Skip to main content

Labour's class warfare against 'posh' Tories is a double-edged weapon



Andrew Mitchell saga is giving Ed Miliband an opportunity to play to Labour's basest instincts, but social mobility is a complex issue and this bear-baiting could backfire
Share 4




inShare0
Email



Andrew Mitchell: wealthy former public schoolboy, and baited bear. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images


Simon Hoggart is one of my oldest friends, so I try not to say "Simon is right" more than is strictly necessary. But he's 100% right in his parliamentary sketch today when he likens Ed Miliband's assault on the Tory chief whip, Andrew Mitchell, to bear-baiting, which was made illegal in this country in 1835.

It's a month since I last protested that Mitchell had behaved badly in abusing an obstructive police officer who had refused to open Downing Street's security gates for the great man's bike. But I also argued that he'd apologised and it was now time to move on.

It was obvious even then that the police are in an industrial dispute with the government and were politicising the incident for partisan advantage. So were Labour MPs – it's their job, up to a point – Tory newspapers who think Mitchell a bit snooty and too free with the taxpayers' aid money, and some Conservative MPs who don't like him either.

All that has since become even more evident. The West Mercia chapter of the Police Federation had a session with Mitchell – he's a Birmingham MP – which didn't go very well. Afterwards its spokesman demanded his resignation from the government. Who do these people think they are? It's not as if the West Midlands force is covered in glory. It's crime clean-up rate is down, according to a local website, and it was compromised in the Hillsborough cover-up.

As for the press, well they like to have their cake and gobble it too. Today's Daily Mail – my touchstone in these matters – complains about the cops Tasering a blind man (his white stick apparently looked like a Samurai sword) all over page one, but on the inside pages it's Mitchell-baiting as usual.

At a meeting of the backbench 1922 committee of Tory MPs last night more colleagues spoke in his defence than were critical. One of the critics, the MP James Duddridge, who has risen and fallen without much trace, is reported as urging Mitchell to fall on his sword. But he was sacked as a whip last month so that's hardly rocket science.

David Cameron is hanging on to his chief whip, though not without cost. Bad headlines are not what he needs and yesterday's bear-baiting at PMQs took the shine off the better employment figures, which we should welcome even if we don't rate the government's austerity strategy (and we don't, do we?). My hunch is that he'll survive.

But Labour's strategy is to use the affair to reinforce the notion that posh boys like Cameron, George Osborne and Andrew Mitchell – a well-off scion of Rugby School and Cambridge – don't understand real life and are typical of the coalition's overprivileged cabinet. Someone made that point to me on Twitter during PMQs.

That makes sense as political tactics (if not overdone, Ed), but it prompts me to ask if it is actually true. "Less than half the cabinet are very privileged," I told my friend on Twitter. Actually that's an exaggeration, as a quick canter through their Wiki CVs will confirm.

Briefly Cameron, Nick Clegg and chancellor Osborne are famously children of upper middle-class metropolitan privilege. Broadly speaking so are Jeremy Hunt (health) and Owen Paterson (environment), in the sense that they went to well-known public schools and Oxbridge. Lord Strathclyde is quite posh too, like Mitchell the son of a Tory MP who (as it happens) was unfairly hounded by the tabloids in the Vassall spy affair.

More than half the cabinet went to Oxford or Cambridge, but as with Labour or the Thatcher/Major era Tories, that usually reflects academic vigour rather than privilege. Theresa May is a clergyman's daughter whose grammar school became a comp. Chris Grayling went to a state school, so did Phil Hammond, son of an engineer in Essex. Iain Duncan Smith, whose dad was a flying ace in the second world war, attended an RC secondary school and HMS Conway, a school for forces brats.

Justine Greening went to a Rotherham comprehensive, just like William Hague, whose dad was a local pop-maker. Ken Clarke's dad was a watchmaker whose clever son went to Nottingham High – like Ed Balls – and on to Cambridge to become a lawyer. Greening went to Southampton University and became an accountant. And so on.

