The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames is one of those entities that sounds as if it has been around for centuries. However, it has only been in existence since 1965 when three smaller council areas were amalgamated. It is home to many attractions like Kew Gardens, Hampton Court Palace, Twickenham Stadium. Our favourite is the London Wetlands Centre which we visit frequently.
It is probably the single most affluent area of London and perhaps unsurprisingly is deemed to have the best quality of life. Also unsurprisingly it is almost exclusively white and conservative. You will all, of course, remember that we have been here before at the Bingham Hotel. We spent a very pleasant afternoon sipping tea in rather posh surroundings. 
This time we were just out for a walk along the Thames but before we got to the river we stopped off here at Muriel’s Kitchen. There are lots of cafés and coffee shops in town but this one took our fancy. Perhaps because we once had an aunt Muriel who baked a rather mean scone. It’s a very pleasant place with a wide range of food on offer and somewhat retro decor; copper jelly moulds and frying pans in abundance.
Representative?
Sitting here, looking around, you realise that this place, and indeed the whole borough of Richmond, kind of represents the government. Predominately white, male, well heeled, privileged backgrounds, private and Oxbridge educated. A generalisation of course, but the flip side of the coin is a bit more worrying because this borough is nothing at all like the rest of the country. Hence, by definition, the makeup of the current government does not reflect the country it is supposed to serve. Given that only 1 in 4 of the electorate voted for it we should probably not be surprised. However, that’s UK style democracy, the most undemocratic state in the EU.
It raises the question though; if a government is crammed full of Oxbridge alumni does it mean that they will make good politicians and govern well. Self evidently, it does not. We have the most right wing government in years introducing the Chinese Communist Party into the heart of UK infrastructure. A move, the only possible beneficiaries of which can be the bankers.
Learning from history
It’s not as if we don’t already know all this. George W Bush’s administration was made up of the cream of Yale, Princeton and Harvard graduates. We all know what happened under that leadership .. catastrophic wars and financial disaster. Whatever happened to politicians from working class backgrounds. The Nye Bevans of this world who had imagination and empathy? Perhaps, by way of an experiment, it should be mandatory for people who run for office to be certified eejits just to see if it would make any difference.
Unfortunately the scones might have been made by some sort of elite academic because, although perfectly edible, they would not have passed aunt Muriel’s exacting standards .. a bit doughy and a tad on the solid side … great coffee though!
TW9 1TW Tel: 02008 948 7011 Muriel’s
