ABSTRACT
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Maud, 1855 In his opening speech at Wilton Park’s Jubilee Conference on June 20, 1971, Heinz Koeppler had tackled head-on the problem of ‘élites’. Reminding his audience that ‘Our work is private, privileged, and off the record’, he admitted that this had meant ‘a sacrifice which in many ways is quite serious’:
If, since 1946, we had recorded all our discussions we would now have a most useful and revealing archive of the evolution of, and changes in Western public opinion since the end of the war. What glorious material for untold doctoral theses! However, the price for this source of knowledge would have been too high in the perspective of Wilton Park’s aims, for, given that so many of our members are in official and often in sensitive positions, the fact that records were being taken would, inevitably, have restricted their freedom of expression. And Wilton Park values above all an honest, free and frank discussion amongst people who, because of their functions, know what they are talking about…
Free government will not continue, will indeed perish from this earth, unless we have in all our countries at least an active minority which does accept the implications of having as the ultimate basis of government lay decisions, and which is prepared to do something about it. But if there exists such a minority of sufficient size, then, I believe, we have a guarantee for what the American Declaration of Independence calls the pursuit of happiness.
