Brown faces a burgeoning middle class increasingly frustrated with the super-rich, says peter wilby, but will he show his teeth? |
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The question about Gordon Brown has always been this: is he too old Labour, too statist and egalitarian in his instincts to appeal to the English middle classes? One of the secrets of new Labour's success was that it had it both ways.
While Tony Blair in Number 10 spoke the language of the Barratt Homes estates, Brown let it be thought he was brooding over a different agenda in Number 11. He would raise taxes on the filthy rich, it was whispered, if only Blair would let him.
Equally, Blair hinted he would press on faster with public service reform if Brown didn't keep frustrating him. With each man suggesting he wasn't fully in control, Labour continued to appeal to its new constituency while keeping most of its more traditional supporters on board.
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| Inequality has become a middle-class issue, with demands to squeeze the rich in the Daily Mail |
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From Wednesday, when he takes over, Brown will be alone and exposed.
But all of a sudden, it doesn't look as though he needs to make that decision. Inequality has become a middle-class issue. Demands to squeeze the rich are sweeping the London suburbs and are being aired almost daily in the pages of the Mail and the Telegraph.
What has changed the climate of opinion is the rise of the super-rich, many of them foreigners, with annual incomes of well into six figures and often of £1m or more.
It used to be said that extreme wealth among a small number of people didn't really damage the rest of us, as long as we weren't mired in poverty. The middle classes know better. The merely rich - those on between £100,000 and £500,000 - find themselves in competition with the new plutocrats not only for houses but also for private school places, nannies, cleaners, gardeners, restaurant tables and even lawyers. According to Geordie Greig, editor of the high-society magazine Tatler, upper-income earners 
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