As a North London academic of a left-wing persuasion, I am a member of the enemy of our age: the liberal, metropolitan elite. I may not feel very elite, trundling along with my battered satchel on a second-hand bicycle, but apparently those nerdy props are precisely what signals my elite status.

Forget the City. Forget Wall Street. Forget hedge-fund managers and multinational CEOs. Forget the fact that eight people, all men, own as much wealth as half the world’s population – and I’m certainly not one of them. No, it is people just like me, along with burned-out MPs, journalists on zero-hours contracts and members of the creative precariat, who are now regarded as the imperious masters of the universe.

The new philistine oligopoly has pulled off a devastating coup. It has diverted public anger away from financial and corporate power and turned it onto experts, politicians, journalists and intellectuals: those who keep us safe, improve society, hold our leaders to account, and increase the sum of human knowledge. They’ve turned class struggle into culture wars, and replaced the fight against inequality with anti-intellectualism.

Big business is not the problem, it’s big government, they insist – while quietly centralising control, removing state support for the vulnerable, and taking the heat off the super-rich.

Brexit: David Davis forgets EU departure dates

The notion that the populist right represents ordinary citizens is a lie. These billionaire property tycoons, privately-educated former investment bankers and oil company executives are themselves revoltingly privileged. Their policies will actively harm the working class citizens they claim to support.

According to a pernicious and false new narrative, the political “establishment” and the mainstream media are left wing, and the left is the enemy of the disadvantaged rather than their true advocate.

The Daily Express, for example, framed Trump’s victory as a backlash by “millions of ordinary people” against “a lofty elite which believed only in the triumph of the liberal, progressive agenda”. Americans have had eight years of the moderately progressive Obama administration, yet the response to it suggests the triumph of global capitalism, the Bush administrations, the war in Iraq, the years of New Labour, the multi-trillion dollar bank bailouts, five years of coalition government austerity and David Cameron’s premiership never happened.

If we want to challenge the way things are for ordinary voters, we need to target not only brute power itself but the forces that legitimise it – that is, whatever provides it with public licence. Anti-elitism is that licence. It is the myth undermining the left’s attempts to counter right-wing power.

Attacks by the alt-right are bad enough, but what I find really depressing is the way we liberals have lost our nerve. Normally confident adults are terrified to say in public what they really feel about Brexit, for fear of patronising “ordinary people” who may have voted differently to them. Scores of MPs suppressed their reasoned convictions in the farcical vote on the Article 50 Bill this week, cowed by the fictitious construct of the popular will. Opposition to a hard Brexit is now the only acceptable resistance.

Politicians, we are told, are out of touch. Broadsheet commentators should have spent more time in Scunthorpe and Nuneaton if they wanted to understand what “ordinary” people want. Maybe we should get out there and start listening?

In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump Show all 30 1 /30 In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump President-elect Donald Trump acknowledges guests as he arrives on the platform at the US Capitol in Washington DC Getty Images In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts as Melania Trump looks on during the 58th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington AP In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump President Donald Trump shakes hands with Justice John Roberts after taking the oath at inauguration ceremonies swearing in Trump as the 45th president of the United States Reuters In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump President Donald Trump raises his fists after his inauguration on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol Getty In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump U.S. President-elect Donald Trump greets outgoing President Barack Obama before Trump is inaugurated during ceremonies on the Capitol in Washington Reuters In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump resident-elect Donald Trump arrives on the platform of the US Capitol in Washington DC Getty Images In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump Attendees partake in the inauguration ceremonies to swear in Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States at the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC Reuters In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump US President Donald Trump delivers his inaugural address during ceremonies at the US Capitol in Washington DC Getty In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump U.S. President Donald Trump waves with wife Melania during the Inaugural Parade in Washington DC Reuters In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump Protesters registered their rage against the new president Friday in a chaotic confrontation with police who used pepper spray and stun grenades in a melee just blocks from Donald Trump's inaugural parade route. Scores were arrested for trashing property and attacking officers AP In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump Demonstrators protest against US President Donald Trump in Washington DC Getty Images In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump A woman holds a sign before the start of the Presidential Inauguration of Donald Trump at Freedom Plaza in Washington DC Getty Images In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump Anti-Trump protesters prepare banners for a protest against the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, in Berlin REUTERS In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump Demonstrators shout slogans against US President-elect Donald Trump in Washington DC Getty Images In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump Demonstrators march, block foot traffic and clash with U.S. Capitol Police at the entry checkpoints for the Inauguration of Donald Trump Alamy Live News In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump Demonstrators display a banner as people arrive for US President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration in Washington DC Getty Images In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump A man displays a placard as people lineup to get into the National Mall for the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump in Washington DC Getty Images In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump Protesters demonstrating against U.S. President Donald Trump raise their hands as they are surrounded by police on the sidelines of the inauguration in Washington DC Reuters In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump A demonstrator wearing a mask depicting Donald Trump protests outside the US Embassy in London Getty Images In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump Demonstrators hold placards as they protest outside the US Embassy in London Getty Images In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump Former US President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush arrive for the Presidential Inauguration at the US Capitol Rex In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden share an umbrella as President Donald Trump delivers his inaugural address at the inauguration in Washington DC Rex In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton arrive on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington Reuters In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump U.S. Vice President Mike Pence takes the oath of office on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC Getty Images In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump Advisors to President-elect Donald Trump, Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon depart from services at St. John's Church during the Presidential Inauguration in Washington Reuters In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump Protesters demonstrating against U.S. President Donald Trump take cover as they are hit by pepper spray by police on the sidelines of the inauguration in Washington DC Reuters In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump An activist demonstrating against U.S. President Donald Trump is helped after being hit by pepper spray on the sidelines of the inauguration in Washington DC Reuters In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump A police officer tries to tackle a protester demonstrating against U.S. President Donald Trump Reuters/Adrees Latif In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump Police arrest and detain a protester in the street in Washington DC Rex In pictures: Protests, pomp and Donald Trump A police officer falls to the ground as another shoots pepper spray at protesters demonstrating against U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the inauguration in Washington DC Reuters

No. We need to start saying difficult things. It’s time for progressives to stop being in a muddle about “elitism”, to stop being petrified of being branded a snob if we stand up for what we believe is important, true and good in our society. It’s time to defend the positive elite values of rigorous expertise, difficult ideas, judicious government and well-resourced journalistic scrutiny.

Democracy and civilisation are being destroyed for the benefit of the real power elite, all in the name of “the people”. We need to come together to invent new institutions, standards and forms of authority that aren’t associated with the crumbling dinosaur models and privileged discernments of the past.

What would these look like? That’s a conversation we need to start having, and fast.