David Cameron's attempt to pass himself off as middle class seems rather badly judged. My workmate who was most irritated by this claim is a female Tory voter, who thought it was dishonest. Let's be clear, either he was trying to pass himself as something he isn't, or he genuinely has no idea what real middle class life is like. I think it's being kinder to think he was just trying a bit of spin.
The odd thing about this is that Nu Dave had almost managed to turn his background into a positive, with those who raised it ending up looking like it was they who had the problem, as Toby Young argues. So it's doubly surprising that he has now apparently tried to recast himself. It does make you wonder if it's part of the softening up ahead of the real cuts.
That also made me think of something I posted ages ago about an MoD document suggesting the emergence of (genuine) middle class radicalism. As you may have noticed, bonuses are back at the banks, and not just there. It looks like we are about to see the steady upwards march of executive pay restart.
I do wonder whether some sort of radicalism in the middle might not emerge, especially as the cuts start to kick in properly. Faced with the reality that the financial system that nearly took us all down, and relied on taxpayers to save it, is now back to business as usual is going to be hard for a lot of people to take. And people in the middle have both something to lose and no realistic chance of catching up with those in the City who were at the centre of what went wrong. Maybe something to keep an eye on.
1 comment:
people in the middle have something to lose
... and the predator-class has its beady eye on it
(& the politicians too)
absolut banditi, as my Russian tutor used to say
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