In a series of headline-grabbing utterances, Mr. Major has assailed growing imbalances in British society, bemoaning the hardships facing the “silent have-nots” who “work hard, obey the law, hope for a better future” yet fall “behind through no fault of their own.”
“And how do I know about these people?” he asked, evoking his youthful years living in a rented, two-room apartment in hardscrabble Brixton. “Because I grew up with them.”
The idea of a former Conservative prime minister, knight of the realm and post-prime-ministerial exponent of private equity investment embracing such egalitarian views seemed somewhat disconcerting to his successors at the helm of Britain’s Tories.