Without wishing to feed the troll...

...I went to my local comprehensive - regular, organised fights with the neighbouring school a feature - did well, went to a good University, am in quite a senior job in a very big company, still feel more comfortable with people from where I'm from both socially and geographically than from anywhere else; I worked extremely hard for what I've got out of life but recognise that not everyone has the opportunities I had (for example, I was not one of the many traveller kids who'd show up maybe a term a year, or the girls who got knocked up at 14). I'm sure plenty of people are more deserving than me and work harder than me and don't have half what I do.

I'm not sure what the "working class" means any more but to the extent it means anything I self-identify as a member of it, though objectively anyone who met me today would think me middle-class. But I'm really not sure the distinction matters.

I find terms like "chav" objectionable because they vilify people who came from where I came from but never had the chance to move on. I ran an anti-poll tax group back in the day, served as a McKenzies Friend in court for a number of people, read the Financial Times as my paper of choice (and the Evening Standard Mondays to Thursdays - the Friday crossword is s**t), use the internet for my football and other interests, fancy Jennifer Lawrence, have voted for all three main parties in my time, hate bigotry (so a strong supporter of gay marriage and consider the Muslim community in exactly the same way as the Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh or other communities - positive contributors culturally and no kind of threat to me or mine).

In "classical" terms I'm economically right-wing - certainly capitalist, and Small Government Is Good; socially left-wing - the reality is that a cohort of people will always need support and if we don't provide it we have no right to consider ourselves civilised; and (therefore) politically centrist (as are all three main parties these days - long gone are the deep ideological differences of my youth).

I don't understand the caricatures in your post at all.

I still think the Daily Mail is the embodiment of all that is worst about our country. The Sun is fine - it's entertainment and everyone views it as such - cf the Mirror, Star etc - no problem with them at all. But people who read the Mail tend to take it seriously and that's quite a depressing thought.

Posted By: Old Man on June 22nd 2013 at 19:55:40

Message Thread

Reply to Message

In order to add a post to the WotB Message Board you must be a registered WotB user.

If you are not yet registered then please visit the registration page. You should ensure that their browser is setup to accept cookies.

Log in