As an educated guy from a working class background the sight of right-wing politicians from privileged backgrounds pretending to be the friends of the working classes always makes me sick to the stomach.
Right-wing politics has always been about entrenching the wealth and power of the wealthiest people in society at the expense of the working majority. Left-wing politics has always been about redressing the balance.
First we had the UKIP snake oil merchants (a rag-tag bunch of failed, disgraced and defected Tories who are completely bankrolled by former Tory party donors) dressing up their hard-right Thatcherism on steroids agenda as some kind of salvation for the working classes who have had their wages, working conditions and communities ruined by the consequences of the Westminster establishment's four decade long fixation with Thatcherism.
Now things are becoming even more ridiculous than Nigel Farage's ludicrous pint-swilling "man of the people act" as Theresa May tries to dress herself up as the champion of the working classes!
- Theresa May is the leader of the billionaire bankrolled party of wealth and privilege.
- Theresa May is the leader of the party that introduced the Thatcherite neoliberal economics that has destroyed so many working class communities.
- Theresa May is the leader of the party that decided to load the burden of austerity on poor and ordinary people, whilst distributing one tax cut after another to corporations and the super-rich.
- Theresa May is the leader of the party that introduced vast £9,000 per year university fees in order to dissuade as many kids from ordinary backgrounds as possible from seeking professional qualifications.
- Theresa May is the leader of the party that scrapped all student grants and bursaries in order to lumber kids from ordinary backgrounds with even more debt for having the temerity to seek professional qualifications.
- Theresa May is the leader of the party that has overseen the worst collapse in the value of UK workers' wages since records began.
- Theresa May is the leader of a party that removed the right to seek unfair dismissal compensation without first having to pay massive upfront court fees.
- Theresa May is the leader of a party with a deep ideological hatred of the trade union movement because it gives the working classes the power to fight back against exploitative employers.
The study found that even those from working class families who have exactly the same role, education and experience are still paid on average 7% less than their colleagues from more advantaged backgrounds.
In Britain you get paid more if you speak with a posh accent, not a regional one, and you get paid more if your parents had the cash to send you to an elitist private school rather than the ordinary state schools that 93% of us attended.
In Britain it's not what you know that determines your pay packet, it's who you know, and how posh your accent is.
In her inauguration speech Theresa May actually cried crocodile tears over the fact that working class kids are so much less likely to go to university, but then one of her very first acts as Prime Minister was to ram through legislation to scrap all of the student grants and bursaries that help kids from poor and ordinary backgrounds gain professional qualifications at university.
As far as Theresa May and the Tories are concerned, there is still far too much competition from the working classes, so they have to be dissuaded from even trying to gain professional qualifications, and then lumbered with aspiration tax (often for their entire working lives) for having the temerity to try to compete for the top jobs, which the Tories believe should always belong to the children of the privileged; the children of their own social class.
The evidence is absolutely clear that working class people suffer appalling financial discrimination in the UK, and that the billionaire backed Tory party is determined to erect as many social mobility barriers as possible, whilst simultaneously trying to con as many working class people as possible into actually voting for them and ensuring the continuation of this deliberate class war against "the lower orders".
Anyone who thinks that it's actually in the interest of a massive bunch of millionaire toffs to give the working classes a fighting chance against their own social class must be absolutely delusional.
If you're working class and you vote for the Tories (or the purple-tied Thatcherism on steroids party), you're clearly a turkey who votes for Christmas.
If you're from a working class background, but you've managed to overcome all of the social mobility barriers to gain professional qualifications and you vote for the blue or purple Tories, you're worse than an ignorant and ill-informed Turkey voting for Christmas, you're nothing but a class traitor who is intent on kicking down the few remaining social mobility ladders in order to arrogantly cement yourself as a cut above your working class peers.
Another Angry Voice is a "Pay As You Feel" website. You can have access to all of my work for free, or you can choose to make a small donation to help me keep writing. The choice is entirely yours.
No comments:
Post a Comment