Are the Tories now the party of the working class?

[Ash]

Oddly enough, Mrs Thatch, I think we can say, seemed to share Hillary's innate lack of sympathy with workers in heavy industry so maybe background trumps politics here? They both come from business/entrepreneurial families,
don't they. Understandably they'd take a dim view of generations of sheeple trudging down coal pits to get lung cancer or whatever.

On the other hand, many traditional Labour supporters liked her, as you say, and she in return seemed to appreciate the Home Counties wideboy, cash-in-hand painter and decorator types just as much as she appeared to cherish the various chavs and spivs filling up the City. In the United States, Hillary's solid urban support would, I guess, be their expensively-educated sons and daughters.

As I used to enjoy telling Jaguar George, before he moved on, it wasn't Labour that deserted the workers; the workers themselves deserted the workers. Backing globalisation has simply meant moving the working class poor and their jobs "offshore" so at least nobody has to look at them anymore. As you suggest though, they may not have been brilliant jobs in the first place, not lucrative like playing professional football or being a 24-hour fast food delivery service racketeer or anything, but at least they were our jobs.

Over time though, it was bound to leave them somewhat vulnerable at the ballot box, certainly to anyone who was actually able to display a gut-level respect or admiration for "our" workers, whichever side of the political spectrum they were from. Anyway, at least until mass immigration from the third world really kicks in again.

Agreed with all that about The Iron Handbag, though I'd add my take that what she promised the aspirational was the individual solution, which is going to look faster and more glamourous than the old collective solutions offered by the labour movement that she was busily dismantling. Rise out of your class rather than with it. Which is fine, but it's not going to work for everyone. There was a load of other stuff around community that was bound up with the old labour movement which tends to get forgotten about now. Social values of a traditional and conservative nature. She smashed them up too.

As for globalisation, it's literally a race for the bottom where the winner is the one who can do the job for the lowest amount of money, in the worst possible conditions, and the losers get even less than that. And trendy liberals love this because the word 'global' makes them sound thrillingly internationalist, cosmoplitan and all that stuff, unlike those ghastly racist plebs who hate foreigners. Of course, it's never the jobs of the trendy liberals that come under threat.

[Burney]

Agreed with all that about The Iron Handbag, though I'd add my take that what she promised the aspirational was the individual solution, which is going to look faster and more glamourous than the old collective solutions offered by the labour movement that she was busily dismantling. Rise out of your class rather than with it. Which is fine, but it's not going to work for everyone. There was a load of other stuff around community that was bound up with the old labour movement which tends to get forgotten about now. Social values of a traditional and conservative nature. She smashed them up too.

As for globalisation, it's literally a race for the bottom where the winner is the one who can do the job for the lowest amount of money, in the worst possible conditions, and the losers get even less than that. And trendy liberals love this because the word 'global' makes them sound thrillingly internationalist, cosmoplitan and all that stuff, unlike those ghastly racist plebs who hate foreigners. Of course, it's never the jobs of the trendy liberals that come under threat.

The labour movement was grounded in an industrial culture that created those communities, though. The erosion of that industrial culture was inevitable longer term - although unions hastened the process by making industrial success more difficult, thus killing the goose that laid the golden egg. What seems clear to me is that that culture was a product of a very specific time and place between the start of the industrial revolution and the advent of the post-industrial society. That 100-odd years was the sweet spot for the labour movement and in a society without that culture, it no longer has a clear purpose.

[redgunamo]

The labour movement was grounded in an industrial culture that created those communities, though. The erosion of that industrial culture was inevitable longer term - although unions hastened the process by making industrial success more difficult, thus killing the goose that laid the golden egg. What seems clear to me is that that culture was a product of a very specific time and place between the start of the industrial revolution and the advent of the post-industrial society. That 100-odd years was the sweet spot for the labour movement and in a society without that culture, it no longer has a clear purpose.

Right. And somewhat inevitably the thing has become enormously corrupted.

"Work" always partly implied noble sacrifice, putting in more than you take out. But when even average full backs earning eighty grand per week constantly bang on about how hard they work and indeed how Working Class they are, and with a straight face too, something went badly awry somewhere.

[Ash]

"Work" always partly implied noble sacrifice, putting in more than you take out. But when even average full backs earning eighty grand per week constantly bang on about how hard they work and indeed how Working Class they are, and with a straight face too, something went badly awry somewhere.

tfb they do have to run up and down the wing a bit rather than just standing around the six yard box waiting for the tap-in #olliegee #statueoflimitations

[redgunamo]

Agreed with all that about The Iron Handbag, though I'd add my take that what she promised the aspirational was the individual solution, which is going to look faster and more glamourous than the old collective solutions offered by the labour movement that she was busily dismantling. Rise out of your class rather than with it. Which is fine, but it's not going to work for everyone. There was a load of other stuff around community that was bound up with the old labour movement which tends to get forgotten about now. Social values of a traditional and conservative nature. She smashed them up too.

As for globalisation, it's literally a race for the bottom where the winner is the one who can do the job for the lowest amount of money, in the worst possible conditions, and the losers get even less than that. And trendy liberals love this because the word 'global' makes them sound thrillingly internationalist, cosmoplitan and all that stuff, unlike those ghastly racist plebs who hate foreigners. Of course, it's never the jobs of the trendy liberals that come under threat.

Necessary though. Maggie felt that the family (as the individual) was the only collective community solution that really mattered and, of course, lefties prefer the impersonal, corporate boot heel, whether government, business or whateverhaveyou; they've no real time for the family at all. This phenomenon is particularly visible if you're able to study French society, for example, or Germany.

She was right, of course, and the consequences are there for all to see, but she seriously, if understandably, misunderestimated the power and ubiquity of the contraceptive pill.