The politics of envy should have no place in British public life
Harry Benson / Stringer
If there is one vice to which all four nations of the United Kingdom are prone, it is envy. Earlier this week, when British special forces ended the hijack of an oil tanker without loss of life, readers of this column were reminded of this country at its best here. Too often, though, we let ourselves down by carping and complaining whenever someone else is seen to be doing better than their neighbour.
The politics of envy seldom succeeds at the ballot box, but the British have a weakness for the sin itself, which unscrupulous politicians exploit. Whether it is the North grumbling about the South (or vice versa), the Scots resenting the English (or vice versa), the old patronising the young (or vice versa), the green-eyed monster is never far below the surface of our national conversation.
This week the onslaught on ministers has been stepped up with a vicious video aimed at the Chancellor circulating on social media. It claims to show Rishi Sunak’s “celebrity lifestyle” — including his homes in Kensington, Yorkshire and California — and is none too subtle in suggesting that his wealth is somehow ill-gotten: “That’s what you get making millions for a hedge fund that helped crash the economy.”
Although the attack ad has not been authorised by the Labour Party, the man behind it is a former Labour adviser, Adam McNicholas. His “One Rule For Them” campaign advocates aggressive class war tactics against leading Tories, accusing the Labour leadership of appearing “weak and irrelevant”. This is deeply unfair to Sir Keir Starmer, who has wisely remained aloof from class warfare and was clearly embarrassed by his deputy, Angela Rayner, yelling “scum” at a Tory MP in the Commons last week.
Sir Keir has found himself in a spot of bother after an accident last Sunday, when the car he was driving collided with a cyclist. Although he reported the incident to the police and the victim sustained only minor injuries, the Labour leader was on his way to an appointment with his tailor. The latter, Renzo Khan, has a list of clients that include stars like Billie Piper and Jude Law, besides Labour colleagues such as the Miliband brothers. The tailor was at pains to emphasise that Sir Keir’s “designer” suits were not bespoke but off the peg and that he merely required alterations. Even so, this glimpse into the life of the Leader of the Opposition is unlikely to endear him to those who expect him to display an ostentatious inverted snobbery.
The incomparably more serious matter of child poverty and hunger has also prompted some unpleasant displays of envy-driven propaganda. The Government’s “food tsar” Henry Dimbleby has now come up with a package of measures to tackle the problem, though they come with a hefty £1.2 billion price tag. He reports that one Tory told him that it looked as though MPs had “taken food from children’s plates and are eating it”. It will not have escaped the notice of the envious that Dimbleby himself (son of David the broadcaster and Joscelyn the cookery writer) is the founder of the Leon restaurant chain — one of the businesses that could benefit from food voucher schemes. Of course, Marcus Rashford, the Manchester United star behind the campaign to extend free school meals during holidays, is also a wealthy man, as are all Premier League footballers. Once people start resenting those who have made their fortunes by talent and hard work, there is no end to the damage that can be done to any sense of social solidarity.
It is no accident that the most successful members of society are often also the most philanthropic. They have the means and the motivation to devote much of their time to charity. Indeed, it is more or less expected of them. We see the impulse not only in the commitment of Rashford and Dimbleby to help the poorest children, but in the Chancellor’s vast compensation schemes for those worst-hit by the Covid pandemic. As MP for the Yorkshire seat of Richmond, Rishi Sunak is also alive to the strength of feeling in the North and sees himself as a “Northern Chancellor”. He knows that he won’t have friends from the North, even on the Tory benches, unless he can somehow preserve the “levelling up” programme that helped get the Conservatives elected. The fact that he has made his own fortune, and is married to the daughter of one of the richest men in India, only strengthens Rishi Sunak’s altruism.
“Giving something back” is the modern equivalent of the noblesse oblige of former times. Not a few of the old aristocracy still see it as their duty to share their good fortune. One of the most eccentric, yet also most generous, was the Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava (pictured above), who has died at 79. Lindy Dufferin, as she was known, inherited the 2,000 acre Clandeboye estate in Northern Ireland from her husband. She used the income from the estate (latterly augmented by a lucrative deal with Sainsbury’s to supply organic yoghurt) as the means to pursue her many philanthropic activities, ranging from conservation to the peace process. Last year she campaigned for sheep to graze on Hampstead Heath. Born a Guinness, she was a serious artist and an aristocrat to her fingertips, as liberal with her patronage as with her parties. But she never pretended to know how the other half lived. When asked which market her yoghurt was aimed at, she replied: “Haven’t a clue, I’ve never been shopping.”
As a nation, we still need the wild spirit of a Lindy Dufferin no less than the decency of a Marcus Rashford. We need politicians to follow their consciences, as Rishi Sunak or Keir Starmer do, regardless of their taste in tailoring or soft furnishings. To be British is, or ought to be, enough to make us all grateful for our good fortune. The politics of envy should have no place in our public or private life.
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