As Labour’s lead in the polls narrows to 1-2%, we need to keep our nerve, and get our priorities right. The previous Blairite electoral rule was to focus exclusively on middle class marginal seats with a narrow majority. This was on the grounds that working class constituencies were bound to vote Labour anyway – if for no other reason than to keep the Tories out. That attitude is entirely wrong. Working class voters do have an option, in fact two of them: they can simply not vote, which is precisely what millions of them did in 2005 and 2010. But this time many voters of all classes may register their disillusionment through a vote for UKIP. Continue reading
Tagged with working class
When are we going to give attention to the working class?
When was the working class last politically lauded? Probably in the 1970s. It is extraordinary that a class composed of a majority of the population has, as it were, been airbrushed from the record. The political struggle is concentrated exclusively on the middle ground as though that is the only place where elections are won or lost. But it isn’t, for several reasons. One is the implicit assumption that the upper classes will vote heavily for the Tories and the lower classes will vote heavily for Labour, and therefore the contest is settled in the middle, is way off the mark.
The upper classes will mostly continue to regard the Tories as their natural home, but the working class won’t necessarily vote Labour unless they believe Labour genuinely represents them. Under Blair and Brown there was a huge loss of trust and confidence in Labour which is why the party lost 5 million votes between 1997 and 2010, the vast majority of them from the classes D and E. Winning over Tory votes from the middle ground may be a bonus, but will never decisively settle an election unless Labour makes such huge concessions to Tory ideology as to almost lose its own identity (which is exactly what happened in the decade to 2010). Continue reading
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Only more working class MPs will save Labour from timidity
Why hasn’t Labour’s social team raised a huge hue and cry against Osborne’s openly declared intention to introduce a cap next year on total welfare spending covering about £100bn of benefits, irrespective of the massive increase in destitution brought about by his very own policies? Why hasn’t Labour’s economic team raised an equal cry of anger against Osborne’s plans for a £180bn deficit reduction by 2018, which would bring public spending to its lowest ebb as a share of GDP since 1948?
Partly it reflects Labour’s extraordinary caution and timidity which only encourages the Tories to go even faster and further in marauding all over Labour’s territory. But partly it exposes the lack of political will in some sections of the Labour leadership which has now reached frightening levels: if they won’t baulk at the massive shrinking of the State and the steady elimination of the public sector, when will they ever turn and fight? And the real problem is that this is a view not just held by insiders, but very widely across the country, by friends and foes alike. But there is another reason too. Continue reading
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Working class MPs: the path to victory
BY STEVE HART, political director, Unite
Parliament doesn’t represent our society and is in danger of becoming out of touch. Following the last General Election just 4% of MPs had experience of manual work, while 55% come from backgrounds in PR, politics or the media. For a country with such a proud working class political tradition – that delivered figures like Nye Bevan – this just isn’t good enough.
We need a political system that stands up for working people, rather than being run in the interests of the City and a ruling elite. In order to achieve this, we need to get far greater numbers of women and men in Parliament who know what it is like to get their hands dirty at work or worry about how they will pay the rent.
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Forget “hard-working families” – we need to talk about class
“There is only one hope for mankind – and that is democratic socialism. There is only one party in Great Britain which can do it – and that is the Labour Party.”
The words of Aneurin Bevan – Labour hero, British hero – are worth reminding ourselves of from time to time. They remind us from whence we, the Labour movement, came, and of where we need to go; of a time when our party, still a ‘democratic socialist’ party of ‘solidarity’ according to the membership card, weren’t so afraid of the working class. It’s high time that we listened to Bevan. We need to talk about class.
