"Sir John Major Attacks 'Shocking' Private School Grip On Power" Huffington Post headline
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It shows we live in a sort of democracy which is run by this ESTABLSHMENT so really it is less of a democracy and more of leadership by an autocratic club.
At the head sits the most famous toff of all, the Queen, God Bless Her Royal Majesty. Next in line (or a main line branch) is the other top toffs which include the Princes, Princesses and then the rest of the aristocracy (positions gained by right of birth and by the subjugation of the masses throughout history). Then comes the Church (Bishops sitting in the House of Lords?) followed by many of our senior politicians.
The big money men sit among these people I hesitate to suggest that they 'own' many of them).
Nearly all of these people know each other through family, school, club, regiment etc. They have little need to consider where the next banquet is coming from so why would they really care for the vast majority of the realm. Harold Wilson is the most recent politician to upset the apple cart and if conspiracy theory is fact then it was possibly Her Majesty that stopped a coup.
At the head sits the most famous toff of all, the Queen, God Bless Her Royal Majesty. Next in line (or a main line branch) is the other top toffs which include the Princes, Princesses and then the rest of the aristocracy (positions gained by right of birth and by the subjugation of the masses throughout history). Then comes the Church (Bishops sitting in the House of Lords?) followed by many of our senior politicians.
The big money men sit among these people I hesitate to suggest that they 'own' many of them).
Nearly all of these people know each other through family, school, club, regiment etc. They have little need to consider where the next banquet is coming from so why would they really care for the vast majority of the realm. Harold Wilson is the most recent politician to upset the apple cart and if conspiracy theory is fact then it was possibly Her Majesty that stopped a coup.

China and Korea are totalitarian states and don't pretend to be anything else so are not good examples.
France!! The most revolutionary country in western Europe and renowned for its violent protest.
I was in Nice a few years ago and witnessed a protest by school kids which was met with heavily armed and armoured riot police.
Personally I think the French understood the need to break this mould (the revolution) while we British still marvel at our royal history which is full of subjugation, murder, oppression, patronage, war, aggression, etc etc. Many of us don't seem able to emotionally manage life without our royal super mummy and prefer the status quo.
Up the revolution I say.
France!! The most revolutionary country in western Europe and renowned for its violent protest.
I was in Nice a few years ago and witnessed a protest by school kids which was met with heavily armed and armoured riot police.
Personally I think the French understood the need to break this mould (the revolution) while we British still marvel at our royal history which is full of subjugation, murder, oppression, patronage, war, aggression, etc etc. Many of us don't seem able to emotionally manage life without our royal super mummy and prefer the status quo.
Up the revolution I say.

Quote:Up the revolution I say.
me too, but probably with a different emphasis to you

Any group of people, large, small or country wide with be lead by a group who induct those like them and reject those unlike them (whether by birth, religion, education, caste or whatever)
Its part of being human and all the debate and moralising in the world wont change it (nor will revolution, it just changes one ruling cadre for another)
(Doesn't make it right - its just a fact of life)

Quote:Personally I think the French understood the need to break this mould (the revolution) while we British still marvel at our royal history which is full of subjugation, murder, oppression, patronage, war, aggression, etc etc.
That made me larf! I don't think the French history is any less violent in any of the activities you mentioned so I don't see how revolution has affected that. In fact, the French revolution led directly to some of the most bloody, scary episodes in European history that were class-ridden in their own way. And you only need to look at how the French drove Haiti into bankruptcy (even as late as the 1960s) out of sheer petty spite to see the revolution changed nothing. I would wager that the reason the French don't celebrate their colonial and military past is that it failed (usually being beaten up by the Brits).

Quote:Nothing is fit for purpose in 'Britain' anymore,
Jeez, how I hate that phrase. It has become one of those catchall phrases that people use to make it sound like they have made a valued judgment of the situation when it is actually little more than a cheap shot uttered when they want to make a point but the situation actually isn't as bad as they think it is (or, in the case of politicians, want it to be) or they haven't really thought about what the 'purpose' is.
Nothing personal, there, Wrinkles - just that is how I feel when I hear that phrase.