Posh gits and (upper-)class heroes

[mirrorshard]

The very rich are not like you and I.
No, they have more money.

Yes, this is a post about Boris Johnson. Feel free to skip.

A lot of the Boris-criticism-criticism I've been seeing lately can be more or less summed up as "don't hate him for being a posh Tory prat". After all, we wouldn't dream of saying that someone wasn't qualified for an elected position because they were too working-class, right?

The problem with that is that the two aren't equivalent. Because our Mayor has always been rich, he's always been privileged and insulated - he's been surrounded by other people of his own class, race, and wealth level to a greater extent than any council-estate hoodie, first at private school and then at Oxbridge. He's never been forced to work at something he didn't want to do, never run the risk of homelessness or bad credit, never had to live hand to mouth. (To the best of my knowledge, at least. I may be wrong about that. If so, please correct me.)

The fact that he went to Eton depresses me more than the Oxford education - after all, many people manage to get through Oxford without being ruined. (And I should stress that this isn't linked to party affiliation. At the moment, they're all posh gits.) But he was a member of the Bullingdon Club, like Cameron, there. For those of you not familiar with the term, they're a bunch of yobs who dress up in penguin costumes and go out to smash up restaurants.

So, like David Cameron (notorious for surrounding himself with others of his own background) he has a far smaller range of people he can identify with, empathise with, and relate to than someone like Ken Livingstone with a more rounded education and socialization. I'm not trying to say he can't, or that he has no interest in it - just that being a posh toff brings with it a lot of disadvantages when it comes to relating to ordinary people, and posh toffs are statistically much more likely to be out of touch with ordinary people than the rest of us are.

What I'd like to see - though there are more than a few problems with the idea - is a rule that nobody can stand for public office unless they've spent at least six months on Government benefits in the past.

Comments

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

I didn't, actually - thank you for the clarification. That does help a bit, but it's one counterexample. I'm not in any sense accusing him of active racism or bigotry, but there is that early inexperience and insulation still.

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

Fair enough - I have to say I was surprised to discover this over the weekend myself, which means that either he or the media haven't been making much of it in spite of all the racist allegations going round. If it's his decision not to bring it up that's to his credit, if it's the media playing it down that's to their discredit.

I'd submit, though, that his marriage would suggest he's got over any early inexperience and insulation which wouldn't have been his fault anyway.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

I'd submit, though, that his marriage would suggest he's got over any early inexperience and insulation which wouldn't have been his fault anyway.

Sorry, I think that's nonsense, as I have said below.