The intertwined questions at the heart of this intriguing essay are: is there a British establishment, and can anyone join it? That is, is it open to anyone on merit alone, rather than by accident of birth or upbringing?
This is a question that Peter Hennessy is well placed to answer. Brought up in Stroud, he went from grammar school to St John's, Cambridge, and from there to the LSE and Harvard, then to the leader columns of the Times and eventually the crossbenches of the House of Lords as Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield, where he resides when not exercising his duties as Attlee professor of contemporary British history at Queen Mary, University of London.
In 1958, just before Hennessy started at his grammar school, Michael Young published a book that introduced a new word to the language: The Rise of the Meritocracy. I am willing to bet that most of us use the word without having absorbed the message of the book, which is part sociological and historical investigation, and part dystopian satire. Its span runs from 1870 to 2033, by which time it suggests all class differences will have been eradicated in the UK, only to be replaced by a more sinister caste system in which those at the top will be able to justify their position because they have earned it through talent and hard work; while those at the bottom could be said to deserve their fate.
It is a testament to the power of human perversity that unbounded meritocracy, presented originally as a dangerous thing, is these days seen as good by politicians. After all, you don't want other people to think you got where you are because of anything other than talent and hard work, do you? There's a very telling interview, towards the end of Hennessy's book, with David Cameron. It's only two questions long, and the second, asking Cameron if he thinks there is an "overarching" establishment, is answered thus: "I don't think so. There are sort of overlapping ones. They all need to be challenged. They all need to open up. They all need to allow people to break through." This is presented without comment; but of course none is necessary, given Cameron's astonishing rise, achieved – ahem – not by coterie or clique but by the honest sweat of his brow and the gem-like flame of his intellect.
Hennessy is good at reminding us of the original import of Young's book. Young was author of the 1945 Labour manifesto; and The Rise of the Meritocracy indirectly inspired the near-abolition of the very grammar schools from which Hennessy benefited, though he does not mention this.
He is also keen to remind us that whatever Cameron might say, there is "a permanent element at the heart of the British establishment – a kind of gyroscope", spinning largely within law, the civil service, the crossbenches of the Upper House and, among other institutions, the British Academy (of which Hennessy is a fellow). Note the emphasis he places on his interviewees' titles, many of whom are also friends or "greatly admired" friends. (This fondness for the great and good seems to be shared by the editor of the Haus Curiosities series, whose other authors to date are a major-general and another lord.)
The value of this book, once you have cleared a path through the dropped names, is that it is a picture from the inside. If you want to know what the establishment thinks of itself, look at this. I would particularly recommend the brief chapters on the secret and civil services, especially the latter, which, as Hennessy quietly warns us, is about to be politicised. A century and a half of meritocratic appointment within it – not all meritocracy is bad, as both Young and Hennessy have pointed out – is about to end.
