Gordon Brown has warned middle class voters they could face a Tory squeeze and indicated that Labour would not fight the election class war strategy. He admitted that Labour would cut public spending but said the way out of recession was to “unleash a wave of social mobility not seen in this country for more than six decades”. Referring to his own middle class upbringing, he said the party would continue to campaign as "New Labour" and not shift leftwards in a bid to secure a fourth term.
In a speech to the Fabian Society Brown said: "I believe in an aspiration Britain. Opportunity and reward cannot be hoarded at the top, and it is not enough just to protect people at the bottom. I want to see the talents and potential of all the British people fulfilled: social mobility for the majority. And I believe that a fair society is one where everyone who works hard and plays by the rules has a chance to fulfil their dreams, whether that is owning a bigger house, taking a holiday abroad, buying a new car or starting a small business. So let me be explicit today; social mobility will be our theme for the coming election and the coming parliamentary term."
First question that comes to mind: Why has it taken till now for this to be the message of New Labour? If Brown believes in all this nonsense he spouts, where has he been for the last 13 years?
In his haste to rush back to the middle classes, and cover what appears in several ways to be a "Balls-up", will Brown remember the core vote, or are they to be ignored as they have nowhere else to go (or so he thinks)?
You see, in all this nonsense that is supposed, I imagine, to lift our spirits, I wonder if Brown taken into consideration that some of these aspirations are so far above some of our people as to be impossibe dreams? Millions of people work hard and “play by the rules” (whatever that means) and earn barely enough to eat and heat their tiny homes. For some owning a house is not an aspiration. Many will never be able to afford to get their foot on the property ladder, mainly thanks to the moronic house price boom allowed by this government and the subsequent crash, overseen by Brown. For some having a new car is something that will never happen; a 10 year old banger is a luxury, and as for starting a business.... don't make me laugh. The Prime Minister keeps on telling us that “up and down the country people say.... blah, blah....” Does he ever listen to anything people say, or are the ones that he meets handpicked to tell him what he wants to hear?
There is no doubt that to achieve the targets that government has set we have reduced the standards of every exam so that people pass them, but there are some for whom no exam will ever be easy enough (see the literacy figures discussed in Parliament only this week).
What aspirations should these people have Mr Brown? What jobs are you going to create for them? What aspirations should even the literate have; the ones who work for minimum wage? I'll tell you Mr Brown. Staying alive and feeding their kids next week. That's what!
I read somewhere that King Abdullah of Jordan disguises himself and wanders around the streets in Amman, going to cafés and shops, listening to what people are REALLY saying. I would suggest that Brown try that.
In a speech to the Fabian Society Brown said: "I believe in an aspiration Britain. Opportunity and reward cannot be hoarded at the top, and it is not enough just to protect people at the bottom. I want to see the talents and potential of all the British people fulfilled: social mobility for the majority. And I believe that a fair society is one where everyone who works hard and plays by the rules has a chance to fulfil their dreams, whether that is owning a bigger house, taking a holiday abroad, buying a new car or starting a small business. So let me be explicit today; social mobility will be our theme for the coming election and the coming parliamentary term."
First question that comes to mind: Why has it taken till now for this to be the message of New Labour? If Brown believes in all this nonsense he spouts, where has he been for the last 13 years?
In his haste to rush back to the middle classes, and cover what appears in several ways to be a "Balls-up", will Brown remember the core vote, or are they to be ignored as they have nowhere else to go (or so he thinks)?
You see, in all this nonsense that is supposed, I imagine, to lift our spirits, I wonder if Brown taken into consideration that some of these aspirations are so far above some of our people as to be impossibe dreams? Millions of people work hard and “play by the rules” (whatever that means) and earn barely enough to eat and heat their tiny homes. For some owning a house is not an aspiration. Many will never be able to afford to get their foot on the property ladder, mainly thanks to the moronic house price boom allowed by this government and the subsequent crash, overseen by Brown. For some having a new car is something that will never happen; a 10 year old banger is a luxury, and as for starting a business.... don't make me laugh. The Prime Minister keeps on telling us that “up and down the country people say.... blah, blah....” Does he ever listen to anything people say, or are the ones that he meets handpicked to tell him what he wants to hear?
There is no doubt that to achieve the targets that government has set we have reduced the standards of every exam so that people pass them, but there are some for whom no exam will ever be easy enough (see the literacy figures discussed in Parliament only this week).
