Peter Hain, Northern Ireland Secretary and contender for Deputy Labour Party Leader has said that feudal titles such as “Lord” or “Knight” should be used as a reward for those who do not evade British taxes. Mr. Hain proposed this use of the state run system of social stratification as a weapon in a “war against inequality” He said that it would “help to promote a greater sense of responsibility in Britain’s boardrooms”.
Mr. Hain’s comments may be seen as another attempt to avoid acknowledgement of the socially corrosive effects of the British class system by a pretence that it may be reconciled with a nation of equal citizens. In this vein journalist John Lloyd wrote recently in the Financial Times that “National essence (for the British Broadcasting Corporation is) now in implicit values – such as accuracy and fairness in news, a celebration of equality in difference in class, accent, race and religion”.
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