Class War and Power Play

Sara Scarlett (@sscrltt) Posted by Sara Scarlett (@sscrltt)
Monday, 8th February 2010

The longer I am involved in politics the more I grow to dislike class war. The world in which class war exists is a world where no one holds political viewpoints beyond their own vested interests.

That’s a bleak view of humanity isn’t it?

Allowing class war to be successful is a consequence of an apologist society. If you are an administration that has been in power for 12/13 years you should not be able to absolve yourself from failure by simply saying “we’re not toffs”. The prospect of Labour doing this from now until the election is a wretched one, indeed.

But is there any truth to the claims that “Tories help the rich, Labour help the rest”? Well, yes. But what’s true of the Tories is also true of Labour. The Tories like wealthy individuals and Labour like wealthy organisations i.e. the Unions. Either way both parties facilitate power being transferred from the people to a small wealthy elite. They both protect the vested interests of the rich and use the apparatus of the state to do it. As for the LibDems, well, we are not powerful and/or important enough to have any vested interests at all. But if you can tell me the liberal equivalent of Lord Ashcroft or the Trade Unions, please, do let me know…

As far as I’m concerned class belongs in the same dustbin as the gender card and the race card.

Some of you may scoff at the suggestion that classism is as bad as racism or sexism but ‘class war’ does share similar characteristics with the former in that it is a reductionist proposition. It simplifies every issue and mode of human interaction to a single factor. If you are a feminist you see suppression and exploitation in every conscious decision and unconscious consequence. This, I hope you’ll agree, is an unattractive lifestyle and puts off many who sympathise with it's proponents legitimate claims. The same can be said of classism.

Making the odd joke using a gender, race or class stereotype is funny. But using gender or race stereotypes consistently for political gain is now recognised as meaningless. The same should be true of class stereotypes. It is one of the most off putting aspects of UK politics and I look forward to a day when we can shake off this last residual hangover from our political past.

More Posts by Sara Scarlett (@sscrltt)

Comments

On 8th February 10 @GetLabourOut said: After the recent goings on shouldn't it be "The Tories help the rich, but Labour help themselves"?

On 11th February 10 Sam Duncombe said: "...a world where no one holds political viewpoints beyond their own vested interests.

That’s a bleak view of humanity isn’t it?"

Isn't it the starting line for democracy?

On 12th February 10 @bashmore said: Good points.

Especially as both Labour and the Tories have just sought to constantly maintain the power of a band of elites.

They're just fighting over who gets the chance

On 14th February 10 Fred said: I just prefer it when people have real views.
There is a bye election in my ward - and all the Lib dems can bleat on about is that the candidate for Labour does not live in the ward - and its a 2 horse race so you should not vote tory or green totally pathetic

Post a comment

Name
Email
Website
Comment