My posh Tory friends get really irritated when I talk about class. Almost as annoyed as my posh Labour friends. The idea that class was somehow excised from the political discourse by New Labour is absurd. We live in a country where the two dominant political parties are essentially representative of their class. And why not?
It is completely understandable that a political coalition would coagulate around the interests of business and big money. It would be a pretty rubbishy ruling class that didn’t protect its position.
We should also be proud of living in a country which has developed a major political party (and a moderate one at that) to represent the interests of working people – the United States has never managed it and the left in post-war Europe was too often distracted by Communism.
The chip on the shoulder is never attractive in polite society, but I’ve always thought that chippiness (a bit like being too clever by half) is something to be encouraged precisely because it makes smug and complacent posh people feel uncomfortable.
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