Laurence Olivier died almost exactly 20 years ago – July 11, 1989. I was affected by it, so much so that I recorded all the TV news broadcasts that evening. It was the top story on all channels. The ITV broadcast was very poor. Trevor McDonald, probably the most overrated broadcaster in the UK, read the news like a weary bus driver announcing the daily stop at a shopping centre.

Nicholas Witchell, the BBC presenter, did a superb job on the Six O'Clock bulletin, on the other hand, delivering the news of Olivier's passing with just the right balance of sensitivity, respect and hesitancy. Olivier was, after all, Britain's most revered actor and it was only right to pay tribute.

In those days it was unusual for an entertainment figure to be the main story on any news bulletin, but nobody argued with Olivier's place at the top of the bulletin. Yet news programmes still made space for other stories. For example, the BBC and ITV broadcasts on the day of Olivier's death  –  and I have revisited the tapes to refresh my memory – featured the visit by US president H. W. Bush to Poland where he met Lech Walesa.

Move forward 20 years and something has changed. The most obvious recent case is that of Michael Jackson who received blanket coverage. Nothing else got a look-in. Unlike many, I'm not going to decry Jackson. He was a stupendous performer. But the Jackson case is the tip of the iceberg. Increasingly, all we hear is news about vacuous celebrities and their antics. Real news is relegated down the line. Instead, we hear sound bites, snippets and journalists interviewing other journalists about their 'angle' on events. Nowadays, we only see events through a personality. I have nothing against reports on celebrities. But it's clear that Britain – in particular – is becoming an increasingly trivial and celebrity-obsessed society. So, what's new, you may ask?

I'm convinced that ordinary people matter less and less to the British government and indeed the drip-drip, insidious notion that only celebrities are successful is actually brainwashing the entire UK population. I had a friend, a very talented actor, who never made it big. When he went to sign on at his local job centre, an employee, assigned to interview him about his 'prospects', told him he was a "failed actor". Another time, travelling on a no-frills airline, I complained about a long delay to the airline's representative. "This is a budget, low cost airline, mate. Do you expect to be treated like royalty?" the man replied.  

You see, you and I – and I'm assuming you are like me, an 'ordinary person', untouched by great fame or wealth – don't matter anymore. Walk around London, near places belonging to establishment, and you'll see a platoon of policemen looking like a cross between the A-Team and the SAS. Go around a poor residential neighbourhood, on the other hand, and you'll never see a policeman. Talk to talented doctors, nurses and scientists and you'll find they feel ignored, undervalued and underpaid. British society has come to disparage skill. Only luck, success and money matter.

The press, fixated with celebrities, have abdicated their responsibility to analyse the current state of Britain with any seriousness. No one discusses what kind of society the UK will become 20 years from now. Increasingly, the problems of ordinary people seem lost on our political rulers. We are treated like cattle.

When Labour came to power, Tony Blair threw a party at Downing Street to which were invited various famous musicians and businessmen. That seemed to set the trend for New Labour; the party that was supposed to be the party of people, was licking the boots of the rich and famous. Fortunately, at the ballot box, all our votes carry the same weight. The rich, beautiful and famous vote is worth no more than the poor, downtrodden vote. It's high time our rulers in the UK realised that.