Why the snob smear matters

T

BUt will a Mirror reader ever vote Tory?

David Lindsay

"If Brown and Cameron were put in a working men’s club" Is there any way that this could actually be arranged? Would they be behind the bar, or on the door, or doing a turn on stage? Oh, you simply must go on about this until they agree to do it.

Scary Biscuis

Who says Brown is resilliant? The only reason he stayed so long in No.11 was the extraordinary indulgence of Tony Blair, who treated Brown like a son. When Brown was having another fit of petulance, Blair just forgave him and worked with what he had. When Blair was reduced to saying, "Give us a clue" on the contents of a budget, for example, most PM's would have simply sacked or promoted the offending subordinate. Blair, by contrast, treated Brown with fatherly patience. Now Brown lacks his political dad to shield him, I doubt the British electorate, or even the Labour party, will be so forgiving - especially when their own fathers, like mine, are so disgustingly treated by the NHS, which seems to care for more about itself than the sick.

John F

We,ve had low class socialist Slobs running the country for 10 plus years. During this time our country has sunk to a level of a banana republic (donorgate, election fixing, etc). A dirty festering cesspit of crime, shame and hopelessness. A white Brit is emigtaing every 3 minutes. I don,t remember things being this bad when upper class Eton Snobs like David Cameron were in charge. So if DC is a snob, then its time the country had snobs in charge to raise the country from the gutter.

PSJ

Inverted snobbery is as bad as ordinary snobbery, of which there isn't that much left in Britain these days. It's actually somewhat worse, because at least snobbery idealises things like good manners and good taste, which are worth preserving, and doesn't pretend that a football match is somehow superior entertainment to a decent art gallery or opera. Anyway, the class card from a party that just had a Fettes-educated leader has its amusing side. NuLab are desperate and will stop at nothing to retain their slipping grip on power.

antifrank

T: some, yes (though admittedly not that many): http://www.ipsos-mori.com/polls/2005/voting-by-readership-q1.shtml

Danielle

Fraser you are right to identify that this is the area where Cameron is most vulnerable and the angle the left will persue hence all the constant toff jibes by Kevin McGuire. Although I agree with you that Cameron finds it much easier to connect with people than Brown, if you compare Cameron to Tony Blair you see how much work he still has to do. Even though Blair was a 'public school toff' as well it didnt seem to come accross or even matter as he made a connection with all walks of life in the beginning resulting in the landslide election victories. Maybe we were spoilt with Blair but I dont think Cameron has got the common touch just yet, more work needed in that area!

Norman Briffa

When I read the piece on the Mirror, I thought that Cameron had been polite and nice enough to invite this chap for a drink and like any Mirror reading and entitlement hooked leftie whinged because he was not offered more. If this is the only thing that the Mirror can come up with and if as you state, Britons have no truck with snobbery inverted or not, Cam and his team should bat this one away easily.

Jessica, Merseyside

Somehow I cant imagine David Cameron singing along to the chorus of ENGLAND TILL I DIE, with the masses at an England football match can you?

CS

Maybe DC's "unease" yesterday was as much distaste that people he'd invited to his house had run to the papers to slag him off for it as worry. The only real snobs left in politics are Labour. They demand that the disadvantaged be judged on their merits and not their name or the school they went to or what jobs their parents had or how big a house they've got or what sort of accent they have. But as soon as they're presented with someone like DC, they attack him for those very same reasons. Viz the fool of a Labour donor on Question Time last week who described the Tories as being led by a "pair of toffs". Viz Polly (great-grandaughter of the Earl of Carlisle) Toynbee writing up Boris (got to Eton on a scholarship) Johnson as a toff. That is when she's got time off from writing the cheques for her own kids' public school fees.

Herbert Thornton

Who much cares about whether Cameron is a snob? Or, whether the description of him - that seems to have stuck - as 'the smiling assassin' is accurate? Neither defect is fatal, but when they are combined with complete lack of common sense, it becomes a different matter. And who cares much about poor Gordon Brown's floundering performance in the House of Commons?

What people really care about is whether either Cameron - or Brown - is fit for the job of Prime Minister.

