Tories and the working class vote
Much indignation has been voiced at 'Dave' Cameron's claim that the Tories are the party of the working class.
For the best part of the 20th Century I think this was largely correct, it was the working classes who gave the Tory government's their vote, through a conservative sentiment in much of the population as well as populism and at times imperialism.
The Labour Party to contrast was a party, not of the working classes, but of the unionised classes, and has always had its fair share of middle-class and upper-class followers.
Socialism is also not a working class doctrine, it is a middle-class construct, much of it being a fusion of 19th Century Liberal radicalism and 19th Century Tory radicalism. The main part of the Tory radicalism is the condescending view that those in power, the state, should be the means to correct all the ills of the poor.
Neither party could ever truly claim to be the party of the working class, and no party can today. The Tories will appeal to large proportions of the working class, Labour to less I would think (in today's climate of less union power).
There is one thing all parties represent however - that is the political classes. More and more MPs come from a party background - they've been researchers or PR consultants for the party. This is the true state of political parties today, they represent the system and those who work in it.
For the best part of the 20th Century I think this was largely correct, it was the working classes who gave the Tory government's their vote, through a conservative sentiment in much of the population as well as populism and at times imperialism.
The Labour Party to contrast was a party, not of the working classes, but of the unionised classes, and has always had its fair share of middle-class and upper-class followers.
Socialism is also not a working class doctrine, it is a middle-class construct, much of it being a fusion of 19th Century Liberal radicalism and 19th Century Tory radicalism. The main part of the Tory radicalism is the condescending view that those in power, the state, should be the means to correct all the ills of the poor.
Neither party could ever truly claim to be the party of the working class, and no party can today. The Tories will appeal to large proportions of the working class, Labour to less I would think (in today's climate of less union power).
There is one thing all parties represent however - that is the political classes. More and more MPs come from a party background - they've been researchers or PR consultants for the party. This is the true state of political parties today, they represent the system and those who work in it.
Labels: classes, political+parties, tories, working+class
