Tonight:
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One of the best things to hope for from Barack Obama's election is that by proving racism is on the decline it will allow liberals to concentrate on the real cause of disadvantage in modern societies: class.
For however necessary their fights against prejudice have been, they have led to a lopsided view of the world in which the public-school-educated daughter of an Indian steel tycoon is seen as more disadvantaged than the son of a white single mother.
If you doubt me, an evening in front of the television should change your mind. Political correctness has placed racism and homophobia off limits - rightly so, in my view - but liberal media executives have compensated by wallowing in class hatred. In Little Britain or Shameless they invite you to mock stupid teenage girls who get pregnant without a thought for how they would care for their babies. If that isn't to your taste, they offer alcoholic fathers whose delinquent children wallow in illicit pleasures.
The poor are the grasping inhabitants of a parasite paradise, scrounging off the cozened middle classes in television comedy, or freaks to be mocked on Jeremy Kyle.
Although I don't like to see the powerful sneer at the weak, obviously there's truth in their stereotypes. Their real fault is not an inability to show compassion but a failure of imagination.
The broadcasters have not realised the fragility of their and their scoffing viewers' lives. They never say: "Don't laugh too loud because one day you may be poor, too."
The crash may change that as much as the election of a black president. Yesterday I was at the launch of a major report on the desperate lives of people in Islington. That's right, Islington. If you think it is filled only with air-kissing, cocaine-snorting, gym-going, latte-slurping, free-range food-munching fashionistas of the type who commission Little Britain and Shameless, you obviously don't know it.
Around the corner from its Georgian terraces is some of the worst poverty in Western Europe: people of all colours who are crushed by debt and joblessness.
The Cripplegate Foundation, which commissioned the study, dates back to 1500 and there is a medieval feel to the inner London it describes. On the one hand, we have super-gentrifiers in Barnsbury who are among the top earners on the planet. One hundred yards away in the King's Cross estates are men with the lowest life expectancy in London.
Perhaps we will soon feel more affinity with them. The chaos in the markets has made all but the most secure realise how precarious their wealth and status are, and how easy it could be to lose everything. Millions have had a reality check. About the only good thing that could come out of the crash is the realisation that poverty isn't a joke.
RIP the West End playwright
To the Apollo to see Rain Man. It is as good as the critics say but it left me depressed about the state of the West End.
Theatrical stars are dying out. Simon Russell Beale will probably be the last actor whose fame has come from his work on stage. All right, said producers, we will bring in film and television stars. But even the presence of a celebrity was not enough to fill houses. So now we have shows taken from films, such as Brief Encounter and Rain Man, or from putting together the hits of old pop favourites, such as Mamma Mia! or the Jersey Boys, while original writing for the commercial theatre vanishes.
£189,994: who could ask for anything more?
I've disagreed with Gordon Brown over the years but I don't bear grudges and want to offer him this modest proposal to boost his dismal poll ratings. He should propose a law making it illegal for any public-sector manager to earn more than he does.
With free-market capitalism crashing, the British ought to be turning to Brown as the Americans are turning to Obama. They are not in part because they see taxpayer-funded fat cats as grasping as any Lehman Brothers' dealer. This week we heard that the fantastically incompetent regulators of the Financial Services Authority, who twiddled their thumbs while the banks charged towards ruin, won't be punished for failure but rewarded with bonuses. Before that we were told that 50 BBC managers were taking advantage of licence fees extracted from the public on pain of imprisonment to award each other salaries greater than Brown's £189,994. Even the chief executives of Kent and Wandsworth councils — minor functionaries, when all's said and done — are on more than £200k.
High public office brings honours, job security and interesting careers. There is no reason why it should also bring one penny more than £189,994 a year.
Reader views (9)
If 'Liberals slurps Latte', what do Conservatives slurps ? Mocha ?
- Will, Surrey
So the chief executive of Kent is 'a minor functionary'. Kent County Council employs 9000 staff and spends £2.2 billion a year to provide essential services to 1.4 million people. I look forward to your definition of a major functionary.
- Stephen Taylor, London UK
Ref Nick's comment today on BBC schedules & Little Dorrit, I have had a similar problem this evening with Top Gear. The Evening Standard Final Edition (& all other published TV schedules)showed Top Gear at 7pm followed by Autumnwatch 2008 at 8pm on BBC2. When I tuned in at 7pm it was Autumnwatch 2008(ie NO Top Gear!) because of an extra Newsnight at 8pm because of US Election. I have known the date of US elections for many months! Why does BBC specialise in last minute surprise changes, rather than getting its act together with proper planning!
Signed: A licence fee payer!!
- John, London
Blair and Major make millions as ex-prime ministers, which is more than can be said for redundant health service managers! The latter may well be over paid, but former minister make a fortune from his connections.
How did James Callaghan retire as a wealthy farmer on a parliamentary salary? Where did Edward Heath's fortune come from?
Prime ministers retire wealthy with magnificent pensions, consultancies, book deals and lecture tours. Don't shed any tears for them.
Public officials also do seem to do rather well but a salary cap as proposed makes no sense.
PS - I am not a retired official!
- Ian, London Eng
Mr. Cohen,
You do make some interesting points, however - the concept of "latte-sipping" American elitists makes no sense in an America where everyone goes to Starbucks and you can find a latte at the local convenience store. American tastes have expanded - if you don't believe me, read The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation by David Kamp. As Kamp has pointed out, making the claim that lattes = elitist makes little sense anymore.
Anyway, semantics.....
- Jamie, State College, Pennsylvania
What are the FSA getting bonuses for? They have abjectly failed to fulfill their role and the industry they regulate will shrink considerably as a result of this turmoil. So there is no justification for competetive remuniration! As for council salaries I couldn't agree more.
- Mark, London
I lived in a huge 'mansion flat'with marble Adam fireplaces in the 1980s/90s with my then partner. He was rich (financial services) I wasn't- I worked with disadvantaged kids. Directly opposite us was a run-down Council estate, whose kids regularly smashed up my partner's car & burgled our houses. No we didn't mind too much. I felt ashamed of living ostentatiously, as I'd grown up poorish working class, but had achieved social mobility via my education, as did so many of my generation.
Now, years later,out of London, I'm a moderately poor single parent and feel much happier! I live in much humbler housing than the affluent plumbers & electricians whose services I use.
- Sc, Essex
Nick Cohen makes some very good points. If I may add an extra one. Tragic as the situation in Kings Cross he describes is, it is also a good thing I believe, that the wealthy and the poor still live side by side in this great city. Please, lets keep the encroachment of gated communities for the wealthy, out of the city
- Chris, Maida Vale, London
The so-called "market" for the services of "talented" individuals, which is used to justify inflated remuneration packages, has become a very sad and tired joke. The FSA takes the opportunity of the market crash to first line its own pockets, but it has missed the band-wagon, true to type. Note to Lord Turner: the bubble has ended.
- Blackstone Coke, London
