Rex it. Not Brexit. Why the British should really consider ditching their Royal family and stop blaming immigration and Europe for its woes.
The British Queen is the pinnacle of an institutionalized pyramid of privilege which supports a stratified hierarchy with a privately educated elite promoting its own narrow interests over the interests of a disadvantaged majority.
The mantra from the flag-waving classes is that they do a great job for Britain - promoting tourism and trade but even if they do pay their way, which is debatable the issue is a moral one. The system is rigged.
According to a report by a UK government body, the Social Mobility and Child Poverty commission Britain is “deeply elitist.”
This statement is reflected in the disproportionate percentage of privately educated individuals represented in the UK top professions. Seven percent of the UK population attended private schools contributing 71 percent of senior judges, 62 percent of senior military officers, 55 percent of government permanent secretaries, 53 percent of diplomats, 50 percent of House of Lords members, 43 percent of newspaper columnists and most strikingly 44 percent of individuals to The Sunday Times Rich List.
This inequality is also starkly illustrated in land ownership - 70 percent of land in Britain is owned by less than one percent of the population, the majority of whom are descendants of Norman invaders. In Scotland half of the land mass is owned by fewer than 500 people. No wonder that independence is a major issue there.
What have the Normans ever done for us?
Following the successful Norman invasion of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror the victors immediately set out to meticulously record and implement wholesale transfer of land and wealth from the English to the Crown, Church, barons, and soldiers creating a system of social engineering which would give them complete control and ensure that the ruling Normans maintained their position as top dogs.
The system known as feudalism was based on a return of military service for land. It was stratified with the King at the apex of a pyramid and the serfs or peasants laboring ceaselessly at the bottom obligated to serve the Lord militarily and manually; bound by an oath of fealty to the Lord in perpetuity. Themselves and future generations locked into a subsistence existence of which there was no hope of escape. Feudalism proved to be remarkably successful and incredibly resilient, surviving under the Russian Tsars until 1861.
Noble mobility
Vestiges of feudalism still persist in modern Britain, albeit in a far more diluted and subtle form, in the shape of a class system and institutional apparatus in the form of private schools, known with sardonic irony, as “public schools”, elite Universities and private members clubs. This “old boy network” ensures that power, wealth, and influence remain the preserve of an elitist minority.
Britain has an absolutely appalling record when it comes to social mobility, second only in the western world to the United States. if you were born into the wrong class or region then your chances of progress through education are severely limited: interestingly, state Catholic schools in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, which have a reputation for high standards of education appear to be helping to somewhat redress this imbalance producing more University candidates than average.
The Social mobility and child poverty commission was established in 2010 under the Conservative Government led by David Cameron and his Eton college dominated cabinet with the aim of promoting and monitoring social mobility. Seven years later under Theresa May all seven of the commissioners resigned in protest at the lack of progress towards a fairer Britain.
Norman wisdom
Researchers at The London School of Economics have shown that generations of Norman families; Darcys, Mandevilles, Montgomeries, and Percys have dominated the student rolls of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, continuously for 800 years.
Britain has always been a divided society; once described by Benjamin Disraeli, a Victorian Prime Minster “as two Nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy ” With Brexit looming, Britain has never been more polarized, fracturing this time not just on class lines; splintered by lying self-serving politicians and media Barons promulgating a bizarre, romantic fatalism in which some individuals appear to be welcoming the idea of a no deal Brexit. So, flag-waving Britons can once again stand alone with grim determination against the perceived foe proudly waving or perhaps drowning, whilst vacuuming up the rat droppings from the sinking Britannia with their trusty Dysons.
This article was submitted to the IrishCentral contributors network by a member of the global Irish community. To become an IrishCentral contributor click here.
Comments