There’s a quiet Colonial takeover of British public life going on. An Australian, Lynton Crosby is in charge of the Tories’ political strategy. A South African, Ryan Coeztee performs this role for the Liberal Democrats and the deputy Prime Minister. While a Canadian, Mark Carney is Governor of the Bank of England and, arguably, the single most economically power figure in Britain.
I argue in The Spec this week that the rise of these New Colonials tells us something important about this country, its flaws and its place in the world. Crosby, Coetzee and Carney are, in some ways, the missing meritocrats. They are filling a gap in British public life created by the return of the old, and not much improved, ruling elite. Indeed, one of the big advantages they have is that they transcend our class system.
In most countries, it would be considered quite remarkable that a group of foreigners could acquire such power. That it is so uncontroversial here is a tribute to this country’s open nature. But I suspect it is also because we don’t see those from the Dominions as really foreign. They speak English and Australians and Canadians have the same head of state as us, after all. No one worries about a Canuck setting our interest rates because we see Canadians more as cousins with some funny habits than foreigners.
The power and prominence of these New Colonials is a reminder that we are part of a broader, English speaking world. This fact will become more and more important as the country debates what terms of EU membership are acceptable. In a world in which distance matters less and less, why are we pursuing ‘ever closer union’ with Romania? Equally, why do we allow anyone from Spain to come and try and find work here while making it harder and harder for Canadian architects and Indian businessmen to come to these shores?
The new colonials tend to share this puzzlement. It would be particularly fitting if they used their new found power and prominence in British life to raise our sights from the Channel to the oceans beyond.
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