The Battle of Britain was won by members of our ‘clapped-out’ ruling class

‘As I write, highly civilised human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me.’ So began one of the most famous essays in the English language, George Orwell’s ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’, written almost 70 years ago.

It’s a much-loved essay thanks to its lyrical invocation of ‘English civilisation’: red pillar boxes, bad teeth, the old maids cycling to Holy Communion through the mists of the autumn mornings, etc. (John Major ‘borrowed’ some of this language when describing what he loved most about Britain.) But it’s worth pointing out that in most respects ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’ was completely wrongheaded. The theme of the essay was that the English class system was impeding the war effort, largely thanks to the incompetence of the public-school educated officer class. England, according to Orwell, was a family with the wrong members in control. If we were to stand a chance of defeating Hitler, the old ruling class had to be put out to grass.