It will bring down David Cameron

Last Friday there was supposed to be a debate on the cost/benefit of the EU. Hardly any MPs turned up. They are supposed to be continuing it next Friday.

DJ

Same situation today. EU Referendum Date and Regulation.

I must admit , wait for it I thought John Redwood and Bill Cash had them all on the ropes, especially the front benches on both sides.

Seems he really doesnt trust democracy any more, not even from his own side.
The whole thing is beginning to have echoes of the last year or so of Margaret Thatcher.

www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/secret-plan-to-axe-90-per-cent-of-tory-associations-which-would-smooth-george-osbornes-coronation-as-leader/ar-BBqascr?li=BBoPWjQ

I also agree with POGS. His lack of much idea about what an Out result would look like suggests a lack of vision

That's because he really wants us to stay IN!

I really couldn't care less about the internal politics of the Conservative Party. The referendum is too important to be used as a political football. My local Conservative Association couldn't be more Europhile, so I guess it's safe ;-) I wonder if MPs are actually representing their constituents. I linked to a map of attitudes across the country. For example, Wirral is broadly pro-EU, yet Birkenhead's MP, Frank Field, belongs to the BREXIT camp. Another example is Cornwall. Somebody on here said that all the Cornish MPs want to leave, yet the map shows that the constituents don't. Cornwall is a recipient of huge amounts of EU funding, so that's not surprising.

What this is showing is that British society is becoming increasingly polarised between 'toffs' and 'left-behinders'. There is no pretence of creating a One Nation country. Leaving the EU won't solve that.

Toffs and left-behinders ( the poor?) As was always the way, with most of society being somewhere in the middle of that spectrum.

No, rosared. 'Left-behinders' aren't necessarily poor. It's a term which has been used to describe people who don't buy into modern Britain.

www.economist.com/news/britain/21693223-britains-great-european-divide-really-about-education-and-class-tale-two-cities

It hasn't always been like that. After WW2 there was a consensus that education, health and social care mattered. The war had brought the country together and there was a reduction in inequality. The rise in white collar jobs and fall in manual labour and unskilled jobs has meant that some people haven't seen any benefit from the country's increasing wealth and they don't share the same values as those at the top of the pecking order, although they've been conned by them. They've been 'left behind'.

I'd disagree with that view of polarisation daphne - most of us are neither 'toffs' nor 'left behinders' but, as roses said, somewhere in the middle.

What is more noticeable perhaps is that a certain section of society has acquired a voice and is shouting loud and clear 'unfair'. And there are those who are using the genuine 'left behinders' to further their own agenda.

This great divide is a myth put forward by the media, statisticians and certain politically ambitious others, and believed by the gullible, the soft hearted, the bitter and those who blindly follow one political philosophy.

The poor will always be with us, I think someone said. But while the greedy and downright lazy and dishonest seek to take for themselves the benefits that ought to go to the genuinely needy them society will struggle to provide the duty of care we all agree ought to be there.

I realise that some people won't want to read this because it is by Polly Toynbee - but I found this article really interesting.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/01/david-cameron-war-labour-allies-eu-referendum-one-nation-leadership

Well said Anya!

Good post Anya

'Toffs' and 'Leftbehinders'?

When will these pundits stop trying to pigeon-hole everyone?

As the term 'Toff' has been coined mainly to describe someone who has been to a top public school followed by Oxbridge, then does that mean the majority of people are 'Leftbehinders?'

Surely people are allowed to have a different viewpoint from someone else without having a label put upon them?
Amongst my family, friends and wider circle (none of them toffs or leftbehinders) there are extremely differing views on the EU, including many who are still undecided.

Anya, 'Left-behinders' (as I wrote before) aren't necessarily poor. There's a subset of 'left-behinders' called 'I'm alright Jacks'. If you read political commentary, it's become quite a common term to describe those whose values aren't in tune with modern Britain. You can often identify them, because they think political correctness is destroying the country.

X post daphnedill

If you read political commentary, it's become quite a common term to describe those whose values aren't in tune with modern Britain.

That's what I mean by political pundits labelling people.
Perhaps they are the 'Infronters'

'Those whose values aren't in tune with modern Britain'?

What on earth's that supposed to mean?

'Those whose values aren't in tune with modern Britain'?

It sounds very sinister to me.

Is 'Leftbehinder' a new term for 'Has-Been'

daphnedill's recent posts seem to be paraphrasing the opinion contained in an article entitled 'How to Criticise the Tory party' by Thomas G Clark on the website Another Angry Voice.

The delusion of these "I'm alright Jack" Tory voters is easy to understand. Many of them take their political opinions directly from the pages of the right-wing Tory press, and the education system deliberately denied them the cognitive tools necessary in order to actually think about and critique what they've read, so they lazily parrot the political opinions the tory/neoclassical establishment spead for the gullible masses to soak up and repeat, in lieu of having any genuine politcal thoughts of their own.

Lots more in this vein, obviously a very bitter, although eloquent man.

So, reading the above and thinking laterally, the Government of the day was elected by 'Leftbehinders'.

Surely they should be re-named 'Infronters'

so they lazily parrot the political opinions
spread for the gullible masses to soak up and repeat, in lieu of having any genuine political thoughts of their own

One could say the same about left-wing dogma spouted repeated in many areas too.

Yes Anya that sounds about right that you said 'the gullible,the soft hearted, the bitter and those who blindly follow one political philosophy' ( re. The great divide.)

If I read daphnedill's link correctly, the left behinders are the unskilled.
I dont blame them at all. It must be galling, if they want a job, for it to be taken instead by an immigrant who is willing to work for less money.