This is the best article i've read on this subject, it could have been my story! This is why the tories absolutely destroyed labour in the GE and why brexit happened.

[pabloescobarselasticband]

I also grew up in a staunchly Labour supporting household who now all vote conservative and voted for brexit. When are the Liberals going to actually take notice of what they have become? When are they going to make Labour a viable voting option for the average person?

Sorry forgot to add the link Geoff Norcott reveals why he turned his back on Labour
mol.im/a/9533269

What do you think you're being unreasonable about?

OK 🤷‍♀️

Maybe one for the Politics board?

I posted here for traffic mainly. I normally take articles in the DM with a pinch of salt but this one really resonated with me.

Yet another labour bashing thread Geoff Norcott has been a tory voter for years, it's not a new phenomenon to be a w/c tory. Many voters in the so called red wall are socially conservative,
economically left wing. That's why the bluekip party appealed to them. The previous incarnation of the conservative party certainly didn't.

It resonated with me too op. I'm a remainer, would never vote Conservative but no longer feel I can vote Labour either.

His experiences of working class life being overlooked by the political mainstream I completely agree with.

OP, you read daily mail? Now buckle up for the sneering comments from the enlightened progressives who will be along in a minute to tell you how evil you are. The same people who casually call 17 million stupid for voting Brexit. All 17 million of them. They’ll call 13 millions people callous for voting Tory. No nuance, no attempt to understand their own biases but just call everyone names who doesn’t agree with them.
Of course just calling yourself ‘progressive’ doesn’t make you one. Self awareness and awareness of surroundings is something that passed these people by. The electorate has been making clear for the last decade that they are not ok with welfare dependency, that they do not want to go back to the mad old days of 70s socialism, that they do not subscribe to identity politics. But of course the voting public must be ‘stupid’.

And fwiw I am a northerner and live in the red wall. Nobody has ever cared about us up here or listened to us, although things did improve somewhat with a labour administration. Look at our crumbling transport system as a prime example, wouldn't be tolerated in the south east. Tories have had 11 years to improve things, now they are suddenly bothered ? Give us a break. It's all lip service.

Geoff Norcott speaks a fair amount of sense. I don’t dislike him and I find him very funny. I can’t agree with how he’s handled his disillusionment of the post-Blair Labour Party though.

@sst1234 As a w/c northerner I do struggle to understand why many of my fellow w/c northerners voted for an allbeit new incarnation of a party that in however many years of rule has done little for us. Call it patronising, for me it's bewilderment. I don't agree with welfare dependency btw or prehistoric socialist ideology either so enough of the generalisation eh ?

He’s not wrong in some observations but I don’t think there’s anything new or groundbreaking in that article to be honest.

[quote Onetoomuch]@sst1234 As a w/c northerner I do struggle to understand why many of my fellow w/c northerners voted for an allbeit new incarnation of a party that in however many years of rule has done little for us. Call it patronising, for me it's bewilderment. I don't agree with welfare dependency btw or prehistoric socialist ideology either so enough of the generalisation eh ?[/quote]
Perhaps talk to them? Since there will be many around you who voted to them. What you mean by not understanding is that you don’t agree with them. Because it’s really it’s hard to understand when people explain.

Labour have become a joke. The fact that they’re likely to lose Hartlepool should give them a kick up the arse and make them realise they have strayed so far from their roots.
I mean, can you imagine a pit worker’s reaction to this video....
t.co/7VPQw9ef7T

He’s quite right imo.

@pabloescobarselasticband

I posted here for traffic mainly. I normally take articles in the DM with a pinch of salt but this one really resonated with me.

Thank you for mentioning that it was a Daily Mail article before I clicked on the link.

@sst1234 come and live up here. See the craphole our town has become then you will be be bewildered about some peoples' voting choices. I talk to plenty of people. Just because they are wc salt of the earth types doesn't necessarily mean they are right. When they make comments that factually are wrong do I just agree and be equally as patronising ?
'Strayed from their roots' what does that even mean ? I'm all for ambition and aspiration but I think most working class people want to progress. I certainly wouldn't want my sons working down a mine or toiling in a field.

By ‘strayed from their roots’ I mean that they no longer stand for the typical Labour areas like Hartlepool, a town I grew up in for 19 years. I know that very few people work down the pit anymore, but when jobs like that are gone what does everyone who worked there do? They need to be sticking up for impoverished, neglected areas, not getting obsessed with identity politics and bullying people who think a man cannot become a woman.

I've never heard of the guy, but he comes across as incredibly snobby and judgemental from a young age. Also I notice there's no actual explanation of what this 'benefits culture' that he was so repulsed by actually is. He just goes on about his mum wearing a dressing gown all day, which sounds more like a mental health issue to me.

Essentially he's never grown out of the teenage 'Life is so unfair, why isn't my family rich so I can have what I want' stage. I feel sorry for his parents. Not a positive advert for Conservatism!

There are definitely working class voters out there who think Labour promotes a benefits culture and don't think it's right some get benefits while others work hard on minimum wage and feel worse off.
It's something that needs thinking about, work should pay but we don't want families starving and losing their homes if they lose their job

@SilverDragonfly1

I've never heard of the guy, but he comes across as incredibly snobby and judgemental from a young age. Also I notice there's no actual explanation of what this 'benefits culture' that he was so repulsed by actually is. He just goes on about his mum wearing a dressing gown all day, which sounds more like a mental health issue to me.

Essentially he's never grown out of the teenage 'Life is so unfair, why isn't my family rich so I can have what I want' stage. I feel sorry for his parents. Not a positive advert for Conservatism!

If you haven't lived in that sort of area then you probably wouldn't understand benefits culture. It definitely exists believe me, i grew up in an area like this. People see living on benefits as a viable lifestyle, whole generations of families. Hes also right when he talks about benefit fraud! Its a MASSIVE problem, these people know how to fiddle absolutely everything. Benefits should be a safety net not a life choice. I am a single mother working full time and I would be better off on benefits but I refuse to allow my children to see that as an example.

@pabloescobarselasticband

I posted here for traffic mainly. I normally take articles in the DM with a pinch of salt but this one really resonated with me.

Chat has an equal amount of traffic and would actually be relevant to your topic.

Well if the Tories had replaced any of the lost jobs in former mining/industrial areas then great but they haven't. So I'm unsure why they are any better than the alternative.

I can see what he's trying to say, but he doesn't make his points well. If 52% people voted for Brexit, this isn't 'most'. It's 'more'. As someone who taught English, I'd expect him to understand the meaning of 'some', 'more' and 'most'. Not doing so makes him one of those teachers who the likes of Michael Gove complain about.

You do know that most benefit claimants are in work (apart from pensioners) ? And if you knew the current benefits system you would realise that a life on benefits isn't a breeze of sky tv, ciggies and take aways.
As far as I know Labour still tries to stick up for the poor, vulnerable and dispossessed. Many of its manifesto policies were seen as radical and popular with the electorate. Agree there are issues with identity politics (maybe that comes from having very youthful activists) but a refrain has undeservedly grown in the media that Labour doesn't listen to its core voters, funnily enough emanating from the right wing media.