A neo-Jacobin

Friday, December 01, 2006

Hold on a minute, who you calling a tosser?

It appears that the Conservative Party have stooped to an all time political low, head first, straight into the gutter with their latest condescending campaign. For some strange reason, the Tories seem to think it's perfectly acceptable to call, and let's not beat around the bush here, working class men, tossers. The campaign looks as if it could have come straight out of the Jamie Oliver school of nannying politics.

Nowadays, it's becoming commonplace to loath and hate the dreaded plebs in the lower orders, and to talk about them as if they were something horrible that you would normally scrape off the bottom of your shoes. Indeed, even the respectable middle class think it's perfectly fine to let rip on the working class these days - witness Greenpeace's campaign against people who drive 4x4 cars. It seems as far as the Tories, or Greenpeace (and New Labour for that matter) are concerned, the working class are just a bunch of undeserving, ignorant polluters who are addicted to shopping, flash living and easy credit.

Of course, the political elite can get away with such vituperative remarks about the lumpen 'chav' class these days, because the working class are no longer a distinctive political force to be reckoned with. Even upper class twits like Prince William, who would normally be too frightened to walk in the streets by himself, feels perfectly free to lampoon working class men without any comebacks whatsoever.

So, now we have the Tories struggling to legitimise their position by looking down their noses at those people who jump in a London taxi rather than get the tube home after a night out. There was a time when confident politicians used to offer the electorate political visions and ideas about how we go about building the Good Society - today, they only appear to offer 'advice', backed by the law for those who make the wrong 'choice'. If you ask me, the Tories appear more like an organisation of 'we-know-what's-best-for-you' councillors rather than politicians of progressive ideas and substance.

Guido Fawkes reminds us that the Conservative Party have some front lecturing people about getting into too much debt.

Labels: Misanthropy, Working class