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Thread: Are the Tories now the party of the working class?

  1. #1

    Are the Tories now the party of the working class?

    Theresa May vows to expand workers’ rights:
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/...-election.html

    Excuse the DM link. I couldn't find this story in the Guardian, for some reason, and FT is paywalled.

    The Graun did have this, though.
    Are Tories the workers' party? Labour polling figures suggest they are.
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics...ggest-they-are

    Significantly, May seemingly pledges to retain worker protection legislation from the EU, which was basically Dear Old Jorge's favourite thing about the EU. Come back Jorge!

    btw, I don't blame Corbyn for Labour's collapse in working class support, it goes back a lot further.

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by Ash View Post
    Theresa May vows to expand workers’ rights:
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/...-election.html

    Excuse the DM link. I couldn't find this story in the Guardian, for some reason, and FT is paywalled.

    The Graun did have this, though.
    Are Tories the workers' party? Labour polling figures suggest they are.
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics...ggest-they-are

    Significantly, May seemingly pledges to retain worker protection legislation from the EU, which was basically Dear Old Jorge's favourite thing about the EU. Come back Jorge!

    btw, I don't blame Corbyn for Labour's collapse in working class support, it goes back a lot further.
    That 'pledge', of course, simply means not changing an existing law that no-one has been suggesting we change and that it would be quite difficult to shift. As vote-winning moves go, it's an open goal.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Ash View Post
    Theresa May vows to expand workers’ rights:
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/...-election.html

    Excuse the DM link. I couldn't find this story in the Guardian, for some reason, and FT is paywalled.

    The Graun did have this, though.
    Are Tories the workers' party? Labour polling figures suggest they are.
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics...ggest-they-are

    Significantly, May seemingly pledges to retain worker protection legislation from the EU, which was basically Dear Old Jorge's favourite thing about the EU. Come back Jorge!

    btw, I don't blame Corbyn for Labour's collapse in working class support, it goes back a lot further.
    That's a bit weird - the first article on the Guardian when I searched for it was an editorial on the subject yet the link to the story is from the BBC -

    Fair bit on their live blog tbf
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics...log-navigation

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Ash View Post
    Theresa May vows to expand workers’ rights:
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/...-election.html

    Excuse the DM link. I couldn't find this story in the Guardian, for some reason, and FT is paywalled.

    The Graun did have this, though.
    Are Tories the workers' party? Labour polling figures suggest they are.
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics...ggest-they-are

    Significantly, May seemingly pledges to retain worker protection legislation from the EU, which was basically Dear Old Jorge's favourite thing about the EU. Come back Jorge!

    btw, I don't blame Corbyn for Labour's collapse in working class support, it goes back a lot further.
    but as for the main point of your post - weren't they always to a some extent. Whenever the harridan/archangel Thatch is discussed there are always a load of salt of the earth working class treasures dragged out to say what a wonderful woman she was

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda View Post
    but as for the main point of your post - weren't they always to a some extent. Whenever the harridan/archangel Thatch is discussed there are always a load of salt of the earth working class treasures dragged out to say what a wonderful woman she was
    I expect that many former miners would not agree, but yes, there was an appeal for some on the aspirational side of things. That was one decade, though. Over a longer period of history it would be safer to say that Labour were the workers' party.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Ash View Post
    I expect that many former miners would not agree, but yes, there was an appeal for some on the aspirational side of things. That was one decade, though. Over a longer period of history it would be safer to say that Labour were the workers' party.
    They (Labour) were certainly successful in getting everyone to ignore the 10th Commandment. And also in presuming miners wished to remain miners forever and not go off and become tech billionaires or Hollywood film directors or something.

    Perhaps it's actually more complicated than that. It's certainly interesting that in nowadays' politics, the world's most prominent fat cat tycoon describes miners and steelworkers as *our* miners and steelworkers, whereas his modern progressive opponent depicted them as "a basket of deplorables".

    What did that man say years ago? The soft bigotry of low expectations.
    "Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.

    "But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by redgunamo View Post
    They (Labour) were certainly successful in getting everyone to ignore the 10th Commandment. And also in presuming miners wished to remain miners forever and not go off and become tech billionaires or Hollywood film directors or something.

    Perhaps it's actually more complicated than that. It's certainly interesting that in nowadays' politics, the world's most prominent fat cat tycoon describes miners and steelworkers as *our* miners and steelworkers, whereas his modern progressive opponent depicted them as "a basket of deplorables".

    What did that man say years ago? The soft bigotry of low expectations.
    When the mines closed I'm not sure how many felt that they were in a realistic position to become tech billionaires and Hollywood film producers, tbh. Disagreeing with the policy of shutting down that industry isn't the same as wishing to condemn those miners to a lifetime of that job. Overall most probably would have preferred the option of keeping their old jobs for a while at least, until they could land the job as Microsoft CEO.

    As for the despicable Hillary - yes, she is that. Reinforces my point in fact that a so-called progressive openly despises the workers while a capitalist is at least able to portary a PR front which respects them.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Ash View Post
    When the mines closed I'm not sure how many felt that they were in a realistic position to become tech billionaires and Hollywood film producers, tbh. Disagreeing with the policy of shutting down that industry isn't the same as wishing to condemn those miners to a lifetime of that job. Overall most probably would have preferred the option of keeping their old jobs for a while at least, until they could land the job as Microsoft CEO.

    As for the despicable Hillary - yes, she is that. Reinforces my point in fact that a so-called progressive openly despises the workers while a capitalist is at least able to portary a PR front which respects them.
    Actually, while I obviously think Hillary is a cancer-deserving ****, the "deplorables" line was heavily manipulated to damage her (and it may very well have lost her the election).

    In fact, all she said was that a certain demographic of Trump supporter was "deplorable" whereas the rest consisted simply of those “who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they’re just desperate for change."

    Which is basically a fair assessment, right?

  9. #9

    Right. That's it; Labour only works if people abandon ambition and aspirations.

    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.


    Quote Originally Posted by Ash View Post
    When the mines closed I'm not sure how many felt that they were in a realistic position to become tech billionaires and Hollywood film producers, tbh. Disagreeing with the policy of shutting down that industry isn't the same as wishing to condemn those miners to a lifetime of that job. Overall most probably would have preferred the option of keeping their old jobs for a while at least, until they could land the job as Microsoft CEO.

    As for the despicable Hillary - yes, she is that. Reinforces my point in fact that a so-called progressive openly despises the workers while a capitalist is at least able to portary a PR front which respects them.
    "Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.

    "But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Monty92 View Post
    Actually, while I obviously think Hillary is a cancer-deserving ****, the "deplorables" line was heavily manipulated to damage her (and it may very well have lost her the election).

    In fact, all she said was that a certain demographic of Trump supporter was "deplorable" whereas the rest consisted simply of those “who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they’re just desperate for change."

    Which is basically a fair assessment, right?
    He says, heavily manipulating her remarks

    Anyway, "fair" has nothing to do with it. She was caught out.
    "Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.

    "But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."

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