The Great Abdication: Why Britain's Decline Is the Fault of the Middle Class

The middle class provides British society with its stability and strenght. According to Alexander Deane's contentious thesis, our middle class has failed to uphold societal values, and the enormously damaging collapse of our society's norms and standards is largely a result of that abdication. The institutions of political and social governance provide a husk of functionality and mask these problems for those that do not wish to see, or do not care. To restore Britain to something resembling a substantively functioning country, the middle classes must reinstate themselves as arbiters of morality, be unafraid to judge their fellow men, and follow through with the condemnation that necessarily follows when individuals sin against common values.

Alexander Deane read English Literature at Trinity College, Cambridge.