The British Imperial Establishment, Post Imperial Era, and the ‘Churchillian’ World View, 1945-2016. (Adjustments & Challenges in Contemporary British Diplomatic Strategy)

22

hierarchy
of landowners, farmers and labourers. The landed gentry succeeded in
keeping, if not its privileges, at least
its social status.”21 A peasantry, therefore,
did not develop in
Britain; whereas in many continental countries it grew rapidly.
Independent smallholders or peasants
established and still establish a class of
their own in France, as they also do in many parts of Western
Europe. These
peasants are at the margin of industrial societies. They could be called
‘capitalists’
only because they are self-employed. They are ‘capitalists’ living in
precarious
conditions. They do not trust the ‘organisation’ of modern industrial societies.
As
well as forming their own class they also form parties. They do not recognise the
centralization
which modern societies impose. “They loathe the bureaucracy
which is the instrument of the
centralization. They have an individualistic
approach to politics. In Britain, where the rural population is
small, where the
economic conditions under which it lives are different, where the social structure
on
the land has remained more traditional these disruptive tendencies have been
avoided. Society did not have to
reckon with the members of the farming
community as an element apart. “22 They were dealt with by political parties as if
they were engaged in an
‘occupation’ or an ‘industry’ like any other. Major
distinctions in British society are not
based on geography, but on social and
economic conditions. In contrast in the United States, France, Germany,
or even
Holland or Switzerland, it would not be possible to describe the structure of these
countries,
“without first considering in detail profound regional differences which
are sometimes as important as
national characteristics. These differences cut
across nationwide social and economic
problems.”23 British society is thus
essentially homogeneous and
integrated, except in modern social class terms. In
Britain national class divisions are altogether
preponderant. In Britain, class
divisions play an important role in the structure of British society.

The
factor which determines class in Britain is occupation, but occupation
depends today largely on education.
Therefore, education is the under-pinning

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