Why class wars don't work
Peter Hoskin 1:34pm
Well, it seems like Paul Richards – a former aide to Hazel Blears – wants to corner the market in quietly persuasive demolitions of his own party's strategy. If you remember, he wrote a perceptive piece on Labour's shortcomings in the aftermath of the Norwich North by-election, which we highlighted here on Coffee House. And, today, he's at it again, with a very readable article in PR Week on why the class war won't work. His three reasons why are worth noting down:
To my mind, the class war strategy's main weakness is probably what Downing Street regards as its strength: it only really connects with the Labour hardcore. In that respect, it signals the retreat, rather than an advancement, of Brown's premiership."First, it is hypocritical. The Labour Party has a disproportionately far higher number of former public schoolboys and schoolgirls in parliament and in the government than a random sample of the public they serve. It is well-known that Labour's deputy leader, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Schools Secretary, and a host of other ministers went to fee-paying schools. They can't be blamed for the choices made by their parents any more than those made by David Cameron's parents.Two of Labour's most successful leaders have been the products of public schools: Clement Attlee (Played 3, Won 2) and Tony Blair (Played 3, Won 3). Most of all it is hypocritical for Labour to attack people's private education because Labour has made no attempt over 12 years to stop private schools operating. And nor should they have.
Second, it doesn't work. The lamentable attempt to depict Edward Timpson, the Conservatives' candidate in the Crewe & Nantwich by-election in May 2008, as a ‘Tory toff' famously failed. A stunt involved apparatchiks dressed in top hats and tails. But Timpson's family made their money from a string of shops which cut keys and mended shoes. Key-cutting and shoe-mending is hardly owning a sweat-shop or salt-mine. Timpsons has a sound brand and good reputation. There was some excitement when a rumour hit the Labour campaign that Timpson had been seen in a Bentley, until someone pointed out that Bentleys are manufactured in - guess where - Crewe.
Any attempt to paint the Tories as the party of toffs would allow the Tories to wheel out Eric Pickles, Sayeeda Warsi, Shaun Bailey and the other non-traditional Tory type candidates they've been assiduously selecting since 2007. It would draw attention to the educational background of various Cabinet ministers. It would back-fire.
Third, it risks contaminating New Labour's image as a party of aspiration. Blair knew that ‘Mondeo Man' would never be able to send his son to Eton. But Mondeo Man didn't hate the people who did, if he felt they deserved their affluence. Indeed Mondeo Man might strive to send his children to the local prep school, and certainly wouldn't vote for a Labour Party which told him it was wrong to do so."
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dilys
December 11th, 2009 2:13pm Report this commentIt doesn't appeal only to hardcord Labour.
I have voted Conservative since Heath. Thatcher, Major and other leaders of the Conservatives up to Cameron have been from backgrounds that gave them an understanding of the working man's needs and wants. They knew about earning a living. I remember previous Eton led governments, and they did nothing for me.
Now I'm in a quandary. I do not want another Labour government but I do not want to lose my MP, and this seat is marginal.
steve
December 11th, 2009 2:18pm Report this commentAh well, you see, since Brown's premiership has been going backwards since day one, then any further step backwards is actually an advancement in the negative sense of the word. And since it is advancements he wants, then he has succeeded as usual.
Just depends on how the spin is put on it.
RMH
December 11th, 2009 2:27pm Report this commentThat man is a labour genius (he may be standard clever by other tests).
Chris lancashire
December 11th, 2009 2:28pm Report this commentWhether it's an advance or retreat, it's certainly bankrupt politics. But then Brown would know all about that.
Michael Booth
December 11th, 2009 3:06pm Report this commentDidn't Gordon Brown once date Princess Margaret of Rumania ? How working-class core labour is that?
Ivan D
December 11th, 2009 3:24pm Report this commentNever mind any of that tosh, just who was the beautiful socialist midget in that infamous pic?
Anne Wotana Kaye
December 11th, 2009 3:51pm Report this commentMichael Booth: Gor blimey, she changed her name to Sarah Brown!
http://www.google.co.uk/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUK356&q=Princess+Margarita+of+Romania&btnG=Google+Search&meta=lr%3D&aq=null&oq=
Michael Booth
December 11th, 2009 4:05pm Report this commentAnne W K - are you saying then that Gordon Brown is our rightful Queen?
Nicholas
December 11th, 2009 4:05pm Report this commentI hope the two gormless, socialist numpties who don't know how to wear Toff gear properly were registered and vetted before grooming that child into campaigning for Labour.
dave, surrey
December 11th, 2009 4:33pm Report this commentclass warriors are like sour milk; rancid, embittered, po-faced, humorless. Bad news for the left if this is the best way Brown can think of fighting the next election
Anne Wotana Kaye
December 11th, 2009 4:35pm Report this commentMichael B: For once, I am lost for words!
gordon-bennett
December 11th, 2009 4:50pm Report this commentI'm afraid that your assertion that these are winning arguments founders fatally on the rock that is the bbc.
However good the arguments are the beeb will ignore them if they are in conflict with their policy of always shielding nulab from any adverse criticism.
Bastards.
Nicholas
December 11th, 2009 4:50pm Report this comment"Didn't Gordon Brown once date Princess Margaret of Rumania ?"
Clearly had delusions of grandeur even then. There is something delicious about "Britain's Cousesceau" having once harboured dreams of becoming King of Romania.
Sir Graphus
December 11th, 2009 4:50pm Report this commentI noticed that too, Nicholas; doesn’t a morning suit look terrible without a waistcoat, nor was the 1 on the left properly shaved; they looked like overgrown urchins, not toffs.
Beer Moth
December 11th, 2009 5:04pm Report this commentPeter, I don't think you realise just how distant your ponderings are, from all of us who would dearly love to be able to afford a Mondeo.
Gareth
December 11th, 2009 5:25pm Report this commentwell put steve !!
Michael Booth
December 11th, 2009 5:52pm Report this commentPerhaps the Brigade of Guards could give us a 'Ceaucescu Christmas'...
Snowman
December 11th, 2009 7:30pm Report this commentI beg to disagree. It all depends how you define class. It no longer rests on a pedigree, schooling, dress and stuff like that. It’s more where the sustenance money for one comes from. There’s the class that lives on transfer payments with its own hierarchical pyramid, and there’s the other class that still harbors the aspiration of the now largely defunct former middle class.
The Tories continue to be perceived by the former as they were before the modernizing Dave took over. The colour of money talks.
Fishfingers
December 12th, 2009 2:32pm Report this commentRichards is wrong. This is not solely about Cameron's background - much as the Right like to prentend that it is.
Labour's attacks focus on the fact that Tories want to give tax breaks to their wealthy mates in the middle of a recession. It's a ludicrous policy which plays badly with large numbers of fair-minded people. The fact that Cameron and co are a bunch of toffs just means that it jars even more. Labour is right to seize on it.
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