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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Do you think that this country will have a working class PM?

249 replies

EddyF · 03/08/2023 18:47

Do you think it’s possible and likely? someone who has gone to a bog-standard school; rented or grow up in council stock, or just someone who has lead a ordinary life like the majority in the U.K?

I don’t understand how people can only vote for the elite despite what the ordinary man and woman goes through in this country. The problems aren’t new with the NHS/benefit system/classism/immigration/no funding for society to actually run effectively. But they keep being voted in. Why? Twice this week people have told me they would rather vote Tories again as long as its not Labour. One with MH and can't get the proper help and the other one who is still working at senior age.

These issues haven’t just started and have been a sore point for a long time under the tories. Which begs the question, why do people vote for them? What vetted interest would the ordinary person have to vote the same party all of the time? It can’t just be about immigration ( what have the tories sorted out effectively regarding immagration?). I am not white but I have worked with white working class service users with very little in life but follow the rhetoric of the conservatives. Knowing damn well they will never reach the lifestyle of the party they're voting.

How did The Sun manage to get a large number of their readership to vote for tories? time and time again. First time might make sense as people desire change, but over and over again? Even if it is about immigration, don’t they have children and families who they can see struggle with these policies?

I get why businesses may vote the way they do, but the people in this country confuse me. Why not vote Conservative and if you're not happy with them in the next election, you don't touch them? why stick with them?

I was born in the U.K. My primary education was in France and we lived in the USA for some time. All childhood holidays in Africa mainly. With all of the faults with the American system (especially for non-white people/margainlised groups), it is more fluid in getting yourself out of poverty/access to social mobility.

All my International friends from Africa to the US are doing better than me, despite us all studying/holding same qualifications. It feels impossible buying a property here despite earning on paper a very decent salary and being a professional. My friends/family abroad all seem to own/build even if they earn less/same.

Once you're paying approx 2K in rent in London (yes you can move out but most people have family/work/community built there),how can you save for a significant deposit with rent, bills, car-note etc? wouldn't most government/policy makers want to help the youth in prosperity since the western world have essentially the systems to make a society less unfair/workable?

I am not saying everyone is poor in this country. It's just a lot of people are suffering needlessly due to mismanagementof the country where only a smaller number get to enjoy life like how it should be.

I actually think it's better to abstain voting than voting the same people/party that have communicated verbally and non-verbally that they do not give a fuck.

OP posts:
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EddyF · 03/08/2023 18:48

I would love to see new political parties created so that they really are competing for votes. And if you do not deliver, you are out.

OP posts:
Florissante · 03/08/2023 18:51

John Major and Margaret Thatcher came from working class backgrounds.

Neverseenbefore · 03/08/2023 18:51

Ramsay MacDonald? John Major?

Summerishere123 · 03/08/2023 18:53

Didn't go any better with Maggie in charge did it? People still hated her.

Fahdidahlia · 03/08/2023 18:56

Margaret Thatcher was from working class stock, father a tobacconist, educated in state schools in Grantham and then went on to Oxford. She isn't the only exception. Ted Heath, state educated, father a carpenter, then a builder and his mother a ladies maid

ilovesooty · 03/08/2023 18:56

James Callaghan came from a working class family.

Anxioys · 03/08/2023 18:56

Right now? No.

The whole country is weighted in favour of the old and wealthy. That's because Britain is a conservative country and we are all getting older.

The welfare state, social mobility, housing, public spending to support it was all put in place after the war. People have slowly voted all that help out for low tax.

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 03/08/2023 18:56

Kier Starmer was like that. His mum was a nurse, his dad a toolmaker. He had to do his homework at the kitchen table. He was one of 4, and passed the 11 plus to go to grammar school.

He’s probably our next prime minister.

EddyF · 03/08/2023 18:57

But how long ago was that? the people now and recent history in power do not reflect the people they're ‘serving’. The younger people weren't even born when Thetcher was PM. I guess the title should have read: Do you think they will be a WC cabinet in the near future.

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OnlyFoolsnMothers · 03/08/2023 18:58

Yes I could see it- Angela Rayner would be great

Anxioys · 03/08/2023 18:59

Never. Not in Britain. You only have to look at Mumsnet to see that class matters. People cling to it.

Tinkerbyebye · 03/08/2023 18:59

No for the simple reason that there is no working class no currently

most MPs now go straight in from school almost, they certainly do not join later in life having had proper experience of the working world and it’s issues

DrManhattan · 03/08/2023 19:00

I'd love Angela Raynor. She's great.

Tinkerbyebye · 03/08/2023 19:00

No working class MP that should say

EddyF · 03/08/2023 19:00

I honestly think people will still vote the Conservatives in the next general election. Maybe it's “better the devil you know” mindset people have.

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DrManhattan · 03/08/2023 19:00

@EddyF people actually will. Its insanity.

Radiatorvalves · 03/08/2023 19:01

If Labour get in there will be an increase in the numbers of WC… Wes Streeting, Angela Rayner to name but 2. However although they both come from poor backgrounds they now have education/good well paid jobs so are they currently WC?

Begsthequestion · 03/08/2023 19:03

Keep an eye on Lee Anderson. Would be a useful idiot for the Tories.

Sodthebloodypicnic · 03/08/2023 19:03

I wouldn't be surprised if wes streeting is on the cards in a few years.

EddyF · 03/08/2023 19:04

Anxioys · 03/08/2023 18:59

Never. Not in Britain. You only have to look at Mumsnet to see that class matters. People cling to it.

Yes, they cling to it on this site but not in the ‘right’ way (if I'm explaining it correctly; I'm tired). When I read threads on here about class, it seems insecure rather than real. Almost like convincing people. Maybe it's a quieter topic in real life. I hardly know anyone who is interested in it and I know plenty of MC people (esp colleagues). It never comes up in real life.

OP posts:
AuntieSoap · 03/08/2023 19:05

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 03/08/2023 18:56

Kier Starmer was like that. His mum was a nurse, his dad a toolmaker. He had to do his homework at the kitchen table. He was one of 4, and passed the 11 plus to go to grammar school.

He’s probably our next prime minister.

This.

Kier Starmer is from a working class background. Obviously he became a human rights lawyer so no ok longer fits that mould, but he's as working class as Thatcher or Major.

Radiatorvalves · 03/08/2023 19:06

Tbh I will be amazed if labour don’t get in…. But younger generations will have to get out there and vote. The tories have to keep OAPs happy as they vote disproportionately for the conservatives. No such incentive for them to do anything for under 40. We will see lots of bribes being offered over the next year. Mainly to oldies.

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 03/08/2023 19:06

I ❤️Wes Streeting. He’s one to watch.

queenofsheep · 03/08/2023 19:07

Margaret Thatcher was

Anxioys · 03/08/2023 19:08

Class is about insecurity but insecurity is do with money and mindset. These things keep people where they are. They like the labels.

Thatcher reinvented herself in terms of everything, voice, education at Oxford. Rayner not so much. The hatred she gets tells you why it will never change.