A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left. Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Class War alive and well at ConHome

ConservativeHome has sprouted a rather strange spin-0ff site - http://mylabourposter.typepad.com - which works on the premise of taking Tory posters that do exist and doing spoof Labour versions based on the phrase "I've never voted Labour before...".

I suppose this odd premise is understandable given that we (Labour) can't afford to do any posters this time round (other than the ones that say "Vote Labour" that people will stick in their gardens for free rather than ad agencies stick on billboards for large amounts of various tax exiles' money), and hence there's nothing we've done for them to spoof.

Whilst some of the ideas are funny, some of them merely demonstrate what sad people the average Tory bloggers are.

Labour voters are, we learn from the spoof posters, illegal immigrants queued up at Calais (which would be difficult - immigrants can't vote unless they naturalised or are EU or Commonwealth citizens); BBC staff (obviously a hotbed of leftie thinking if you are a Daily Mail reading conspiracy theorist); Nick Griffin; postal vote fraudsters (of course Tory-perpetrated election fraud in Slough and Hackney never happened); criminals; and leaders of foreign countries.

The one that really wound me up though (and was probably intended to) was the portrayal of Labour voters as personified by Frank Gallagher of Shameless: http://mylabourposter.typepad.com/blog/2010/02/shameless.html

Because of course it was an outrageous travesty in the eyes of our Tory chums when Labour has had a bit of fun talking about "Tory Toffs" and pointing out how many Tory high-ups went to one expensive school and were members of one Oxford drinking club. That, we are told, is Class War and the politics of division and envy.

But to characterise Labour voters - not our leaders, just the people who vote for us (and whose votes presumably some rational Tories want) - as job-shy benefit fraudsters is fine. That's just ConHome having a laugh. Not class warfare at all. Not being patronising, condescending snobs who see Labour and its supporters as being not quite the ticket and a bit common, and well, taking mummy and daddy's hard-earned millions to spend on the plebs.

Here we have the whole Tory philosophy summed up in one poster:

Labour voters = working class oiks who didn't go to Eton or even whichever place Osborne went to = people on benefit = work-shy benefit-fraudsters.

A philosophy and a party that wants people to be ashamed, not proud, of being working class, and to be ashamed of receiving any benefits, even if they are getting them because they are sick, disabled, unlucky enough to have lost their job or never got one back after Thatcher destroyed most manufacturing communities, have kids, or are paid so little by Tory bosses that the state has to top up their wages.

When there are Tory activists who think it is funny to smear everyone on benefits as being part of the cast of Shameless, and to have cheap laughs about people less fortunate than they are, I stop feeling any qualms about pointing out the absurdity of the privileged and out-of-touch backgrounds of the Tory leadership.

11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

My wife's father came to the UK from Jamaica in the 60s. In primary school she had free school meals (quite rightly). In the 70s she had an assited place - on the basis of merit - to a superb indy school and went to Oxbridge. In 97 Labour got rid of assisted places. Who won in this class war? Diane Abbott; Peter Kilfoyle: Tony Blair: Jeremy Corbyn; Harriet Harman; and so on.

I respect you, but how dare Labour lecture people on this when the most senior people deny opportunities to others that used to close the gap. It's disgusting

12:34 am, February 18, 2010

 
Blogger Jimmy said...

"deny opportunities to others that used to close the gap"

Unfortunately you're talking about an opportunity that did not close the gap but just put your father in law on the right side of it. there is a difference.

1:31 am, February 18, 2010

 
Anonymous Arnold said...

Tory contempt for the less fortunate is as old as the hills. At least now they're no longer bothering to cover it up.

8:58 am, February 18, 2010

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, the opportunity did close the gap, albeit for a small number of people. But you're right, it's fairer to deny it to everyone than allow a few to have it. The stats on how kids on FSMs do under this government are shameful.

re the on line spoof ads - some are funny, some aren't (as with the Labour ones earlier in the week and the 'humourous' comments of the Hon Member for Telford. It seems to me that the difference between this and the toffs campaign in Crewe and Nantwich is that the former is an open to all organic thing; the latter officially sanctioned and paid for Labour Party policy. They're not the same.

10:03 am, February 18, 2010

 
Blogger Mazza1230 said...

@Luke: Whilst some of the ideas are funny, some of them merely demonstrate what sad people the average Tory bloggers are....

You need to lighten up a little Luke...
http://mylabourposter.typepad.com/blog/2010/02/barbie.html

6:44 pm, February 18, 2010

 
Blogger Unknown said...

Tony Blair had a lot more class than his replacement!

Blair done the right thing sending our troops into Iraq and Afghanistan we need to get our Empire back, although its a compromise with the Yanks at least we are obtaining parts of it.

10:52 pm, February 18, 2010

 
Anonymous CaptainDarling said...

Luke - you know that pathetic 30% who still want to vote for you, even though you've broken the economy on a scale not seen for decades, waged illegal wars left, right, and centre, and created the West's most intrusive surveillance state? If Labour didn't guarantee them mountains of luvverly benefits, your score would be about 5% (mostly Guardianistas and the illiterate). Gordon started this 'class war' guff - guess who's going to finish it?

12:19 am, February 19, 2010

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Conservatives have nothing against the working class, non of the spoofs attack the working class.

What one did was attack the non-working underclass that labour has fostered and encouraged.

9:40 am, February 19, 2010

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Purnell's stepping down.

Rats with working sets of chromosomes ...

11:37 am, February 19, 2010

 
Anonymous Rich said...

I think the Tories are showing their true colours. Obsessed with hacking down public services making millions more redundant.

We need to protect jobs in these hard times and offer more support to those hardest hit by this recession.

I can't see the Tories winning a majority after showing no loyalty to millions of public sector workers and the people that rely on them.

People want jobs

8:09 pm, February 19, 2010

 
Blogger Unknown said...

Those posters are rubbish and tacky, surely these type of ideas are well out of date?

You'll be seeing a lot more of my Balls if you vote for me-isn't it so embarrassingly Corny?

9:08 pm, April 10, 2010

 

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