I’ll be interested in watching this series, however as I mentioned before I’m still unclear now as to what constitutes white working class. fRom the point of view of class - I think it was much easier years ago and as Venetian mentioned – nowadays I think we do have a significant "under class" whereby some don’t want to work and education is a low priority.
From a personal perspective – I’ve never felt as though I’ve belonged to any "class" or had any affiliation with any political party. My parents were both what you’d call working class yet both went to uni (my grandfather had the foresight and determination in the 1930s and 1940s to give my mother exactly the same chance in life as her 2 brothers had [my grandfather didn’t believe girls were second best] – hence all went to uni and money was a struggle to send all 3 of them there). The "old" working class often wanted to better themselves (usually via education) – a feature which I think has been partially lost now.
My second point is that I’m also not sure what constitutes white British "culture". I live in Wales (I’m half Welsh half English) and many Welsh/Scottish don’t have a problem with being proud of their country and culture and are happy to celebrate it. I may be putting the cat amongst the pigeons here (and may get a verbal bashing ;)) but I do think there appears to be a problem in England. Although I’m British and are proud of some of my family coming from particular parts of England, I don’t feel English in any shape or form yet Wales has a complete "pull" on my heart strings. When I lived in England and have visited friends/family there – I have noticed people being proud of their local areas (i.e. parts of the West Country, Cotswolds etc) as many small areas have local customs/traditions but I’m not sure what English "culture" is. We can talk about Shakespeare, Morris dancers etc but there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly "cohesive". I have to admit seeing shaven headed, tattooed men getting tanked up on alcohol, dressing in the flag of St. George and shouting "Ingerland" or seeing people from the BNP spouting their vile doctrines does leave a nasty taste in my mouth and it’s not something I’d want to be part of. Hence perhaps the poor perception of English nationalism ??
I used to live in Leicester years ago and yes – there were many Asians there but they weren’t everywhere. They tended to congregate in particular areas of the city – usually near the city centre. Have to say – their festivals were a lot more exciting and colourful than the – ahem - non existent English ones :rolleyes: !! The whites in Leicester used to love Lincolnshire as I remember. Most used to go to Skeggy (Skegness) in Lincolnshire year after year for their annual hols.
I have never seen myself as being anything other than working-class. I base this on the many years I have spent working in albeit reasonably well paid but unskilled or semi-skilled manual ocupations. Although I don't drink alcohol or have any tatoos I do have a shaven head ( sorry Happygirl 😮 )
This doesn't mean that I haven't been aspirational in my outlook. I have constantly striven to improve my employment status, skills, qualifications and pay with varying degrees of success.
I think that there is a tendency these days to confuse being aspirational with being middle class and attribute "under-class" attitudes to the working-class as a whole.
The working-class are portrayed in the media as feckless neredowells such as the guests on the Jeremy Kyle show or Wife Swap. Working-class people are often portrayed as people who eat all the wrong food, are fat, drink too much, smoke and need to be nannied for their own good.
There is no section of society that it is 'OK' to be abusive about other than the White working-class. It is a fact that the percentage of Muslim working-class households that have no one in employment is far higher than that of working-class Whites. Nevertheless the popular perception regarding mainly White working-class areas is that the majority of those households will not have anyone in gainfull employment.
I think that this state of affairs has come about because the main political parties, Labour-Tory-Liberal all compete for the votes of "middle-England" and promote their sectional interests, not in relation to big business but in relation to the less well off.
I hope that any focus on the working-class will highlight the need to break from the mainstream political parties, particullarly Labour and form independent organisations that are not racist, bigoted, politically correct or multiculturalist but are capable of representing the real needs of the working-class without expecting them to march behind any red flag to the so-called promised land of socialism.
Dunkirk
. Although I don't drink alcohol or have any tatoos I do have a shaven head ( sorry Happygirl 😮 )
The working-class are portrayed in the media as feckless neredowells such as the guests on the Jeremy Kyle show or Wife Swap. Working-class people are often portrayed as people who eat all the wrong food, are fat, drink too much, smoke and need to be nannied for their own good.
There is no section of society that it is 'OK' to be abusive about other than the White working-class
Shaven head accepted Dunkirk ;).
Again I'm not sure whether we're confusing working class with under class. I also think that there are many other sections of society that peeps think it's OK to be abusive towards. The middle class are often sneered at in the media (and no I'm not talking about aspirational working class) by sending thier kids to private school, holidaying in Tuscany etc etc. The upper classes are generally portrayed as Hooray Henrys, chinless wonders who have more money than sense. Think about how good the press were to Tony Blair (initially) as although he came from a middle class background (was ex public school) - he "staged" a working class pretence as opposed to David Cameron who has been slated in the press for coming from a well heeled background.
Other minorities come in for stick - Muslims, teenage Mums, single parents, older mums, divorced people, smokers, drinkers, overweight, underweight - all come in for a good old pasting from the British press even though most of them are decent people. :rolleyes:
I watched the programme titled 'Rivers of Blood'. This centred around the speech made by Enoch Powell in 1968, 40 years ago.
Powell was one of the main contenders to the leadership of the Tory Party but narrowly lost out to Edward Heath. Immigration was becoming an issue with Britain seeing the influx of some 50,000 people a year from Commonwealth countries under Harold Wilsons Labour government.
Powell's speech, although often misquoted was racially inflammatory and contained a number of unrepeatable derogatory remarks about Black and Asian people. These remarks, Powell claimed were (conveniently) made by constituents and he was merely representing their views in his speech.
Heath, as the then leader of the Tory party and opposition responded by sacking Powell as a front bench spokesman. In an unprecedented act of political support the Dock Workers took industrial action and marched to Parliament in order to protest Powells sacking.
There were counter demonstrations against Powells supporters mounted by the Labour movement and student radicals. From what I have read I think that the Left were genuinely shocked by the support Powell received from sections of the organised working-class.
I wonder if it was this that began to sever the ideological links between the working-class and the Left in British politics. The development of the multicultural approach and embryonic political correctness began at around this time.
The ability to rationally discuss immigration as an issue was severely damaged by Powells speech and it has cast a long shadow over the issue ever since.
The ability to rationally discuss immigration as an issue was severely damaged by Powells speech and it has cast a long shadow over the issue ever since.
I'm no expert on all this, but I think that's a telling insight.
For example, people of all backgrounds could or should be able to sit down and discuss what's best for Britain, in terms of present and future immigration, in a totally logical or, if that's too much to ask, cooperative and calm way. But since Powell as far back as the late 60s, even though many today may not know anything of him, to discuss race or continuing immigration feels to me as if the majority will associate you with being "another Enoch Powell". So you get, or imagine you will get, wrongly but painfully pigeon-holed, and utterly misunderstood in what you are trying to communicate.
V