![]() ![]() ![]() ‘We, the progressives’ - so runs the argument - ‘are the wise and good we know what reforms the world needs if we have power, we shall create a paradise.’ And so, narcissistically hypnotised by contemplation of their own wisdom and goodness, they proceeded to create a new tyranny, more drastic than any previously known.” But although everybody who was in any degree progressive recognised the evils of oligarchy throughout the past history of mankind, many progressives were taken in by an argument for a new kind of oligarchy. It was revolt against the selfishness of past political oligarchies that produced the Liberal movement in favour of democracy, and it was revolt against economic oligarchies that produced Socialism. It would be foolish to be morally indignant with them on this account human nature, in the main and in the mass, is egoistic, and in most circumstances a fair dose of egoism is necessary for survival. “Oligarchies, throughout past history, have always thought more of their own advantage than of that of the rest of the community. Or schooling for children? Inadequate schools are not offset by the fact that London universities could field a football team of Nobel prize winners.” Can they get decently paid jobs or jobs at all? If they can't, don't brag about all those Michelin-starred restaurants and their self-dramatising chefs. What kind of lives are available to them? Can they afford to live there? If they can't, it is not compensation that London is also a paradise for the ultra-rich. ![]() But the test of the enormous wealth generated in patches of the capital is not that it contributed 20%-30% to Britain's GDP but how it affects the lives of the millions who live and work there. Of course it matters to all of us that London's economy flourishes. The end is what it does to the lives, life-chances and hopes of people. It needs a return to the conviction that economic growth and the affluence it brings is a means and not an end. “But a progressive policy needs more than just a bigger break with the economic and moral assumptions of the past 30 years. ![]()
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