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The Triumph of the Political Class

Author: Peter Oborne
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

11 reviews
Sales Rank: 5284

Media: Hardcover
Pages: 390
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.5

ISBN: 0743295277
EAN: 9780743295277
ASIN: 0743295277

Publication Date: September 17, 2007
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Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

An excellent book, with a few gaps May 23, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I want to second pretty much everything that most of the other reviewers, especially Henry Berocca in an excellent review, have said. I have a few additional points and some quibbles:

Oborne should perhaps have written more about the role of the European Union in the motivation of this class of political leaders. It is an astonishing fact, when you think about it, that this political class craves power and yet has chosen to transfer a lot of political authority to Brussels. Why is that? It would be good for Oborne to have perhaps asked more about that. I personally think that many, if not all, of the pro-EU types are careerists who hope to jump on board the gravy train, although some may idealistically believe that we should create a federal EU state and naively expect that such a state will be democratically accountable.

Oborne also denounces the role of the media and he is right to do so. But I should point out - hardly surprising on an internet site like this - that the internet and new media are providing a necessary corrective to the craven approach adopted by the tabloids, broadsheets, the BBC and ITV. Blogs now play a role in flagging up issues that the mainstream press are too cowardly to confront. Take the blogger "Guido Fawkes", who has exposed all types of government wrongdoing, such as the cash-for-peerages affair and other scandals. The role of the internet should not be understimated.

More broadly, though, I fear that Oborne does not sufficiently realise that the rise of a political class, or new establishment, is very difficult to resist when the government grabs almost half of the national income and regulates the rest of society so heavily. Merely re-establishing some old rules and procedures such as informing parliament first before a change in policy is just tinkering. At root, the problem is not just a class of venal, self serving politicians and their toadies in MI5 or the press, the problem is an addiction by so many people to Big Government generally. To reverse that is the biggest issue of the lot.

But these are quibbles. Oborne's book is great and it is hardly surprising that the vast majority of the reviews here are positive. It is one of the most important books on UK politics written for many years.

3 out of 5 stars

Easy-to-read rant by disillusioned journalist April 28, 2008
5 out of 8 found this review helpful

I'm fascinated by politics and social groups, so I had no trouble finishing this book in about three sittings. For about ten years I took a close interest in the Conservative Party and I actually joined the Labour Party from 1995-1997. So this broad and encompassing perspective on our political class gave me loads to think about.

I found that when I was an adolescent, everything in the media and politics seemed real and true, then, when I experience these worlds as an adult, I found an awful lot of it was corrupt and untrue. But now I'm reaching 40 I see that reality and truth do exist, but getting to it is very personal, you frequently get it wrong, and it's very difficult to put it into neat packages.

This is a rather long preamble to say that Oborne has a rather romantic view of what politics, England and our institutions should be about. Rather like a hero in a Balzac novel, he's seen it up close, and it actually all seems to be run by dishonest, money-grubbing cabals.

But I have personal experiences which suggest to me that Oborne generalises too much. He says Ed Vaizey is part of the privileged political class, pampered by luxury offices and copious expenses. But I sat in Vaizey's office once. I looked at the enormous number of emails he was getting, the pile of invitations to tedious events, and the horrible pokiness of his room, which he had to share with a researcher, and I felt glad that I hadn't signed up for such a life.

Similarly, I was really impressed by New Labour when I joined them. They were well-organised, polite and effective. They hosted events in modern venues, they seemed to understand the problems that faced the country. When I went back to the Conservatives, they were stuck in the 1980s, arrogant, condescending and pompous. I've got to know many Conservative politicians, and a lot of them I think are bad-mannered, complacent and snobbish. People trying to sustain a backward and moribund organisation. However, I find Labour characters like Karen Buck and Oona King, pleasant, competent and easy to talk to.

Oborne laments the lack of deference shown by New Labour towards the monarchy. I tried really hard to stick up for the monarchy in 2002. I organised a Golden Jubilee Party in Westbourne Terrace in London, and learnt a lesson. Many of the well-to-do middle-class English people decided to go on a long break in Europe for the weekend. My party was attended by the lonely, the old, foreigners and the mad. I enjoyed it, but I realised the emotional attachment to the monarchy changed in the 1990s, and however ghastly Tony Blair might be, he understood that.

The things Oborne gets angry about are not all led by the new Political Class, they reflect the changing nature of society. Nobody is really bothered any more by arguments between the PM's office and Black Rod, or whether the Treasury or Downing Street is sensitive to Royal protocol, except angry men on the Spectator who haven't fulfilled their adolescent dreams.

Oborne's argument that the British Establishment of the 50s and 60s with its stiff-upper lip and notions of public service was some sort of Golden Age is just silly. It was a time when women had to stay in unhappy marriages and had to accept lower wages, the police were racist, schools turned a blind eye to sexual abuse and corporal punishment, there was incredible hypocrisy over homosexuality, politicians like Reggie Maudling were extremely corrupt and everyone tugged their forelock to their elders and betters.

