The writer of the article says that Labour now only attracts the support of a small section of the electorate - "university graduates, public sector workers and certain ethnic minorities". And the author was Adrian Plats - a reader in Politics at the University of Kent, so he's an academic himself. I did not go to university, neither did my son or my husband but we all vote Labour. Most of my working life was spent in the private sector, as has my son's past 18 years of employment. My Dad didn't go to university and worked all his life in a white collar job in the private sector - he voted Labour.
It's daft trying to second guess who is going to vote what on the basis of where they were educated or work or live. There are, of course, certain trends but if it is suggested that all we can hope to expect politically is, broadly speaking, a continuation of the status quo, with just a b it of tinkering around at the edges, then I think that is most depressing.
Previous Labour governments were brave and ambitious, despite many challenges. They unapologetically put forward radical policies - such as the creation of the NHS and the introduction of state pensions and a welfare "safety net" - and in later years brought in the Open University and all manner of legislation to fight all types of discrimination.
My own feeling is that the Labour Party is now far too timid in its ambitions and too willing to follow a Tory-lite agenda. Of course, if people see no radical difference between the parties, they are more likely to go along with what the newspaper headlines and mainstream media tell them - and it is common knowledge that these news sources are, in the main, controlled by powerful supporters of the Conservative Party.
It is not people like Corbyn who has "ceased to represent those people it was set up to defend". It is the MPs who are now trying to get rid of him - those that by and large went along with the austerity agenda, who failed to challenge the lie that it was over-spending that caused the difficulties here in 2008 - when nearly every other country in Europe - and the US - were hit by a disaster precipitated by the financial institutions. Most people agree now that the PFI contracts entered into by "New Labour" as part of their touchy-feely "new relationship" with big business and privatisation, has been a complete disaster. Most people are also angry that the MPs in this country were duped into, or too scared or lazy to question, the illegal invasion of another country that posed no threat to us. All these decisions were supported by the sort of MPs who are now trying to kick Corbyn out.
The writer also says:
"In Britain, the task is to marry metropolitan modernity with English small-c conservative culture, and to fuse them into a common sense of national purpose. This would mean acknowledging and incorporating all the things both London and Brussels elites have dismissed as anachronisms: tradition, a respect for settled ways of life, a sense of place and belonging, a desire for home and rootedness, the continuity of relationships at work and in one’s neighborhood"
Presumably then, even the Conservative Party doesn't represent "conservative" values. I don't believe they have provided a "sense of national purpose". On the contrary, I think they have demonised different groups of people in order to push through their policies, leading to a divided country where various groups are pitted against each other to fight for diminishing resources.
And which party has promoted "a respect for settled ways of life, a sense of place and belonging, a desire for home and rootedness, the continuity of relationships at work and in one’s neighbourhood." I would say, not a party that has encouraged zero hours contracts which leave people with no idea whether they will achieve a full week's work; who have done nothing to help the growing number of renters to achieve a fair rent and some security of tenure beyond one year; or which has encouraged the sell off of social housing and the introduction of a bedroom tax which has forced many families to move regularly and for greater distances.
The reference to globalisation is an important one. I met up with former work colleagues yesterday and was told that the international law firm where I worked for several years is now planning, through some complicated arrangement, to move all its business services - IT, Marketing, Accounts - to Warsaw. This appears to be a growing trend and presumably our exit from the EU will make very little difference to this sort of outsourcing/undercutting.
I agree with you trisher that there has always been people of all political persuasions that will turn on immigrants when times get tough - and, like you, I believe the Labour Party should stand firm against those sort of views even if it means losing their votes.
obieone I don't know what you're talking about when you speak of Labour "elites" on Gransnet. People generally don't fit into neat categories of political thought. I would describe myself as on the left but that doesn't mean that my thoughts and ideas will be exactly the same as someone else on the left. I can quite understand why Daphne got a bit heated - it isn't very nice referring to someone as "one of those posters" - what exactly do you mean by that?
, I have problems remembering names of those who post regularly without agonising if a new poster is an old poster with a new name
