Human rights 'debased' by elites: Howard JOHN Howard has branded border protection Labor's "greatest policy failure by a country mile," reflecting the rise of a "morally snobbish intellectual class" including politicians who had never had "any job outside of politics." "That is, in my view, the issue above all issues which encapsulates the internal dilemma and tension for the left-hand side of politics," the former Liberal prime minister said yesterday.