Walpole - Plus ça change (plus c'est la même chose).

Walpole.

Three hundred years ago, British politics and society presented a deeply unedifying picture.
In the century after 1700, millions of people lived in desperately poor conditions. Deprived of any meaningful say in their own destiny and condemned to lives of demeaning drudgery, they relieved their frustrations in spasmodic outbursts of mob violence.
At the top, a narrow, gilded elite maintained tight control over the levers of patronage. Under the oligarchic system nicknamed ‘Old Corruption’, a handful of Whig families and their fawning hangers-on jealously hoarded jobs and influence.
This was a system personified by Britain’s first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole — an immensely talented statesman, to be sure, but also one of the most corrupt politicians this country has ever produced.
The New Few Or A Very British Oligarchy, by Ferdinand Mount, is published by Simon and Schuster on May 1 at £18.99. Worth a read?  Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2132919/Bankers-drowning-money-Out-touch-politicians-Unaccountable-quangocrats-Not-generations-run-Britain-far-removed-common-man.html#ixzz1sefjfGdG