"Conservatives 'Care More about the Rich and Affluent than Ordinary People'"

"The class war, of course, is an old and unresolved battle in Britain. But the significance of Mr. Major’s remarks lay as much in their timing as their content.

"Most administrations reach a tipping point in the trajectory of office when their energies switch to the next big fight. That is where Mr. Cameron’s Conservatives, leading an uneasy coalition with the junior Liberal Democrats, seem to be at the moment, hoping that a surge of positive economic omens will loft them to undiluted power in the next national elections 2015.

"But the message from Mr. Major’s comments, the conservative Daily Telegraph said, has clouded the vision. 'If the Conservatives are seen as the party of the few, the rich, the privileged,' the newspaper said, 'then it is all too conceivable that a Labour leader posing as the tribune of the people will be able to snatch victory in 2015.'"

Alan Cowell in The New York Times reports on comments made by former British Prime Minister John Major about inequality.