A CURIOUS and illuminating divergence exists between two definitions of the word “elite” in the English language. The Oxford English dictionary states that “elite” refers to “a select group that is superior in terms of ability or qualities to the rest of a group or society”. The Cambridge online dictionary meanwhile says it is “the richest, most powerful, best-educated or best-trained group in a society”.

If we deemed British society to be an intrinsically fair one then all of our major economic, cultural and governmental sectors would be, by and large, organised to ensure that the elite, according to the Oxford definition, rose to the top.

There are no qualifications attached to this definition; no codicils. If our country were to come under attack or to be otherwise placed in a state of clear and present danger we would want its defence to rest in the hands of the most able and not those who had been propelled into leadership by an artificial advantage secured only by money and family connections.

Similarly, if the nation’s economy and justice systems were experiencing intense pressure or an assortment of challenging circumstances, we would want them to be piloted by people who were the most authentically gifted in the disciplines required to deliver best practice in these sectors.

Instead, though, in modern Scotland and the UK we have acquiesced in an arrangement where the elite, as defined by the Cambridge version, are given control. These are indeed the “richest, most powerful, best-educated and best-trained” in society but they are not the best. How can they be? Their riches, power, education and training derive almost exclusively from the advantages conferred by an old school tie or bought by a quantum of money that only a tiny minority possesses.

A few may indeed have been blessed with a natural ability that would have emerged in the absence of advantage or privilege. Yet, what ought to trouble us is that in the UK a far greater number who also possess these naturally bestowed gifts will never be given the opportunity to put them at the service of their country because our social arrangements have excluded them.

What is more: they were designed specifically to exclude them. Their gifts and acumen will remain forever undiscovered because a form of social gerrymandering holds sway in Britain that ensures only the richest and most powerful get to these positions and not those exclusively “superior in terms of ability or qualities”.

How many British armed personnel needlessly died in combat because they were badly led by superior officers who attained that position solely because of their family connections and inherited wealth?

How many battles have been lost? And how many billions of pounds have been lost to the UK economy because we allowed it to be steered by a group of white men who only secured such influence because unearned privilege bought them an education at the right sort of school?

Why are we surprised that only a mere handful of bankers have been found guilty of neglecting their duties and betraying their customers’ trust during the 2008 financial crisis? This is what happens when the senior positions in our judiciary, police, media and government have become almost the exclusive preserve of a class that derives its influence not by merit but by artifice and unnatural selection.

It is a perverse irony that those who derive their power and riches from belonging to this gilded class are the ones who most enthusiastically proclaim loyalty to queen and country and who are ever vigilant for signs of disloyalty among the rest of us.

Yet, if they were truly loyal to their country and its safety and wellbeing they would, like the rest of us, work to ensure that only the most authentically gifted were tasked with delivering these.

In truth, their principal loyalty is reserved exclusively to preserving and maintaining a system that protects their power and money. They are in no way loyal to their country; they are disloyal and they betray it at every possible opportunity.

LAST year The Sutton Trust released data confirming what similar studies and research had all suggested: that a private education is an almost fool-proof passport to power and influence in the UK.

Around 7 per cent of us attended fee-paying schools, yet 71 per cent of top military officers were educated privately. In law, 74 per cent of top judges working in the high court and appeals court in England were privately educated.

In Scotland around three quarters of our most senior judges attended these schools, yet only around 5 per cent of the population did so. In journalism 51 per cent of leading print journalists went to independent schools and only 20 per cent attended a comprehensive school.

In the realm of politics half of the UK cabinet were privately educated.

This system of unearned privilege is further reinforced by Oxford and Cambridge universities. Less than 1 per cent of the entire UK population has attended these places yet they dominate the judiciary, journalism and politics.

This rotten system doesn’t underpin or support the concept of excellence; it distorts it and twists it. The Tories and those who support their world view swear blind loyalty to the market and will oppose anything that seeks to control it or apply a brake to it.

Yet, in every sphere of influence that matters in their own country they are happy to distort the market and bend it to their own selfish interests. By doing so they will ensure that Britain will always exclude a massive proportion of those who are truly the brightest and the best.

They accuse the Left of being obsessed with dismantling elitism as a means to bringing about a Socialist revolution. They could not be more wrong.

In a fair society we want our most gifted people to occupy our most important and vital positions and we are happy to describe them as the elite.

This though is an elite which gained its status through making the most of harnessing natural gifts by hard work and which didn’t access it unnaturally through privilege and a mere sense of entitlement

It is why the most important provision in Derek Mackay’s Holyrood budget is the beginning of the long-overdue process of dismantling the bizarre tax advantages of independent, fee-paying schools in Scotland. The next step is to banish these factories of social exclusion entirely.