Things which are inseparable:

- the Industrial Revolution & the profits of slavery;

- mass education, the democratic franchise, & the height of imperialism;

- the welfare state and incomplete decolonisation;

- pretending none of this matters & being a high-profile commentator

What is further inseparable:

The slow, dragging means by which the ruling class shifted from treating the vast majority of the European population as rightless subjects, fit only for exploitation, to making them complicit political actors in their and others' subjugation.

And the utter tragedy of the successful use of the mythology of nationalism to make so many of the economically marginalised and socially downtrodden not merely political actors, but enthusiastic participants in a politics of continued oppression.

None of this is obscure. None of this requires long words to explain. It's just the coarse-woven reality of the history of everyday lives, on which the heroic canvas of "politics" is painted.

Scrape off the gaudy colours. See what lies beneath.