Great Estates, Council Estates, and Estates of the Realm

Sir Peregrine Worsthorne writes:

Undoubtedly the rich and poor still have good reasons to fight. Today's capitalist triumphalism has seen to that. But the aristocracy – and the House of Lords in particular – is no longer part of that war. Indeed, if allowed to do so, they would gladly stand shoulder to shoulder with the plebs against the monstrous menace of new moneymen.

Trouble is, there are now very few aristocrats in the House of Lords, or indeed in the House of Commons, where there also used to be lots of them. Likewise, the very few remaining old trade union hands in the Commons are coming up to retirement (often to be replaced with people who have only ever been trade union officials, but who have never worked in the industries in question), while those in the Lords are dying out.

Both the great estates and the council estates have been banished from the Estates of this Realm; both the aristocratic social conscience and organised labour have been removed as brakes on a bourgeoisie now utterly convinced that it owes its hegemony to "merit".