Issue 84 / Dec 2017/Jan 2018

SAY
THE FINAL
Photo by Kayle Kaupanger
“We have a task ahead
of us to never allow those
on the right-wing of
politics to equate actual
economic poverty with a
poverty of acceptance”
The Brexit vote, and its continuing fallout, would suggest that Britain is a country deeply riven with division,
perhaps beyond repair. MP for Wirral South Alison McGovern has observed the to-and-from of the ensuing
debate up close, and argues that class prejudices may be a barrier to understanding the social conservatism
that is at the root of these divisions.
Photo by Samantha Sophia
Common political thinking has it that we are in the midst
of a culture war.
The idea is that the dual shocks of Trump and
Brexit represent a resistance from those who modern
society has left behind. Forget economics for a second. This is
not the problem of poverty in the post-crash decade. It is the
idea that, for some, multiculturalism is a bad idea, feminism is no
cause for celebration, and gay rights no source of pride.
Crazy as it may seem, the evidence is that what Brexit voters
shared most commonly was not an economic analysis of where
our country had gone wrong, but rather straightforward social
conservatism. 81 percent of them agree with the statement
that multiculturalism has been a force for ill, and 74 percent that
feminism has been bad for Britain. It’s not the best.
Now, many commentators ally this social conservatism with
class. You hear talk of ‘left-behind working class’ voters, ignored
by the metropolitan liberal political classes. At one level, this is
just a hilarious joke. The idea that wealthy, home counties-based
former banker Nigel Farage has a monopoly on understanding
northern working class people is a joke. The idea that Eton and
Oxford-educated Boris Johnson can better represent people
without such privilege is a joke.
And anyway, despite the focus on traditional Labour voters
who supported Brexit, the vast majority of people who voted to
leave the EU are those from the political right wing.
But underlying the focus on the social conservativism of
some traditional Labour voters is a really vicious assumption.
And that is the assumption that to be working class necessarily
involves holding conservative social views compared to the
intellectual glamour of city dwellers. An assumption is made that
where poverty exists, so does prejudice.
I have been in working men’s clubs, and railway mess rooms,
and football terraces, and I am fully aware of the banter that
can go on there. But I just think it is a deep insult to those who
grow up with less money in this country to imagine that they
necessarily must be racist, less in support of women’s rights, and
unable to cope with same-sex relationships.
Now, I am not naïve and I know that small town mentality
exists. But it does not define anyone who grows up in a small
town. Look at Merseyside. We are all aware that there is a
cultural difference between Liverpool city centre, and the smaller
towns of Birkenhead, St Helens, Ellesmere Port, Kirkby, Bootle
and Southport. We know that younger people probably gravitate
towards cities like Liverpool, giving urban areas the edge in
age and diversity. But that doesn’t imply that outside the city
prejudice must dominate.
Women who come from working class communities are
entitled to the exact same voice and choice that women with
money have. And the fact is, that despite the age-old trope
of homosexuality being more common amongst so-called
‘intellectuals’, this is just nonsense. Like it or not, gay people are
everywhere.
Divisive figures like Farage choose to blow their dog
whistles on these issues because they want to create an
intolerable atmosphere in politics. They want to scare their
opponents into submission, and shout down progressive voices.
Like the shock-jocks of the United States, they represent the
worst of ‘debate’ by playing to people’s fears and stirring up
anxiety.
Progressives lost the EU referendum vote precisely because
we allowed such people to poison the well of British politics. We
have a task ahead of us to never allow those on the right-wing
of politics to equate actual economic poverty with a poverty of
acceptance when it comes to fighting for equal status of all. !
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