Class is back with a vengeance, and not just thanks to the Andrew Mitchell saga. Today’s newspapers are chock full of stories across the news spectrum linked back to class. The Mail, for example, has declared all-out war on the government, with a splash of ‘Who do you they think they are?’ — a front page one could expect to see from the Mirror. The Mitchell-Osborne matter receives the double page treatment, lambasting both affairs with ‘Exit Mitchell, four weeks late’ and ‘Move Mr Osborne? But he can’t possibly sit in standard class’. Their coverage is summarised in a strong op-ed by Simon Heffer discussing class attacks on the Tories.
The Telegraph has also splashed with both ‘plebgate’ and ‘great train snobbery’ lines aimed at Mitchell and George Osborne, continuing onto p4 saying the Chief Whip has seen ‘decades of work undone in a fleeting moment’. Even Peter Oborne says ‘Conservative ministers think they are above the law, and that the rules which apply to ordinary people simply don’t apply to them.’
Towards the centre ground, the Times has a double-page spread on Mitchell’s resignation, entitled ‘How a proud man lost his swagger and his authority among MPs’, suggesting the developments now places Cameron’s government on a par with the late-era Major government.
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