So what do we know about Emily Thornberry? Classic middle-class Labour party background. Father was a UN Assistant Secretary General who once stood for parliament on a Labour ticket. Mother a teacher and Labour Councillor. Parents divorced, brought up on an estate on the outskirts of Guildford. Secondary Modern education but made it to university and a career as a barrister. Married to High Court judge. Lives in posh bit of Islington. There are thousands of women like Emily all over the country but mainly in the South East of course. They would certainly claim to be "left wing" and do hold strong views on gender and racial equality. What these people really struggle with is the working class, white principally but working class in general really, once you strip away the condescending patronage for blacks and Asians. The idea of fat, peelhead blokes who support the England Team, like a pint and can be a bit loud is enough to send shivers down the spine of the likes of Emily Thornberry. Shame really. If they bothered to get to know each other they would probably rub along alright.
You would think by now that politicians would be wise to the pitfalls of social media. Oh look! White van man with England flags. I'll take a photo and send it to my mates so we can all have a snigger. Just like we used to do at school about girls with the wrong length skirts or boys with the wrong width trousers. Who will be the first politician to post a picture of a black kid eating a watermelon and label it "View from South London"?
Let me put you in the picture Emily. You can have contempt for what you consider to be the archetypal white working class. Fill your boots as far as I'm concerned. But just don't expect them to vote for you.
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Snobbery within the left and Labour goes deep and a long way back. See the Decline and fall of the Labour Party by John Scanlon, where the author describes newly elected Northern Labour MPs off to join Ramsey MacDonald's Government. When we return, they announced to their supporters seeing them off on the train to London, this railway will be yours. Some time later they signed their wives up for elocution lessons as they wanted to eradicate their Northern Working class accents.
Snobbery of the left includes sneers at Sun and Daily Mail readers, which might not be so bad except when accusations of reading the Mail and Sun replace argument.
Among friends in my age group are a number of Labour Party/Trade Union activists. They invited me to a dinner party. I don't know much about dinner party etiquette but was advised to take a bottle of wine. I gave it to the host who carefully read the label and burst out laughing, and then shared the joke with other guests. Apparently it was the wrong sort of wine, although I still don't know what was wrong with it. During dinner we shared tales of heroic deeds during the miner's strike, of combat with Tories, but the subject kept returning to my wine and I confess to joining in the the laughter. God knows why.
My patron in the House of Lords is an elderly Tory Lord who eats Bangers and Mash when we dine there, whist I eat Burger and Chips washed down with a Diet Coke. Funny old world.
Lady Nugee really is a snob, says Guido.
http://order-order.com/2014/11/24/lady-nugees-walled-garden/
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