1 2 3 4, Labour declares a class war
Gordon Brown has blown the dogwhistle of the Left by declaring a class war on the Tories, stating
Your inheritance tax policy seems to have been dreamed up on the playing fields of Eton.
Class prejudices infect the Labour party, despite their oft-repeated claims of valuing “equality”. It cheers them up to attack the Tories because of their perceived class, because they think it helps them. It seems that Labour have not learned the lesson of Crewe and Nantwich, where the played the “Tory Toff” card and got roundly beaten.
Cameron has responded to this by stating quite bluntly that
My view is very simple… that what people are interested in is not where you come from but where you’re going to, what you’ve got to offer, what you’ve got to offer the country.
Now if Gordon Brown and Mandelson and the rest, if they want to fight a class war, fine, go for it. It doesn’t work.
It’s a petty, spiteful, stupid thing to do but if that’s what they want to do, you know, go ahead.
What matters to the people is not any perceived notion of “class” but rather a plan for rescuing the country from its debt-ridden hole, policies for improving education and health services, and ideas for increasing the safety of the public.
Does it matter where someone went to school? Not really. Though it’d hardly like Labour can’t throw stones in that respect, considering the last two Tory Prime Ministers went to state schools, but the previous Labour PM went to Fettes, the “Eton of the North”. And a very large number of Labour’s current Cabinet ministers went to public schools.
Who cares about where whether someone went to a fee-paying school or not? It’s not like it is something children get to choose themselves! Class means little. Don’t fetishise it – it really doesn’t matter to people.
It’s more important what they have done and do – not where they came from.
Don’t get fair criticism of a policy confused with the language that criticism is sometimes dressed up in.
It’s perfectly legitimate to question Tory IHT proposals without it being a class attack.
See here
the language they have been dressed up in? Why is it then that the rest of the country believes this to be a class war attack and why have labour sources admitted as much? Comments about the playing fields of Eton have nothing to do with policy.
Liam,
It’s perfectly possible to question Tory IHT proposals without mentioning Eton.
Except for the friends of Damian McBride currently hunkered in the bunker.
Alan Douglas
Liam, I’m not questioning whether its legitimate of Labour to criticise the Tories IHT policy. But it should be possible to do so without resorting to class warfare terminology – if Labour have any real criticisms to make that aren’t class based.
Labour won’t be happy until we’re all wearing Mao suits and carrying little red books.
If Labour had their way the best schools in the country would be closed down. They’ve already made a start with the grammars.
At least there is one political party that still supports the idea of a grammer scool in every town (and it’s not the Tories surprisingly).
Is your class now determined by the amount of tax you pay?
I earn slightly more than the national average but looking at my tax bill I appear to be part of the aristocracy.
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