Class war hots up
- 22 May 07, 11:56 AM
At last, we get to the nub of the matter. You may be forgiven for thinking that the Great Grammar School Row is about Tory education policy or how best to help disadvantaged children or, even, how David Cameron runs the Tory party. Not a bit of it. At its heart is the oldest British obsession of them all. No, not the weather. Class. Once again it was John Humphrys (Cardiff High School) who took up the cudgel on this morning's Today programme (listen here). He challenged David Cameron (Eton) on the number of public school boys there were in his shadow cabinet. What, you might ask, has that got to do with anything. The answer is everything.
Many of David Cameron's fiercest critics are those who believe that the job of the Tory party is to fight for what Margaret Thatcher called "our people" - by which they mean the aspirational classes. They believe that in the years BT (Before Thatcher) there existed a cross party consensus which punished "our people". The consensus, they believed, was sustained by the political classes who were largely public school boys. In the years AD (After David) they fear a new consensus is emerging which is politically correct, green, liberal and sneers at those who work hard to get their kids the advantages they didn't have. The pre-Thatcher consensus was called But-skellism (after the Tory Rab Butler and Labour's Hugh Gaitskell). We might call the new one Bla-meronism.
Do not be surprised that it is inside the Tory Party that this class war is raging. It's been going on for years. Margaret Thatcher was attacked by the toffs for leading a party of "estate agents and second hand car dealers". Michael Heseltine was once described as "a man who has to buy his own furniture". Douglas Hurd was so nervous of his Etonian past that he ran for his party's leadership describing himself as the son of a farm worker which somewhat understated his father's background.
Yesterday, I asked the Tory leader at his news conference how he would answer those who said his policy was fine for a "posh, rich kid" like himself but wondered how it would help someone like Michael Howard, his predecessor, the son of poor immigrants, who believes that a grammar school education was the key to escape from poverty. The Tory leader retorted that focussing on his background was old fashioned and irrelevant.
Many will agree.
However, the key to success as a leader is persuading people that even if you're not one of them you understand how they feel. The Tories who feel wounded by the Great Grammar School Row fear that he hasn't a clue how they feel and never will.
