Keir Starmer’s bizarre definition of ‘working-class’ people will astonish you
Keir Starmer: yet another own goal.
Even Owen Jones is wrong on this one – although less so than Keir Starmer, the leader of the so-called Party of the Workers.
Starmer got totally lost on this question because he doesn’t understand the difference between working-class and middle-class people.
Let’s look at what he said, coupled with Jones’s response:
Working class people a) work for a living and b) lack control over the work they do.
Very straightforward question to answer, if you're using 'working class' to understand who has wealth and power in society and who doesn't, rather than as a cynical public relations exercise. https://t.co/0prpGN9WUQ
— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) December 15, 2023
Starmer’s failure to distinguish between working- and middle-class people may be partially attributed to political ambition; he was trying to talk about “aspiration” – the desire for people to climb the so-called ladder of success and cross the boundary between one class and the other.
In that, he is selling Snake Oil; it is harder to cross the class boundaries now than at any time in the last 40-50 years, due to political policies that he supports.
Jones is more accurate. Both working- and middle-class people need to work if they want to make a decent living, but the difference is that working-class people do not have a choice about the work they do.
If you are middle-class, you are part of a profession. This Writer is a journalist, so I am middle-class. My mother was a teacher, so she was middle-class. My father was a mechanic in a garage – skilled work, to be sure, but then lost his job and had to take one in a brewery; so he was working-class.
The extra element that Jones missed was that most jobs taken by working-class people are now so poorly-paid that they have to claim benefits in order to make ends meet,
This makes nonsense of a much-repeated Tory line, that “work is the best way out of poverty”. It isn’t.
It might be more accurate to say “middle-class work may get you out of poverty” – but no politician (middle-class) is going to tell you that because they’re basically saying that much of their work over the past half-century has been to elevate themselves to safety and then pull up the ladder so that you cannot do the same.
If you believe that Keir Starmer really has a working-class background, then he is one of the worst offenders. Do you really want to vote for this class traitor?
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For umpteenth time fascist tory boy Starmer demonstrates he is incapable of uttering any logical argument. His response was nonsensical and didn’t make sense. How he was elected an MP I cannot understand so obvious answer is he always read from a script any questions he was asked by voters.
The difference between middle class and working class was always one of income and whether or not the work was white collar or blue collar! Now the fascist tories have ensured that female and male teachers are unable to earn sufficient to keep them from accessing food banks! Same applies to NHS nurses and junior doctors as well as care workers, social workers and teaching assistants.
The only ones ‘valued’ and hence are middle-class are men such as carpet salesman Rishi Sunak and his wealthy cronies and not forgetting the greedy insatiable bankers who constantly see their salaries and bonuses increase yearly. Bankers continue to receive bloated salaries and yearly bonuses because their work is oh so important!
Fascist tories mantra should be ‘work will lift only certain special categories out of poverty because majority of plebs work to maintain the wealth of bankers and greedy multinational corporate companies!