Who broke Britain? Welcome to The i Paper’s opinion series in which our range of experts tackle this question and identify the individuals whose decisions caused the country’s biggest problems.

• David Cameron: The unlikely villain who casually killed the Conservative Party
• Tony Blair: A sincere deceiver who broke Britain’s trust on migration
• Andrew broke our bond with the monarchy and put the Royal Family at risk
• Dominic Cummings: A human wrecking ball who shows no guilt
• Nigel Farage’s great project is to destroy the country he claims to love
• The Frenchman whose wild ideas poisoned our politics and economy

In the autumn of 1963, graffiti reading “MARPLES MUST GO” appeared on a bridge across the shiny new M1 motorway near Luton. Given that Ernest Marples was the transport minister, you might imagine that this was a reference to the hated Beeching report, published just a few months earlier, but you would be wrong. This was the most visible symptom of a viral campaign by motorists who objected to the introduction of traffic wardens and rules against drunk driving.

All of which is to say that Ernest Marples was not a cartoon villain – he achieved some genuinely good things. But in several important respects – political, moral, the interests he fought for and kowtowed to – he was both the cause and symptom of a country about to get on to the wrong track.

Alfred “Ernest” Marples was an early example of a character type then still rare: the genuinely working-class and self-made Tory. (His grandfather had been gardener at Chatsworth, home to the in-laws of his rather more patrician ally Harold Macmillan.)

Born in Manchester in 1907, he attended grammar school and qualified as chartered accountant before moving to London, where he made a fortune dividing large Victorian houses into apartments. From this he built up a sizable business........

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