A Four Class Society

Back in 1997, John Prescott (the greedy fat pig who now claims to have bulimia) told us that ‘we are all middle-class now’. Spoken genuinely or an attempt to curry favour with Tony Blair – who knows or frankly cares, because either way reality tells an entirely different story.

New Labour’s ‘classless’ social concept was and always will be a façade and a lie. In whatever society you choose to consider humanity has and always will organise itself into classes. It is in our tribal nature to do so. No amount of social engineering can or will ever do away with this reality.

British society, like all others, still maintains degrees of class; it’s just that they have been noticeably transformed in more recent times. Largely gone are the days of the working, middle and upper classes. Relative economic affluence and prosperity for all has done away with the need for those terms, as did the destruction of the British manufacturing sector in the 1980s and the current rise of tertiary service industries.

Where once class was based upon economic well-being and means by which the man on the street earned his living, now class and our society revolve around the struggle for power, prestige and the ability to influence others. Thus people in Britain can now be categorised into roughly four different classes: the Elite, the Underclass, the Welfare class and Everyone Else.

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Crewe And Nantwich

With just ten days until polling day, campaigning for the by-election in Crewe and Nantwich is now in full swing with the Conservative party clearly sensing that victory is possible.

An ICM poll of 1,004 people by telephone in Crewe and Nantwich for the Daily Mail put the Conservatives on 43% while Labour on 39% and the Liberal Democrats on 16%. However, once again I am not convinced that this poll will reflect the final result we shall see on the night.

As is the case with most parliamentary by-elections, a diverse range of candidates have chosen to stand including UKIP, the Green party, and the Monster Raving Loony Party. The ICM poll does not appear to take into account ‘other parties’ running. Therefore, even on a reduced turnout I doubt we will see any candidate exceed 40% of the vote.

What’s more, it perhaps goes without saying that the Liberal Democrats will poll better than they would tend to in a general election because at a by-election they are able to pile their national resources and activists into one seat. At the last General Election the Lib Dems took 18.6% of the vote. I expect that they will not only increase their vote but also their overall share by picking up a good few anti-Tory and disgruntled Labour voters.

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Foot And Mouth Spreads

Despite the Government’s supposedly swift action in the summer to curb the outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease which originated from its own laboratories at Pirbright, the disease has continued to spread.

While Foot and Mouth is apparently among the most contagious forms of viral infection for cattle, and therefore it comes as little surprise that it does have a tendency to rapidly spread, the British farming industry continues to suffer greatly due once again to Government incompetence.

As Gordon Brown enjoys the fawning attention of the media in rainy Bournemouth, and speculation reaches fever pitch about whether or not he will call an early election (not that anything meaningful would actually change, except perhaps a few new faces crying ‘me too!’) the crisis in British farming continues unabated.

Farmers in this country have had a raw deal for years, and it very much looks like little will change under Gordon Brown. In fact, I wonder whether Labour will be discussing Foot and Mouth and British farming at their annual conference at all? I would guess probably not.

Reverting To Type

After the Wednesday Newsnight interview with David Cameron, the BBC and the papers have made much of his comments on immigration.

The Daily Mail and Telegraph believe that the Conservatives are reasserting their authority on issues which they have currently avoided such as immigration and crime, while the left-wingers at the BBC and Guardian have used David Cameron’s comments as an opportunity to present the Conservative party as returning to the core vote and ‘lurching to the Right’.

The reactions from Nick Assinder at the BBC and the neo-Marxist Seumas Milne in the Guardian were typical of the overall vein of the attacks launched on Mr Cameron. Yet, both miss the mark completely (and probably purposefully too) because in reality Mr Cameron has not said anything new than he hasn’t said before and thus cannot have moved to the Right.

Wednesday’s BBC Newsnight really was a first class example of how the news corporations (in this case the BBC) actually make the news and then report upon it – and in doing so, how they can both dictate and manipulate the political agenda.

Gavin Esler tried his hand at manipulation while questioning Cameron on immigration. He noticeably made great efforts to put the word ‘swamped’ into Mr Cameron’s mouth by constantly repeating it at least half a dozen times. This was most likely done so the BBC could have a headline report the next day saying that David Cameron had said ‘immigrants are swamping Britain’. As it was the Conservative leader didn’t fall into that trap.

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