What aspirations should these people have Mr Brown? What jobs are you going to create for them? What aspirations should even the literate have; the ones who work for minimum wage? I'll tell you Mr Brown. Staying alive and feeding their kids next week. That's what!
I read somewhere that King Abdullah of Jordan disguises himself and wanders around the streets in Amman, going to cafés and shops, listening to what people are REALLY saying. I would suggest that Brown try that.
Tbh, I don't think he really wants to know what we're saying or thinking, he is (as usual) listeng to spads and their opinion polls as to what they believe we're thinking, which is of course filtered to what they think Gordon Brown wants them to say.
ReplyDeleteWhat people really want is the government off their backs and out of their wallets. But you'll never convince a mainstream politician of that. They're far too busy mucking around our lives trying to look important.
Oh Lord no, QM. He absolutely doesn't want to know what we think. He's completely bonkers. He wants to hear what he wants to hear... the world according to Gordon Brown. It starts "Once upon a time...."
ReplyDeleteI agree. I imagine that the real business of running the country is difficult and unpleasant. It's far easier to poke your nose into easy stuff.
Labour have been all over the place trying to position themselves for the coming election.
ReplyDelete- Race is no longer an issue it`s class. Especially if you`re white working class. But if you`re black working class then that`s a problem as well. Especially if you aspire to be middle class. -
What a load of bollocks.
Hi Tris,
ReplyDeleteIts all very well being aspirational but the conditions have to be right. When I look back at the opportunities that were avaiable to me as a young man with a good educational attainment in the early 1970' and compare the current conditions, I realise how inreddibly lucky I have been. I had a choice of careers available to me in a variety of industries, commerce, and the Civil or Local Government Services most of which have been replaced either with nothing, downgraded jobs or plain old McJobs. Not that McJobs were not available then too, but there was usually an abundance of alternatives. Now there is much, much less so.
I would hesitate to advise any youngster now to go to university unless they were absolutely brillant, fist class hons. material, as graduate numbers have increased to such an extent that getting fulfilling jobs for them all is an impossibility. Far better to get a trade such as plumbing, electrician or carpenter which will allow them the prospect of becoming self-employed than ending up as a clerk in a dead-end job in an office having student debt to manage and having had no, or very low, income for the duration of their course.
As a nation GB is ****ed for a very long time and I blame the other GB and New Labour for their insane economic and foreign policies which have brought this condition about.
Regards,
It seems to me, Scunnert, that class has been at the root of so many of Britain, and Scotland’s problems for far too long. It’s amazing how hard it is to shuffle off this deadweight that we carry, and that most other nations seem to avoid.
ReplyDeleteAs for Labour, yeah, I think that they are at a point where no one believes anything they say, and so they try out ideas as desperate attempts to get one more period in government, at the trough.
It is a mark of very little confidence in Mr Cameron that the country doesn’t seem ready to sweep the Labour party out of power on a landslide.
It’s a slightly different story in Scotland where Labour is the default party of government, but in England, it’s just amazing.
Rab o’Ruglen: Good morning. Nice to see you here, especially with a post so full of good common sense. I couldn’t disagree with a single word.
ReplyDeleteGetting rid of our manufacturing base was stupidity incarnate. Having done that replacing it with an economy based largely on finance and insurance “invisibles” might have been more sensible if we hadn’t had the history of manufacturing behind us, and all the skills and the people.
Thatcher, Major, and then Blair and Brown seem to be unaware of the fact that you can’t just move someone from mining coal and put him into a finance office and expect him to thrive. After Thatcher laid waste to the industrial base in the country that is what she tried to do. Put ex miners in call centres, send everyone to University, and provide “easy” options which are no earthly use to anyone... not employers, not graduates...
So we have any number of unemployed or underemployed B.A.s but you can’t get your cistern fixed unless you call someone from Warsaw, where they only had Stalin, not Thatcher to mess with their economy.
The idiotic lack of reality in their planning could be overlooked in the good years, but.... unfortunately for Brown, the good years didn’t go on forever. There had to come a time when we would “see through” the “king’s new clothes”, and discover that he was indeed in the altogether, and that it was a most disagreeable sight.
I suspect that if Brown ever did this and was idebtified he would be lynched.
ReplyDeleteMorning Bugger....
ReplyDeleteYes, I think you're probably right. Now, I wonder why I proposed it...... hummmmmmm
I have another wee post on Subrosa's blog tonight after 7pm or so.
ReplyDeleteBugger (the Panda)
I'll look forward to it Bugger (the Panda)!!
ReplyDelete