Vince Cable is a clever working-class boy from York. Danny Alexander attended state schools in the Highlands, then Oxford. Theresa Villiers is a bit posh as her name implies – she went to Francis Holland School in London, then to Bristol U. Eric Pickles speaks for himself and Yorkshire, a grammar school boy who went on to Leeds Poly. Patrrick McLoughlin (transport) is an ex-miner, the son and grandson of miners, who worked as a farm labourer.

The Lib Dem Scottish secretary, Michael Moore, the son of a British army chaplain (there's plenty of army and the church in these CVs), went to grammar school. Maria Miller (culture) went to a comprehensive in Bridgend. David Jones (Wales) went to a Welsh grammar and UCL. The Tory chairman, Grant Shapps – widely known as Michael Green – went to Watford Grammar and a polytechnic.

Now a grammar school is a good start (I attended a small Cornish one myself), and so is a supportive family. But it's not posh or privileged and to say so is as daft as the Tory papers trying to prove (as they do) that Ed Miliband's own background – the son of refugees who attended a north London comp – is posh or privileged. Clever is different.

All of which serves to underline the importance of very the underprivileged (he's got over it) Alan Milburn's latest push – reported here by Patrick Wintour – to ensure that people's backgrounds, their educational contextual data, is taken into account when handing out life's plums, including Oxbridge places.

If we're going to throw bricks at each other – or plums — best to get that contextual data right. We still waste a lot of talent in this country – and all parties share some of the blame.

Popular posts from this blog

Study Abroad USA, College of Charleston, Popular Courses, Alumni

Thinking for Study Abroad USA. School of Charleston, the wonderful grounds is situated in the actual middle of a verifiable city - Charleston. Get snatched up by the wonderful and customary engineering, beautiful pathways, or look at the advanced steel and glass building which houses the School of Business. The grounds additionally gives students simple admittance to a few major tech organizations like Amazon's CreateSpace, Google, TwitPic, and so on. The school offers students nearby as well as off-grounds convenience going from completely outfitted home lobbies to memorable homes. It is prepared to offer different types of assistance and facilities like clubs, associations, sporting exercises, support administrations, etc. To put it plainly, the school grounds is rising with energy and there will never be a dull second for students at the College of Charleston. Concentrate on Abroad USA is improving and remunerating for your future. The energetic grounds likewise houses various

Best MBA Online Colleges in the USA

“Opportunities never open, instead we create them for us”. Beginning with this amazing saying, let’s unbox today’s knowledge. Love Business and marketing? Want to make a high-paid career in business administration? Well, if yes, then mate, we have got you something amazing to do!   We all imagine an effortless future with a cozy house and a laptop. Well, well! You can make this happen. Today, with this guide, we will be exploring some of the top-notch online MBA universities and institutes in the USA. Let’s get started! Why learn Online MBA from the USA? Access to More Options This online era has given a second chance to children who want to reflect on their careers while managing their hectic schedules. In this, the internet has played a very crucial in rejuvenating schools, institutes, and colleges to give the best education to students across the globe. Graduating with Less Debt Regular classes from high reputed institutes often charge heavy tuition fees. However onl

Sickening moment maskless 'Karen' COUGHS in the face of grocery store customer, then claims she doesn't have to wear a mask because she 'isn't sick'

A woman was captured on camera following a customer through a supermarket as she coughs on her after claiming she does not need a mask because she is not sick.  Video of the incident, which has garnered hundreds of thousands of views on Twitter alone, allegedly took place in a Su per Saver in Lincoln, Nebraska according to Twitter user @davenewworld_2. In it, an unidentified woman was captured dramatically coughing as she smiles saying 'Excuse me! I'm coming through' in the direction of the customer recording her. Scroll down for video An unidentified woman was captured dramatically coughing as she smiles saying 'Excuse me! I'm coming through' in the direction of a woman recording her A woman was captured on camera following a customer as she coughs on her in a supermarket without a mask on claiming she does not need one because she is not sick @chaiteabugz #karen #covid #karens #karensgonewild #karensalert #masks we were just wearing a mask at the store. ¿ o