Thank you, that will be next on my book list [I have read the Maclean biography, and Philby is next.] Could it still happen? Probably not, because the upside of the death of deference is that young and middle-aged people have been taught to question and to abandon respect for their "betters". Tugging forelocks has gone, unless one wants a knighthood. This is not an easy concept for me, an octogenarian, but it is healthier if inconvenient.
Would PV have ended their wickedness? Not with the old boy system.