We need the rich but should learn to laugh at rather than envy them

Even though the way he said it was crass, Peter Mandelson was right when he said that Labour should be relaxed about people becoming rich. It’s an inevitable part of an entrepreneurial liberal economy in which ability is judged more highly than breeding.

Without incentives many with the flair necessary to drive businesses forward just wouldn’t bother and our economy would suffer. There can be little doubt that money is a great motivator for these sorts of people. One of the reasons that many of us will never become millionaire businessmen is that we can’t understand why anyone who’s made a million or two would bother to carry on working.

It’s curious that, even in leftwing circles, ‘self-made’ people seem to be regarded with much greater suspicion than those who have inherited ‘old-money’ are. Somehow these types who were born rich seem so much less brash and more at ease with their wealth. But their ancestors were probably robber barons, royal sycophants or the thrusting entrepreneurs of their day so they’ve no reason to feel superior. Nor we to troop around their ancestral homes in reverent admiration for their family’s good taste. I wonder if in 100 years time the National Trust will own Alan Sugar's or the Beckhams’ places and our descendants will be dragging their unwilling offspring around it when they can’t think of anything else to do?

In the Observer today Will Hutton uses the classic journalistic trick of using one rotten apple to condemn the whole bunch. He refers to Tom Bower’s book about Conrad Black’s rise and fall. But, as he points out, "The very rich ... are like the rest of us: they don't want to be left behind by their social equals" which is why they compete for status symbols like private jets or monstrous pensions.

He rather unpicks his own tirade though by pointing out that "great companies, paradoxically, are about common purpose, shared endeavour and a fair distribution of rewards". Sure the amounts some people pay themselves (sometimes just because they can) are obscene but there is little that can be done about it. Tax for the super rich in this globalised world is largely voluntary.

So we'll do better to smile at the foibles of the wealthy than to get bitter and twisted about the ever widening gap between the richest and poorest. Every society has had its winners and losers, the important thing for Labour is to ensure that the losers can lead decent lives...