Britain's power elites - Hywel Williams

SINCE 1979 this country has undergone a revolution. It was a very British affair - certainly no tanks on the streets and precious little violent agitation. But under first Thatcher then Blair, the post-war consensus has given way to a brand-new political order. The language of global competition, of historical inevitability and of national destiny has provided cover for a power grab more complete and ruthless than any since the English Civil War.

The discretion with which this has been accomplished has left commentators baffled. Yet one thing is clear. Ironically, set against the fantasies of the heritage industry, Victorian, even Georgian, inequalities of wealth and status are back, though the methods used to justify them have changed.

Hywel Williams offers an exhilarating new analysis. The order that once governed Britain is dead, and he reveals the perpetrator. Alone among imperial cadres, the capital's money men survive. They have grasped the new opportunities offered to capital, and seen off or subverted all possible threats to their freedom. The City has killed its rivals, and everyone up until now has been too polite to mention it. It is time to be clear about exactly who does run this place.