We were told the rich are always with us, but now the unthinkable is starting to be thought
Peter was intensely relaxed about the wealthy, Tony disavowed any wish to lighten big pay packets, and only last year George agitated to trim top tax. The plutocracy posed as creators rather than possessors of wealth, and the politicians were had. They said the rich are always with us, and – in a globalised world – needed new freedom to enrich themselves further. Well, what a difference a financial crisis makes. It's not three years since a Labour government ruled out a commission on high pay, but the malcontents at Compass continued to push until the Rowntree Charitable Trust funded an independent commission. A tenacious chair was found in Deborah Hargreaves, late of the Guardian, who duly reported last autumn. The parties are now scrambling to cherry-pick from her plans – from transparent pay to more representative remuneration committees. We must wait to see what actually happens, but at last the unthinkable is starting to be thought.