Britain is not a technocracy

The term ‘technocracy’, or more often ‘technocrat’, is found everywhere. Both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer are referred to as technocrats. But what exactly does it mean?  

In the 15 years he served as prime minister, Lord Liverpool always put in the hours. He dutifully opened the latest despatches and read them in turn, though his delicate nature made him dread the task. He was scrupulously honest and always fair. He mastered the details. He was courteous towards colleagues and sensitive to their feelings. He was a devoted husband. He did not act rashly and sailed by no great ideological system. Had he lived today, Lord Liverpool would be what we might wincingly refer to as ‘a safe pair of hands’ or, worse, a ‘technocrat’. But the comparison ends when you consider what he worked towards.

Like many of his contemporaries, Lord Liverpool believed that his essential task in public life was the defence of the settlement of the Glorious Revolution – that is, the legal exclusion of Roman Catholics and Nonconformists from office and a voting franchise limited to around 2 per cent of the population.