Some newspapers and the Tories are trying to convince us that Britain is now a classless society with class mobility to all levels but is this true and in whose interests is it to make us actually believe this? Is this simply a strategy in the ongoing Class War in Britain.
Class War in Britain is still evident
Maybe in some cases class mobility rings true if you were for example to win the Lottery, be a professional footballer or win the X-Factor, big rewards await those that do. However for the majority of us these are not real opportunities. Sure you can go to college or University and get a degree but this does not necessarily ensure success in itself nor class mobility. The Education system is geared still towards sifting out the very brightest talents it always has been about creaming off the very small percentage. Therfore by obtaining education or a Degree it still might not be enough to secure a top salaried position. Added to this are the hurdles to going through the education route put there by the Tories, namely a poor educational pathway, underfunded and interfered with by the Tory Governments. The prohibitive costs and burden of the tuition fees (increased in 2010 by the Tory Coalition Government and the abolishment of the grant system in favour of a loan may put off those from less well to do backgrounds. If that is not enough to put you off then maybe you do stand a chance albeit only a small chance if you obtain a degree of the highest order. So all in all the small, in fact only a very small, percentage that do actually manage to improve their class position through the educational route could not in itself alone support these claims that we do now live in a classless society. However in the majority of cases there are many more examples to refute this claim. Also financial insecurities are always a very real possibility for the working classes including those that have marginally improved their financial position through the educational routes. It can be like a game of Snakes and Ladders which is subject to market forces and times of recession, you could very easily find yourself slipping down one of the snakes when the carpet has been pulled from under your feet. Job security even amongst the blue collar workers is a thing of the past nowadays. Government cuts, austerity measures and cuts to public services threaten job security across all areas and these cuts will always have a higher impact on the working classes: in fact nobody is safe.
The Prime Minister Theresa May would like to push the argument for a classless society and play down any notion that there exists a Class War in Britain. She was keen to do this right from the start of her premiership. She argued that the Tories now represented the working classes, the working people. It would suit her to do so on the back of the very popular or reactionary Brexit opinion vote. She saw in this an opportunity to galvanise the right wing sentiment of the Brexit Vote and then getting greedy and brimming with misplaced confidence she choose to call another quick election seeking to annihilate the Labour Party and the threat from Jeremy Corbyn. However she recently failed quite miserably to push home this argument and further capitalise on it with a total misjudgement of the sentiment and failure to realise the backlash from the not so popular after all Brexit Vote. The reasons for her failure are many. In particular the Youth Vote, who were already disappointed by the outcome of Brexit Vote to leave made primarily by the older generations as they saw it, seems to have actually galvanised the youth into believing and understanding that they actually now have to do something to stop all their interests being eroded any further. There seems to have been a barrage of policies by governments aimed at eroding opportunities for the younger generations. Firstly it was the rise in Tuition Fees and then the scrapping of the Student Grant System compounded with the lack of any real opportunities in Britain today (poor job opportunities, Zero hrs Contracts, poor wages, lack of opportunities for mortgages or opportunities for home ownership, the list could go on) . Finally for them enough is enough and the backlash has been that there has been a galvanised support towards the Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn seeming to offer them a more socialist style alternative and some form of redress.
To eliminate their greatest Fear: Class Identity, the Tories wield their biggest weapon in Class War ,the Cuckoo-like Sun Tabloid Newspaper
Recently the youth have cast off their political apathy and have have realised if they are to protect their interests and their futures they must do something. Socialism or a socialist style of political party offers them the greatest opportunity to do so. The ideas underpinning socialism are not those of class mobility, which is essentially a futile waste of time for the majority, but instead to seek a greater fairness in society. Socialism promotes the ideas of sharing and having a proper stake in society which would create a fairer society with greater re-distribution of wealth through public ownership of the major assets/ means of production to benefit all in society rather than just the few shareholders. This has more benefits to a greater majority of people rather than any notion of class mobility which is essentially quite an egocentric concept because it seeks only to benefit the individual. In fact the idea of class mobility is essentially a Capitalist Theory and argument being promoted by the Capitalists and Tories to act as an incentive to divide Working Class Identity and loyalties by tricking us into believing that we should all act simply as individuals for the benefit of ourselves only. Convincing the working class that they are not actually a part of a larger class identity is one of the first and primary strategies of a Class War in Britain.
We should seek this fairness for a greater majority through class identity systems as we have done traditionally in the past: through unionism and strength in numbers. All major improvements for the working classes have come about through this method. The Tories and their lackeys (the newspapers like the Sun) understand this too well and have fought to divide and rob the working class of their sense of identity and unionism because they recognise the potential dangers that these represents to them. They are fearful of class identity and unionism which are the 2 biggest threats to them so they seek to divide mainly through the Tories biggest weapon, the cuckoo-like’ Sun’ newspaper, which really has no place at all amongst the working class, but seeks to destroy it from within the nest.
So this notion of a Classless Society and that there is no Class War in Britain is simply being cultivated and promoted by the Tories is yet another attack on Working Class Identity and Unionism.The real aim is designed to be yet another strategic attack by the Capitalists in the Class War in Britain.