Politics: a class affair

Whatever your view on Gordon Brown is, it’s hard not to sympathise with him at the moment. With Labour losing by-elections all over the country, prominently in the previously Labour safe-seats of Crewe and Nantwich and most recently in Glasgow East, it seems that public opinion is shifting inextricably towards the Tories and their slightly right-of-centre politics, placing David Cameron in a strong position to take his party to victory at the next election.

Whether this sway in public opinion is a move towards Britain embracing David Cameron’s Conservative ideology, after years of perceived failure of nu-labour promises during the Blair/Brown administration, remains to be seen. One outcome though of ex-Etonian Cameron’s ascendency, at the expense of state school educated Brown, has been a focus on that old British obsession – class. Class always has and always will be an issue almost as emotive as race in Britain. We seem as sensitive to matters of class, whether it is public schooling, university admission, Wimbledon, fox-hunting or whether you wear your collar up or down, than ever. Many Brits are concerned about the numbers of old-Etonians and Oxbridge alumni that are gaining positions of power within our government. With Boris Johnson as London Mayor and the strong possibility of David Cameron becoming Prime Minister we face the possibility of a country run the Eton and Oxbridge-educated.

This is concern for many people, but I don’t believe it should be. It is nothing new. David Cameron achieved a 1st Class degree from Oxford, he is clearly a very bright guy, though I’m not doubting that his connections and privileged ancestry (Cameron is a direct descendant of King William IV ) and his undoubtedly aristocratic roots have no doubt helped him along the way.

Moreover, a recent News of The World investigation found that 19 of the 29members of the shadow cabinet are millionaires, and Cameron himself has an alleged property portfolio worth around £3.2m. This fact will no doubt fuel the flames of presupposition of class differences and assumptions about the Tories. I honestly don’t care that he has a lot of money- I’m going to vote for him, or somebody else, on their (or – more accurately- their party’s) domestic policy, international relations policy and the sincerity and integrity with which they conduct themselves. It shouldn’t matter whether he is a ‘toff’ or whether he was raised in a low-income, working class family. I know a fair few people who are very affluent and come from left-leaning, working class families who have achieved financially through hard work and shrewd investment. What’s the difference? Cameron has a clean-cut accent? Modern issues of class seem to boil down to superficial differences of accent, clothing or etiquette. I’ve been called ‘posh’ because I play tennis and rugby and not football - how utterly ridiculous. Am I a ‘snob’ because I was educated at a good redbrick university and aspire to a challenging, rewarding career?