The Great Abdication, Why Britain's Decline is the Fault of the Middle Class

Citation

(2005), "The Great Abdication, Why Britain's Decline is the Fault of the Middle Class", European Business Review, Vol. 17 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr.2005.05417eab.007

The Great Abdication, Why Britain's Decline is the Fault of the Middle Class

The Great Abdication, Why Britain's Decline is the Fault of the Middle ClassAlexander DeaneImprint Academic2005Review DOI 10.1108/09555340510620429

This is essentially a Conservative book. It believes that the middle classes have given up their role in guiding the morals of the nation. The book is right, I believe, in regard to the present day, but perhaps does not take into account the factors that led to the present decline. There have been times in history when a hard moral rigidity needed to be softened, but not so in a sentimental or politically correct sense. Jesus Christ needed to oppose the rigidity and hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees. People have a habit of swinging to an opposite extreme when see something they consider wrong - they throw the baby out with the bathwater and in a broad sense I think that is what we have done. Disraeli once said that the most important thing in politics is to distinguish between a principle and the abuse of a principle. I think that Deane is right that we have thrown out our principles because we have seen them being abused. The answer surely is to regain them without regaining the abuses.

The quotation at the beginning of the first chapter is particularly apt as in a way it sums up the whole purpose of the book: "I say there is a simple answer to many of our problems - simple but hard. It's the complicated answer that's easy because it avoids facing the hard moral issues." Another good quote is from Frank Field: "Today's political agendais no longer about finding a compromise between socialism and capitalism. Increasingly the new politics is about moderating behaviour and re-establishing the social virtues of self-discipline coupled with an awareness of the needs of others. It is these virtues above all others that are essential to civilised living. The new politics centres on reinforcing what is good and acceptable behaviour."

But at the very root of this vital debate is the idea that law gives us only the outer boundary of how we should behave. The heart needs to be purified to achieve the kind of behaviour that really works for the common good. There is much in this book that people of all parties will agree with.