'You have to remember that most people lead very humdrum lives," Peter Mandelson is supposed to have said in justification of the mediocrity of the Millennium Dome. It is this condescension and poverty of ambition that is the subject of George Walden's critique of Britain's populist elite, although the author's former life as a Tory MP inspires a certain wariness. Special mention in Walden's "culture of pretence" goes to such targets as Britpop, Britart, Princess Diana, Chris Evans and Rupert Murdoch, all claiming in some way to defer to "the people", yet all adept at making them part with their money. The commercial elite rules, with the media and politicians smoothing its path - but the public too is to blame, says Walden, for confusing focus-group populism with egalitarianism. Two enduring forces are identified as the cause of this confusion: class and a staggeringly inequitable education system under which, Walden claims, 90 per cent of those in positions of power have been educated at schools from which 90 per cent of Britons are excluded. This is a provocative, entertaining plea for a more self- critical and purposeful society where substance replaces sentimentality.