The BRIT Awards are a cornerstone of the sort of corporate lobbying that helps the ‘ruling class’ maintain control in the UK.
That’s according to a former aide of Prime Minister David Cameron.
Writing in The Sunday Times yesterday, Steve Hilton – Cameron’s former strategy advisor – wrote of his concern over the “insular ruling class” who run the UK.
“Our democracies are increasingly captured by a ruling class that seeks to perpetuate its privileges,” wrote Hilton, who left the coalition goverment in 2012 to move to Los Angeles.
“Regardless of who’s in office, the same people are in power. It is a democracy in name only, operating on behalf of a tiny elite no matter the electoral outcome.”
And the biggest night in UK music came in for scorn for its role in helping this ‘tiny elite’ continue their reign through a culture of private donations and sponsored evenings out.
“We have, in some ways, regressed. Corruption used to be the norm in countries, democratic or otherwise. Power was inherited and bought; political appointments were traded for favours in a system under which the elites literally owned the state.
“While it is no longer so explicit, in the capitals of western democracies the ascent of big money and its lobbyists means that, while there is no explicit quid pro quo, it is hard to mistake what donors intend when they give money to political parties and campaigns,” he said.
“Or what business people want when they take politicians and civil servants to dinner, the opera, the BRITs, Wimbledon…
“We no longer have aristocratic courts and inherited offices, but our democracies are increasingly captured by a ruling class that seeks to perpetuate its privileges.”
He added: “When the corporate bosses, the MPs, the journalists – and the authors of books such as mine – all go to the same dinner parties and social events, all live near one another, all send their children to the same schools (from which they themselves mainly came), an insular ruling class develops,” he said.
“They flit and float between Westminster, Whitehall and the City; regardless of who’s in office, the same people are in power. It is a democracy in name only, operating on behalf of a tiny elite no matter the electoral outcome. I know because I was part of it.
“While there is no conspiracy (and I know from personal experience that almost all politicians and officials have good intentions), the assumptions, the structures, the rules that govern our lives are not subject to anything as unpredictable as the will of the people.
“No wonder voters feel that others’ voices are being heard more than their own. It’s because it’s true.”Music Business Worldwide
