Derb – Thanks. But alas, I don’t have a principled objection to elitism, rightly understood. If elitism means the most excellent persons and ideas rise to the top and govern, than I am a champion of elitism. If elitism means a kind of undeserved snobbery and condescension than I am against it.
However, I must assume you want your surgeons, accounts, financial advisors and lawyers to be, whenever possible, among the elite of their respective professions. It always seemed to me that conservatives haven’t worked hard enough to defend elitism per se while criticising the current elite –a point I made here , to minimal effect.