I posted this first on the Philpot thread, but on reflection I think it belongs more on this one:
I have loved this extract since 'discovering' it at uni:
Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by different breeding, are fed by different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws ... THE RICH AND THE POOR.
Benjamin Disraeli 1845
From his novel Sybil.
A Conservative Prime Minister in Victorian England, he is my ideal, along with the later Churchill, of a Conservative Socialist that I profess to be. In 1874, the Conservatives won a huge election victory and Disraeli once more became prime minister, aged 70. He concentrated on social reform, with a codifying of the law on public health, passed laws to prevent labour exploitation and recognise trades unions.