Change in the Past (2)

Abstract

This chapter describes the emergence of counter-elites in post-war Britain. Something like counter-elites have emerged twice in Britain since the Second World War. The nucleus of the first counter-elite was the Labour leadership that took over in 1945, but it extended to a much wider group of ‘modernisers’ who saw themselves as ‘counter’ to the traditional ‘Establishment’, and who created a whole set of institutions that shaped post-war life and continue to do so. In the 80s, a second group emerged that saw itself as ‘counter’ to what had become a new ‘Establishment’. It focussed on business and money rather than institutions. Now we need a third counter-elite to emerge.