i Editor's Letter: Who is the "we"?

"A banker, a teacher, a Tory MP and a Daily Mail reader are sat at a table. On it there is a plate with 10 biscuits. The banker scoffs nine of them. The MP turns to the Mail reader and whispers, "watch out, that teacher is after your biscuit".

Haven't heard it? Perhaps you have seen this Facebook status update: "Remember when local government workers, teachers, lecturers, policemen, ambulance staff, nurses, midwives, doctors and firemen crashed the stock market, wiped out banks, took billions in bonuses and paid no tax? No? Me neither."

i's columnists have written of a feeling in the air; a "we're not going to take this any more" mood among those not packing out new restaurants in the perpetual quest for ever more esoteric food fads, or quaffing champagne in public at spanking new urban shopping centres. But, who is the "we"?

The "squeezed middle"? It's too exclusive. People way below the middle are being squeezed so hard that, as I heard again last weekend, many are now struggling to buy food and pay heating bills. "The 99%"? Too inclusive. That would contain both those above, and the Westfield champagne drinkers.

But, politicians like Nick Clegg need to define who they are — and sharpish. Not, sadly, because they genuinely want to alleviate the weight of the worries raining in on so many of us, but because they are all-too-aware of growing disaffection as they must begin to contemplate how on earth they will find a platform on which to fight the next election. Hence, the pledge about executive pay today. Will it come to pass? Don't hold your breath if all the big talk and no action on banker bonuses is any precedent. Happy Monday.