In the heavy shadow of this election result, the word ‘class’ is being thrown about by all sorts of people; but is it still relevant to the analysis of UK politics?
For a long time, the Labour Party has been viewed as a coalition of the working class and the liberal middle class. The essential purpose of the sudden outpouring of class analysis is to submit or deny that this coalition has finally been cleaved in two.
Pollsters refer to ‘Social Grade’ metrics designed and maintained for market research companies. Pundits refer to a ‘traditional working class’ of white, middle-aged men outside the M25; simultaneously homogenising whole sections of the country and invalidating BME, young and non-male workers. The Left fall back to a Marxian division between those who rely on labour and those invested in capital; a line that was only ever intended to define roles within the system, not people. Remarkably, some people – MPs even – belligerently continue to assert that choice of hot drink is the true arbiter of class.