At one point Oborne draws pschoanalysis into his general rant about everything that has gone wrong with society. He says R.D Laing "lifted the responsibility for psychological problems off the shoulders of the individual and attributed it instead to the malign effect of the family and society." Well, I don't think Oborne has read enough about these things. I recommend The Psychology of Military Incompetence by Norman Dixon. It explains, using the insights of psychoanalysis, how institutions fail, but sometimes succeed, too. The Political Class can be as cavalier as it likes, but their actions will eventually have consequences, which will impact upon the lives of millions of people. And if they are bad, that Class will eventually perish.

If Oborne were to read Games People Play by Eric Berne, he might get a sense that his book is about playing the game, 'Nowadays'. The purpose of the game is to suggest that things aren't what they used to be. It's a time-wasting pastime played by parents, the old and young fogies.

This book is like a good long article in a Sunday newspaper, fun to read, thought-provoking and shocking in parts. But dropped in the bin and forgotten about by Wednesday.

5 out of 5 stars

A brilliant analysis April 1, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is one of the best political books I've ever read. I was sceptical at first because I'm no fan of the Daily Mail, but Oborne won me over within a few pages. He writes with clarity and makes the subject both enjoyable and blood boiling at the same time.
I'm hospital consultant and can see parallels with how the political class are disempowering the medical profession in the same way as the other professions that he mentions in the book. The mechanisms and reasons are the same i.e empower a few apparatchiks (e.g Lord Darzi, the CMO) and disempower the rest (deprofessionalisation and loss of self regulation) with the overarching goal of enriching the private sector helath organisations in order to be handed plum jobs later on (e.g Patrica Hewitt now works as an advisor for Boots and Simon Stephens (former health advisor to Blair) is now CEO of United Healthcare Europe). Maybe, Peter Oborne can add a chapter on the "Attack on the medical profession" in the next edition!

5 out of 5 stars

We are taking control for your own good March 29, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Peter Oborne is a blasted nuisance. Our triumph indeed. We cannot triumph until the likes of Mr Oborne learn to love us. True, we are winning. We now control the machinery of government and have weakened all opposition - except the monarchy, but just you wait until Charles takes charge - but we have not yet triumphed. Not by a long chalk.

Why are we taking control? Why seek unopposed power? Not for our own benefit, you may be sure of that. We are sacrificing ourselves for your well being, for your future. Be honest, how many of you could run the country half as well as us? Of course you couldn't. You are too busy with your own selfish lives to see the bigger picture. Well, luckily for you, there are those at Westminster willing to take up the burden of government, willing to sacrifice our own privacy, our own livelihoods and our own careers to look after those less able.
And what thanks do we get? None. You even begrudge us a few creature comforts. Why can't we be driven to our homes, any of them, in a nice car, after a day slaving on your behalf? And security? Of course we need a decent pension. We could earn far more in the private sector, you know. Just look at Lord Archer. Our career is precarious, we may lose the next election and so we must earn enough to retire on beforehand. Luckily, we do not seek gratitude. Just the knowledge that we are running the country well, better than anyone else can, is enough.
Of course, to look after you properly, Mr Oborne and his ilk cannot be allowed to hamper us. We must have control; we must have power, in order to wield it on your behalf.

As Mr Oborne says, we have weakened our opposition, the checks and balances that prevent us getting our way. In particular, the church, judiciary, trade unions, education, local government and the newspapers. This is great progress. However, while the Obornes of this world carp at us from the sidelines, we have yet to conquer the greatest obstacle of all. Hearts and minds.
When you learn to love us like Winston loved Big Brother, when books like the Triumph of the Political Class can no longer find a market, we shall know we have won.

5 out of 5 stars

Depressing picture, but difficult to argue with March 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I first bought this book whilst working in the European parliament, and recognised much of what the author says. If you have a genuine interest in politics, you will like this book. If it is a more general interest, you will not like it.

The book has a central comparison to make. The author argues in the past, politics was seen as a way of paying back ones gratitude to society with public service. In the modern era, there is a closed professional clique (composed of PR gurus, spin doctors, career politicians and their assorted hangers on) who see politics not as a form of public duty, but as a lucrative career path. This clique is marked by a number of features, most notably their closed "us and them" nature towards outsiders, but also their shameless greed, be it plundering the public purse out of which they are paid, or attempting to use their position to extract business favours and payments for themselves.

The book also show cases where the political class has been particularly reckless in its pursuit of money and status. This includes hollowing out the civil service, attacking the independence of the judiciary and attempting to recruit the media to their party political cause. There is also a detailed and rather worrying case study on how this was done in the run up to the Iraq war.

The book is not without its weaknesses. Firstly, the footnotes are very long, and can make the bottom of the page look very "crowded". Secondly, the section on media can be a little long and repetitive. Also, the book is rather long in my opinion, and could have been much shorter. All in all, this book will interest those with a genuine interest in politics, but more casual readers will be put of by its length and occasional repetitiveness.