To not know who "the elite" are?

[Fuzzyend]

Labour have announced a crusade against "the elite" but I'm not sure who they are.

When I think of elite people I think of sports stars, but I'm guessing Labour haven't got anything against Dina Asher-Smith or the England rugby team. So who the heck are "the elite" and why are they a bad thing?

Luck good or bad is always a factor in any outcomes

Well, anti-elite Brexiters, how are you feeling today now that Bojo (Eton, Oxford, MP, PM. Nothing elitist there) having convinced you that he's anti-establishment and will die in a ditch for your Brexit, has failed to do so? Still got that champagne on ice?

"@BowermansNose" I don't think I've expressed horror? But yes, the slogans you mentioned were also imprecise (at best) as most political slogans are. But JC was using the word elite in a speech ("You know what scares the elite...").

I agree with others that this word is used by many political groups (Steve Bannon comes to mind) but the people who use them tend to be at the far end of the spectrum.

Bold fail - I'll figure it out one day....

When people refer to the North London Metropolitan Elite, as they often do, what they mean, is Jews.

It's a well known anti-Semitic trope. Priti Patel used it in a speech the other day.

I don't think he means your average middle class family with a child at private school and a small business. The elite are families like the Reubens and so on. You aren't supposed to know their names, that's the way they like it. This is an interesting article about the inequality between the elite and the working class.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/business/2014/mar/17/oxfam-report-scale-britain-growing-financial-inequality

@Trewser Very good point! Re: 12:35pm. I wonder about that too.

On the other hand, we don’t meet any of the criteria for ‘Elite’ as listed by another poster, but dc go to private school. So we are the enemy as far as Corbin is concerned.

‘Corbyn’ damn spellchecker.

I don't think he means your average middle class family with a child at private school and a small business

I think he does.

I dont think for one moment that JC means the average middle class family btw. Just not sure who he does mean.

I do think the word can have sinister undertones. Apparently, in 2011 Erdogan told Turkey that the "tyranny of the elites' was over.... and as I remember he wasn't keen on academics or journalists amongst others.

There is always an elite. It is just that in a communist society the elite are the people who decide how to distribute resources. In a free market society it is those who have the resources or the skills to get them and those with the power to influence that. In a society somewhere in between the two extremes it tilts one way or another.

I lean more towards a free market because it incentivises hard work and that raises the standard of living for everyone, subject always to protecting the vulnerable and the environment.

I don't think it matters what it means objectively. The point is that it means to the listener whatever they want it to mean. It's like a rhetorical Rorschach test. I guess the elite is whoever the listener internalises as facilitating injustice, specifically the injustice they experience or see. And JC is promising to go after those bad folk for them. To some it might mean big business, to others overeducated liberals and to some ( unfortunately) it might mean rich, powerful Jews. I don't like the divisive nature of Labour's current policy agenda. But I guess I'm not exactly their target voter ( for the many, not for you....)

I believe I am the 'elite' according to some definitions on here - top 1% earner (just).

I find it bizarre though. To have a political party demonise me.

I grew up in Labour heartland in Stoke - very abusive early childhood, then in quite a poor area with single parent family. Went to state schools.

I earn what I do despite having bipolar disorder and having been in a psych hospital twice.

My children (should I have them) will go to state schools. I use the NHS like everyone else. I volunteer in my local community. My closest friend is a cleaner.

I'm lucky not to have money problems but I don't live a particularly exciting elite life. Mainly I watch TV with my cats and potter around my garden.

But I'm the 'elite' now. To be waged war upon apparently. Funny old world isn't it?

Presumably they don't want my vote, and neither do the Tories since I'm also the 'liberal elite' to them and a 'citizen of nowhere'.

I also really dislike the word elite.
Both sides of the political argument use it at the moment.
Corbyn has his elites and the Brexiteers have their liberal remainer elites as well.
I don't know if they are talking about the same people, I'm not sure that they are.

I am perplexed why people think others are bothered about 'high earners'.

I earn a modest income and not arsed about high earners. Good for them.

The issue is when they earn that much that they hide their money in hedge funds, off shore accounts and manipulate every loophole in the system to greedily keep hold of everything they earn.

People on modest incomes cannot hire people to do this for them, so when someone earns millions and pays less in tax a year than someone earning modestly (30k bracket), then that is unfair.

That being said - I didn't think I had a Halloween costume for tonight...but perhaps me just pottering around in my leggings with my cats as the 'elite' will be enough

@PositiveVibez

There's a post on this thread saying pointing to an article about top 1% earners

...and I've been called the 'elite' at least a dozen times on social media by other people because I'm a top earner.

"The elite" is what Labour used to call "the bosses" or "the management" in the olden days.

I loathe current Labour mentality. How on earth can Corbyn bleat on about the elite when he grew up in a manor house, went to a private prep school and on to a grammar school, had very middle class parents - a start in life of utter privilege which has led to him having the confidence to run one of the UK's major parties?

I have no problem with anyone having that start in life - I wish more people had it. But I despise double standards. People who want to do away with private education after having benefitted from it themselves. People who sneer at how the middle classes raise their children when they benefited from growing up in a spacious detached home in a leafy, safe, rural neighbourhood. Why is a race to the bottom a desirable course of action?

@wheresmymojo - Oh, cats are definitely elite - I think we can all agree on that ....

For those who are interested, here is Corbyn's speech

labour.org.uk/press/jeremy-corbyns-first-major-speech-of-the-general-election-campaign/

I don't like the use of the word "elite" because of its populism, and we seem to be living in a populist era (we can't really blame Labour for that - remember the citizens of nowhere), but I don't read it as a crusade against the elites.

You are completely right OP. The 'elite' is just a lazy term used for 'someone to blame'. unfortunately it is not only a lazy and not useful term, it is dangerous too. Especially when the list of what the 'elite' is includes.

• Heads of Institutions
• Heads of political parties
• Heads of corporations
• The Intelligentsia
• The aristocracy
• The upper class
• Those with Trusts and off-shore/shell companies
• Heads of Big Business
• The seriously rich (billionaires/multi-millionaires) I mean wtf?

I have heard the term used in combination with 'London' one time too often . The 'London elite' eventually becomes 'All Londoners are elite' in people's minds. Given that the city has around 9 million people in it, that is bonkers and very very divisive language.

If you mean large corporations that don't pay tax, say that. If you mean individuals and corporations who use their money, power and influence to lobby for changes to government policy that benefit them ( and not many other people) then say that. These are thing I care about a lot and want to curb.

The 'elite' not so much, since I too have no idea what it means, beyond 'the person over there who I perceive to have more power, influence, money than I have'.

Then again in a world of soundbites where everything has to be reduced to bullet points and one word slogans, I am not surprised.

People like Soros.