Now Downing street is advertising for a butler at 50K a year no less, it will no doubt become the in thing. The problem is that we have such exponential growth in the wealth of the rich that it is crowding out the wealth of the the rest of us. We risk returning to the social structure of the 1920's. Not a society of equals but upstairs downstairs. Opportunity will be the preserve of the rich when it should be the right of all. Anyone who has thought about buying a house will know that this is becoming a monstously expensive undertaking that increasingly few can afford.

I think society becomes less comfortable with itself if we decide to divide ourselves off into different life worlds. Private wealth is all well and good but if the cost of it is public squalor then we have to think again about the way society is going.

¶ 12:10 pm