to wonder how Labour can purport to represent socialism and the working class when so many of them are multimillionaire, multi-home owners or/and landlords?

[jaimelannistersfoppishfringe]

Bloody hell, the leader of the Labour Party is a multimillionaire living in a million + pound house. Other high ranking Labour MP's are likewise millionaires with multi-million pound houses and many of them own many second and third homes and are landlords. Am I right in thinking this is about as diametrically opposite to what Labour historically stood for as you can get?

Also, how can anybody trust Labour to be socially proactive and build more homes or sort out private renting when so many of them have vested interests in keeping the system as it is (i.e. tight housing supply so that their investments stay high valued and that people remain dependent on the state via housing benefit etc)?

At least with the Tories they are living up to their stereotype of being the party of the rich for the rich. Labour should know better and really shouldn't be surprised that voters are leaving them in droves. They are completely arrogant and out of touch imo.

Nick Griffin: son of a Conservative councillor, private school, Cambridge.
Mark Reckless: posher private school, Oxford, barrister, worked for UBS Warburg and in Tory Central Office.
Nigel Farage: son of a stockbroker, public school, city trader.

Somehow getting mileage out of claiming to represent the "ordinary people" against "the elite" (without being entirely clear who that is).

It's a great trick if you can manage it. And apparently they can.

Labour - and the left (which is why I included clegg) are or were against selective education- which is why it's odd or hypocritical that they select their children out whether by money,- Ruth Kelly eleven plus - Harriet Harman - or religion.

My labour friends dashed around London when their kids were two or three to get into the best catchments possible despite their commitment to social justice (- for everyone else)

This is precisely why I find politics and politicians so despicable.

Nobody should be an MP under the age of 40, or without at least 5 years' experience in a real, customer-facing job. We have far too many of the Eton-Oxbridge-politics career politicians who have barely set foot in the real world.

I don't really think background is the problem. It's the pretending to be 'one of us' that is irksome. I'd rather people just did what is best than pretended to be an accurate representation of the electorate.

Yanbu.

The double standards on schools get my goat too.

Don't get me started on Clegg though,or DC,GO...........

None of them live in the real world.They all pay lip service to helping out a teeny,tiny few at the bottom of the income scale(because they have to) then shaft those in the middle because they have never experienced raising a family on either financial scales.

Frankly I do think something needs to be done as Joe Bloggs is now completely unrepresented.

They make decisions on taxes,housing etc from a completely different standing point and life experience.

Never forget BJ saying CB for higher tax payers had to go because it was simply spent on stocking wine cellars or a better class of safari holiday.No.bloody.idea- any of them.

This is precisely why Scotland is such an exciting place to be just now.

Despite the No vote in the referendum, it's full of energy and engagement. That's purely because we can see a way to oust Labour, who've taken advantage of easy votes in Scotland for years. They don't really represent the working class any more and social justice is an alien concept. There's now huge public pressure moving the SNP to the left and the Greens have also had a boom in membership. It feels like we have people to vote for again.
I'd encourage you all to vote Green. Their policies aren't as ludicrously tree-huggy as you might think (and who else have you got to choose from down there?) :/

There is so much cliche in the OP. MPs do not have to have had a tough time growing up in order to have empathy or a desire to improve things for others.

Slating people for their background is so lazy. Sneering at people for going to Oxbridge isn't any better than sneering at them for flying flags.

I think it is rude and ridiculous to assume that there are proper jobs and fake jobs. Spending a few years serving customers in a shop or driving a van or running a small business doesn't automatically mean you have better insight into people's lives than if you had spent the time thinking about policy at a think tank. Customer-facing jobs are not more noble than other jobs, and don't attract a better type of human.

The left wing- so called -Tony Benn's will was a joke. Some socialist. But not surprising.

Actions speak louder than words though. You can take backgrounds out of the equation - Labour have still lost their way.

People in power have always been from the middle and upper classes. It's what they do with the power that's important.

Incidentally, that famous Man of the People Nigel Farrage has an interesting educational and professional background that might surprise some of his supporters!

It's not just Tony Benn who was a fake socialist "do as I say not as I do". Miliband himself managed to dodge paying a load of inheritance tax because his socialist dad had put his inheritance into trusts before he died. Funny how all these socialists are so against tax avoidance except when it comes to their own affairs. Everyone else should pay for their ideals.

But years ago PM was a normal job. Ministers went to work on the tube.

It's not really about politicians having experienced poverty, it's just about having a normal life. And bring able to y'know talk to ordinary people without looking around wildly for some think tank advisor to te you what to say.

And just some moral conviction

'Fake socialist'?! Socialism is a set of beliefs not an exclusive right of certain people from a certain background. You can be a posh rich socialist.

Some of the posters on here should examine their prejudices. Experience is important, but when it comes to improving the lives of people in this country our politicians need intelligence, insight and empathy. There is no reason why they should have less of those qualities if they grew up in Kensington or Corby.

Why was Tony Benn a fake socialist?

YABU to think that any politician regardless of their colours give a rats ass for you and me or indeed anything other than feathering their own nests and the nests of their cronies.

YABU to think that the country is being controlled by politicians and not faceless men with money.

It actually doesn't matter a toss who you vote for these days.

It's not about where you grew up, it's about life experience. Understanding people and being able to communicate with them .

You can gain life experience as a judge or magistrate or lawyer sitting through endless cases or as a teacher or as an employer with responsibility fir the pay packets of hundreds or thousands of people.

It's not about class, it's about an understanding of how it all works for ordinary people. I guess it's about leading people rather than beating them with a stick like IDS or showing contempt like Osbourne or trying to please everyone like ed Miliband.