"It was very much a cry for democratic control at that time. Above all, breaking the accomplished power of a few people to rule the lives of everybody else"
About this Quote
A politician doesn’t call something a “cry” unless she wants you to hear it as both urgent and morally uncomplicated: the sound of people pushed to the edge. Barbara Castle frames the demand for “democratic control” not as administrative tinkering but as a public distress signal - a collective refusal to be managed from above. The phrase “at that time” does quiet but crucial work. It anchors the sentiment in a specific political moment, implying this wasn’t a permanent ideological posture but a response to a particular concentration of authority - a reminder that democracy becomes loudest when it’s being throttled.
The subtext sharpens with “above all.” Castle is ranking priorities, and she’s telling you what to ignore: technocratic arguments, procedural footnotes, even the polite language of consensus. The core conflict is power. “Breaking the accomplished power” is especially pointed; “accomplished” suggests a dominance already normalized, settled into institutions and habits until it feels inevitable. She’s describing oligarchy in its most successful form: not dramatic tyranny, but the smooth, inherited ability of “a few people” to set the limits of everyone else’s life.
Contextually, Castle’s politics were forged in the postwar British settlement and its fights over who gets to steer the economy and the state: elected publics or entrenched elites - corporate, aristocratic, bureaucratic. The line works because it refuses to sanitize that struggle. It insists democratic control isn’t a vibe; it’s a wrench applied to a machine that has been running on other people’s consent.
The subtext sharpens with “above all.” Castle is ranking priorities, and she’s telling you what to ignore: technocratic arguments, procedural footnotes, even the polite language of consensus. The core conflict is power. “Breaking the accomplished power” is especially pointed; “accomplished” suggests a dominance already normalized, settled into institutions and habits until it feels inevitable. She’s describing oligarchy in its most successful form: not dramatic tyranny, but the smooth, inherited ability of “a few people” to set the limits of everyone else’s life.
Contextually, Castle’s politics were forged in the postwar British settlement and its fights over who gets to steer the economy and the state: elected publics or entrenched elites - corporate, aristocratic, bureaucratic. The line works because it refuses to sanitize that struggle. It insists democratic control isn’t a vibe; it’s a wrench applied to a machine that has been running on other people’s consent.
Quote Details
| Topic | Freedom |
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