Cameron's problem is that aside from his being politically correct, it's almost impossible to know what he stands for. The few times when he has taken firm action - as he did over Patrick Mercer and later over Nigel Hastilow - indicate a dedication to political correctness quite as strong as that of NuLabour. When he declared his policy of getting rid of Grammar Schools for example, he leaned so far towards political correctness (conveniently combined with snobbishness) that it caused outrage - and that was the only reason he abandoned it.

Other than being politically correct, he blows in the wind like thistledown, with few principles of his own, looking for somewhere fertile to land.

But his recently stated intention of sending British soldiers to ensure that Kosovo becomes independent - and thus create a new Muslim country in Europe - by fighting both the Serbs and Russians while supporting the ambitions of Islam is political correctness gone mad. It takes the wrong side and is unbelievably reckless. He seems determined to antagonise Russia, and his talk of sending British troops to the Balkans to fight them is provocative beyond all reason. I doubt very much whether Cameron frightens Vladimir Putin, but Cameron certainly frightens me.

Cameron has been attacked as having the undesirable character of a smiling assassin, and the description fits, including his manner of debate in the House of Commons which includes quite vicious personal attack - but combined with all these other follies, Cameron reminds me, in more ways than one, of Caligula.

If Cameron reminds me of Caligula, Gordon Brown and NuLabour remind me of Nero. NuLabour's various financial scandals now being investigated sound like a chorus of huge fiddles - and all the while the real Britain is disappearing and the foreign hordes pour in.

I should think that if either Caligula or Nero were to show up in a working mens' club, the members would have the common sense to throw them both out.

Lucan C. Heraclitus

Yes, lèse majesté has long been the order of the day, but the examples set by Blair, Blunkett and Prescott example remind us that it's just a step on the road to power for those who want to claim privilege for themselves. The scourge of the Tories had no compunction about enjoying all the appurtenances of office: endless freebie holidays; the misuse of allowances for lovers; croquet at the stately home following droit de seigneur in the offices of Whitehall. I think most of the People Out There recognize the essential decency of Cameron which is why the apparatchiks are working overtime on the mbs trying to do him in. In anycase the real working class has always been more inclined to trust the upper classes rather than the upstarts, as they used to be called.

Dave Bartlett

The BBC always try to sell this 'eton toff' riff, but I don't think it resonates with anyone but the extreme left.

Any parent would send their son to the best school they can. If Mr Cameron's parents did their best by their son. End of.

Tiberius

Fraser, Rachel Sylvester also got a kicking for her DT piece today on Lord Ashcroft's tax status. Last summer, many DT leaders acknowledging Brown's political skills (short term as they turned out) drew criticism. It is as if some Tory supporters think it wrong to give any credence to what the other side may be achieving. For me, the whole difference between the liberal Right and the liberal Left is that the former is more honest, open, and therefore successful in its discourse. I don't believe the Mirror's line on Cameron is anything more than desperate, and I don't think it will succeed in its aims. But it is clearly right to highlight and debate it.

Fraser Nelson

John F, include the fleeing foreigners at it's one emigrant every 90 seconds. Danielle, I agree: not as good as Blair. Luckily for DC there's now no Blair to compare himself against. And CS, I agree Cameron was probably devastated that house guests could turn against him. But that's politics. Get to No10 then you'll find (as Blair did) that even extended family come for you. As for the bloke on question time, if Brown can persuade enough people to think like him then the Tories have a problem. There will always be a "tories are a bunch of toffs" constituency out there, an Old Labour vote for Brown to try and motivate. I doubt he'll succeed, but we should carefully watch him trying.

Frank Pulley

It is sad, nay, shocking that the Conservative Party could not appoint as their leader a person of the gravitas and authority that comes from profound political experience who has held more than one Cabinet post. At the next election the electorate will have to choose between the weathered-dissembler and the oleaginous-parvenue; with the parasitical-opportunist as an inevitable also ran. Welcome to 'democracy'. After 73 years of an active,varied and patriotic life, I am now ashamed to call myself English.

