Is Matt Goodwin correct about this?

[molanasulfi]

Is professor Matthew Goodwin right that that middle-class leftists are so angry at Brexit, because it is the first time they have lost a major thing and it infuriates then to see the working class get one over on them?

Is professor Matthew Goodwin right that that middle-class leftists are so angry at Brexit, because it is the first time they have lost a major thing and it infuriates then to see the working class get one over on them?

Born in 1981 ? so three years old when the miners strike happened ? British commentator ? Spent most of his adult life working in higher education and writing books ? I am sure he really understands the challenges of being working class in the UK.

Word for word this exact OP is lifted from Quora where it appeared two years ago?????

The Original Poster's other thread today was similarly first on Quora but 8 years ago.

How strange.

0/10 for originality
10/10 for imagination

What is the relevance of the miners' strike?

Anyway, he grew up in a working class family. Is that not good enough for you?

The guy has spent his working life studying the actual topic. And you don't have to have lived through the miner's strike to understand about being working class. And what is defined as working class anyway these days? Most people who work won't support Labour so what is the party of the working class now? Reform. Or the Conservatives.

Have you lived on earth for long?

Anyway, he grew up in a working class family. Is that not good enough for you?

Did he ? That's interesting, what did his parents do ?

Worked, presumably.

Interesting that on Wikipedia it states that he says he is from a working class background but his colleagues disagreed. He had a single mum, which doesn't necessarily mean working class. His dad was a senior NHS exec and his mum worked for the NHS board.

Most definitely not working class then.

Not very, no!

Of course his parents were working class. We aren't living in the 1970s. We are in Labour's Britain were there are either people who work or have retired from work (the working class) and people of working age who don't work (the benefits class). You don't need to have got your hands dirty or gone down pit to be working class.

An NHS executive is not and never has been working class.

Of course his parents were working class. We aren't living in the 1970s. We are in Labour's Britain were there are either people who work or have retired from work (the working class) and people of working age who don't work (the benefits class). You don't need to have got your hands dirty or gone down pit to be working class

So everyone who has a job of any description or level of remuneration is now working class by your definition ? What about those who work and receive benefits ? Or the retired who receive benefits such as the state pension ?

We have different definitions then. Working class does not mean what it meaned back in the good old days.

Got to move with the times, Blossom.

We may well have different definitions. Yours is made up and meaningless to anyone except you.

I covered this in my post. Have a look.

Retirees in my definition of working class. If they worked pre retirement. My definition was, if you have a look "people who work or have retired from work"
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People who work and are also on benefits I include as working class. You will note that my definition of thr benefits class is "people of working age who don't work". Thus excluding retirees and people who work.

No. It's practical given the nebulous social class differentiators of today's Britain.

Why don't you explain why you disagree?

Obviously bollocks. People who voted to remain did so because they knew Brexit would be a shit show - and it is. That’s why they’re fucked off, not because they buy avocados from Waitrose now and again.

Personally I don’t think “nhs exec” means middle class or even professional but anyway.

since when did your job define your class? Are you middle class if you’re an nhs exec living on the council estate you grew up on, your parents were manual workers and your culture is working class? Are you suggesting you lose all of that by getting a job?

I always had the impression the aspirational middle class wannabes expected slightly higher barriers to entry.

as the Brexit vote was approx 50:50 it seems odd that the 17million people who voted leave are all working class, none of whom even managed to have a senior office job? 🤔

since when did your job define your class?

Since forever. Or at least 1851.

https://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/SRU9.html

That’s extraordinarily simplistic- it describes a time with no social mobility.

you know very well that we could all sit here linking research papers to support our view on this. There is no settled definition that can be uniformly applied.

i won’t have a stranger who hasn’t experienced my culture and background tell me what class I identify as

This reminds me of that ridiculous list Labour put out last year defining the working person. Completely ignores reality of 2026 Britain. And most people who work. So the lesson is that social class is now much harder to define through your job. Far better to use my definition IMHO.

If certainly doesn’t prevent social mobility. There were numerous people in the last century who moved from working to middle class.