Welcome to Harold Macmillan’s jaded administration in the first week of July 1962, exactly 50 years ago. This languid member of Britain’s landed elite had led the Conservatives to an easy victory in the election of 1959.
Compared to Cameron, Macmillan was a parvenu bourgeois. He came from a publishing family (demn close to trade!) and his grandfather was a crofter.
Sure, he became very grand but he was most certainly not a member of the \”landed elite\”. That\’s not how we do class in England.
Macmillan’s grandfather was the son of a crofter I think it would be more accurate to say.
Daniel Macmillan had moved to London, ingratiated himself into publishing circles and set up Macmillan’s by the time he was 30.
Odd that the Daily Telegraph made this mistake rather than The Guardian.
The Guardian is very good at presenting senior bank CEOs, for instance, as privileged elites leading an Edwardian country house lifestyle.
The fact is the likes of Stephen Hester may employ as many gardeners as Prince Charles but he went to the local comprehensive.
“languid”?
Hardly