The rich have never been richer: their predecessors were small fry

The wealthy are now wealthier, more numerous and more socially mobile than at any time in history. But will Gordon Brown’s tax-and-spend policies put an end to this?

For the rich and successful, these are the best of times. They are earning more than most had ever dreamt possible and are celebrated in popular culture and courted by the political establishment as never before. Millionaires have become Britain’s fastest-growing social class; every single working day, another hundred people, many of them women, join that once exclusive club, thanks to bumper bonuses or judicious investments.

The rich have always been among us, of course, but their current good fortune is utterly unprecedented. In a groundbreaking book to be published by the Social Affairs Unit later this month, the acclaimed historian W.D. Rubinstein reveals how today’s richest Britons are hugely wealthier than any previous generation of plutocrats, from the great financiers of the Victorian era to the business giants of the 1920s.