Cherie79

I come from a solid Scottish working class background, father steel worker, grew up in a council house. Thanks to a decent education and free university I have a nice house and a decent standard of living, with little thanks to this lot. I live in England now but all my family are still in Glasgow so I keep in touch. Lifelong Labour supporters they are ALL voting SNP next time. The inverted snobbery won't work except with those who would never vote Conservative anyway. I much prefer Cameron to Brown, I remember him from the 70s only too well. Cameron seems like a decent guy and at least he is not in it for the money like most of this lot quite a few of whom were as privately educated as Cameron, not that they mention it much. We will not see a repeat of the antics of Tony and Cherie's free loading and money grubbing which was so embarrasing. Mind you now anyone would be better than this corrupt incompetent lot.

Herbert Thornton

Frank - I'm glad to hear that somebody younger than I am feels as I do. I think everybody our age should vote BNP. Nick Griffin, I notice, is several years older than Cameron & unlike Cameron, Griffin has consistent policies. Griffin doesn't, as Cameron does, just float around like a bit of thistledown looking for somewhere fertile to land.

Fergus Pickering

Isn't calling Cameron a parvenu an extraordinarily snobbish remark. Presumably a parvenu is someone who has risen quickly to eminence. This is a matter for congratulations, is it not? Or do you believe in blue blood and breeding? Would not Margaret Thatcher be a parvenu, since her father was a grocer?

Caroline

Norman Briffa... here is a link to the article. Calling these people 'entitlement hooked leftie's' is hardly fair or appropriate comment. Is it? http://chrispaul-labouroflove.blogspot.com/search?q=

Oscar Miller

One of my favourite moments during Cameron's leadership campaign was when a huge black guy hugged him in sympathy, saying how the media was trying to "big up" his drug use to scupper him. Cameron does connect. He really does. It's just a media village piece of spiteful spin trying to make out he doesn't. And it's worth remembering that Scotland's 'son of the manse' translates as 'son of the vicar' in Britain. Gordon Brown is as privileged middle class as they come. So enough with the class war already.

John

er...The tories will never be anything but the party for the rich - they are there precisely in order to defend the interests of the wealthy. So why should we expect anything else?

Rupert Murdoch

Hi Fraser

A question: do you ever find blogging annoying? Just when you read your piece, well reasoned and sensible, and then look at the comments it has attracted, a combination of vitriol, inanity and people simply missing the point, it must be a bit thankless for someone who spends most of his time with the well informed media-political classes.

Interested in a real reply to this. If you like it, why?

Cinton Fan

Blair, Cameron...the man who really has this touch was Clinton. And it mattered. He was a better president, uniting a disparate country, avoiding bloodshed, even home grown massacres were down in his years. It's more than presentation and vote winning, this 'connecting with the masses'. That's why we should hail the heir to Blair.

Once again

"There will always be a "tories are a bunch of toffs" constituency out there." Why cringe from this. Good manners towards others last saw the light of day in the 1950's. Fight back in the same manner - name calling. It is what they understand. There will always be a bunch of opportunistic yobs out there - stealing and braying. And, here's some news for the dozey complaining about the rich. The rich today are anything but tories. They belong to the group known as slime-balls who contribute as little as possible personally to British taxes or to their lower class mates. Their vulgar spending habits far exceed anything a Tory toff would bother with. Their contributions to the Labour party are a huge source of embarrassment. Wake up Oh! ye of microscopic intellect braying about rich people. It is just this sort of rot polite people have listened to for too long now.

archie wedderspoon

It seems to me that, when desperate, the New Labour party is just like the worst part of the old Labour party.

Bruce Finch

Why can Labour have a forward thinking Prime Minister who went to Fettes (the Scottish Eton) and that is fine and the Tories have a forward thinking Eton educated leader and it is snobbery? The "snob" row is purely a desperate attempt by the Mirror to smear Cameron using 1950s tactics. I doubt anyone in the country cares.

Fraser Nelson

"Rupert Murdoch", i wouldnt blog if it wasnt for the comments. The chance to bounce ideas off people who are outside the Westminster Village is my favourite thing about CoffeeHouse.

Stephen

After awful lower middle class oiks like Mrs Thatcher, J. Major and W. Hague is good to have the prospect of the country being run by someone with breading.