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The poor here are very poor, and they stay poor. It is a sign of how bad things are that the businessmen and bankers feel they can trust this government. Often, they have used people of ostensibly common origins, like Margaret Thatcher, to fight the most vicious class wars. Thatcher used to complain that the upper classes were “too soft” to really hit the incomes of the poor. There is no suggestion that this wealthy and aristocratic Cabinet will have any qualms about hitting the incomes of the most vulnerable. The bottom ten percent of society will suffer 13 times more than the top ten percent as a result of the cuts, according to figures from the TUC. The Fawcett Society has demonstrated that women, particularly vulnerable single mothers, will suffer the brunt of benefit cuts. Upper-class people now feel no need to hide their social origins or their sense of class interest. We hear a lot about “reverse snobbery”, which refers to the affectation of working class origins and customs designed to exclude and dismiss “posh” people. The effect is to portray the aristocracy and the very wealthy as a victimised minority, whose traditions have been trampled by modern culture. Thus, the bumbling, ignorant, and amateurish Boris Johnson is portrayed as a populist, purely on the strength of his “genuine” views. To the unenlightened, his genuine views might appear to be the ordinary views of a bigot, but the postmodern reaction against snobbery says differently. Deference today seems to be more entrenched than ever, giving the lie to any notion of “progressiveness” or “equality of opportunity”. Deference has weathered the storm of political correctness and emerged with a leathery, battered, but seemingly impenetrable skin.
QUOTE UNQUOTE Judy Barrett Chooses her favourite political quips each issue “One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors” - Plato
“History will absolve me” - Fidel Castro
“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. “ Mother Teresa There cannot be true democracy unless women’s voices are heard. There cannot be true democracy unless women are given the opportunity to take responsibility for their own lives “ Hilary Clinton
To even mention the privileges of the Cabinet seems like an anachronism. Supposedly, the debates about “class” have already happened. We have reached the conclusion that class should be no barrier to social advancement. Ergo, if the very wealthy advance in our political system, only a cave dweller would protest.
“George Bush doesn’t care about black people!!” - Kanye West
I was once rightly criticised for constructing a “gender blind” study. My research was distorted by failing to acknowledge the effect of social divisions between men and women.
“I am extraordinarily patient provided I get my own way in the end” - Margaret Thatcher
We cannot afford to be “class blind”. The very wealthy have an agenda for the economic crisis, and they are not afraid to use an aristocratic government to achieve it. If we are class blind, they will rob us blind.
“War is not women’s history.” - Virginia Woolf
“Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear” - George Orwell “What is conservatism? Is it not the adherence to the old and tried against the new and untried?” - Abraham Lincoln
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