in parliament and in government. In the past the "ruling class" did on occaision have a social consience. While you can easily disagree with many aspects of their politics and policies they did occaisionally enact polices for the greater good. For example Chruchill introduced a minimum wage for farm labourers via the trade boards act of 1909.

In arguing for this he said:

"It is a national evil that any class of Her Majesty’s subjects should receive less than a living wage in return for their utmost exertions… where you have what we call sweated trades, you have no organisation, no parity of bargaining, the good employer is undercut by the bad and the bad by the worst; the worker, whose whole livelihood depends upon the industry, is undersold by the worker who only takes up the trade as a second string… where these conditions prevail you have not a condition of progress, but a condition of progressive degeneration."

Can you imagine the likes of this idiot ever coming out with something like that?

I must copy and keep that quote, because then I can post it on forums where posters will then have to denounce Churchill as a communist or risk revealing the nonsense of their usual labelling of anything they don't like as the deepest shade of red.

But you're spot on: there was, with some at least, an attitude of paternalism.

Mind, even then, would Nye Bevan consider this lot much different?

Yep, I think that whilst the ruling classes thought themselves "better" than the working classes, there was at least a sense of responsibility toward them. While patronising, it's better than the type of sh|thouses we have today who deliberately target the poor and vulnerable.

That's a cracking quote from Churchill.

I think a load of them would be absolutely appalled by what their political descendants have done, in facilitating the development of what is, in effect, a supranational corporatocracy, which feels absolutely no allegiance to anything other than itself.

One clue might be that, back in the 1980s, the old Tory grandee, Harold Macmillan described the privatisation of utilities as 'selling off the family silver'.

As with that Churchill quote, they knew about national interest. I don't think that this lot do – or rather, I don't think that they care.

Too many career politicians, most of them (on all three sides) have never done a days work in the real world.

Argh! The 'real world' thing!

But yes, I agree with what you're saying.

Although it should be noted that Mitchell was a UN peacekeeper. So probably not much more 'real world' than that.

But there certainly seems to be, with this government (or at least the bulk of the Cabinet) a culture of entitlement: a sense of 'we're born to rule'. And Mitchell's comments (and he has not denied the aspect of telling the policeman to 'know your place') reveal exactly that attitude.

Mind you, when you visit some of these tax havens they are nice. Maybe he has a point?