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Matthew Parris

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    Matthew Parris

    What are people's views on his Spectator article on the people of Clacton. I hadn't read it before but now I have, I'm staggered by the man's breathtaking arrogance and snobbery.

    This is Britain on crutches. This is tracksuit-and-trainers Britain, tattoo-parlour Britain, all-our-yesterdays Britain. So of course UKIP will do well in the by-election.
    My aim, though, is not to deny UKIP its likelihood of victory. They make a good fit for Clacton. Somebody has to represent the static caravans and holiday villages, and the people and places that for no fault of their own are not getting where a 21sth century Britain needs to be going. Nor do I deny that we Conservatives, if we tried hard enough, could get some of these voters back.
    There are many in a place like this who might be attracted again to the Tories by a noisy display of hostility towards immigration-and-Europe, political correctness and health-and-safety: hostility to a Britain that has forgotten the joys of Ken Dodd, meat pies, smoking in pubs and the Bee Gees.
    No, my aim is to ask this: is that where the Conservative party wants to be? Is it where the Tories need to be if they're to gather momentum in this century, rather than slowly lose it? Or do we need to be with the Britain that has its career prospects ahead and not behind, that can admire immigrants and want them with us, that doesn't want to spend its days buying scratchcards and its evenings smoking in pubs, that's amazed at all the fuss about whether gays should marry, that travels in Europe and would hesitate to let those links go?
    I'm not arguing that we should be careless of the needs of struggling people and places such as Clacton. But I am arguing - if I am honest - that we should be careless of their opinions.
    The last sentence is the worst IMO.

    He may be right about the scratchcards and pubs but could you imagine any journalist writing about any other social group in a similarly scathing manner ? No, because it would be unnacceptable. It seems that it's open season on the white working/lower middle classes.
    Last edited by Freaki Li Cuatre; 13 October 2014, 06:14.

    #2
    Originally posted by Freaki Li Cuatre View Post
    The last sentence is the worst IMO.

    He may be right about the scratchcards and pubs but could you imagine any journalist writing about any other social group in a similarly scathing manner ? No, because it would be unnacceptable. It seems that it's open season on the white working/lower middle classes.
    Lucky they can't read.
    "He's actually ripped" - Jared Padalecki

    https://youtu.be/l-PUnsCL590?list=PL...dNeCyi9a&t=615

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      #3
      Originally posted by Freaki Li Cuatre View Post
      What are people's views on his Spectator article on the people of Clacton. I hadn't read it before but now I have, I'm staggered by the man's breathtaking arrogance and snobbery.



      The last sentence is the worst IMO.

      He may be right about the scratchcards and pubs but could you imagine any journalist writing about any other social group in a similarly scathing manner ? No, because it would be unnacceptable. It seems that it's open season on the white working/lower middle classes.
      Yes it is acceptable because they are our own, them and their parents and their parents before that have had the same opportunities as everyone else - the fact they squandered their chances is their own fault.

      Having said that most uk seaside towns are a bit backward.

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        #4
        ...

        Originally posted by original PM View Post
        Yes it is acceptable because they are our own, them and their parents and their parents before that have had the same opportunities as everyone else - the fact they squandered their chances is their own fault.

        Having said that most uk seaside towns are a bit backward.
        Chances at what? Perhaps they are just happy.

        Anyway, people in the last 3 generations have not had the same opportunities as everyone else. People like Parris have seen to that.

        His wonderful insight actually smacks so much of jealousy and bad losership, he may just as well have stamped his little feet and scweamed
        Last edited by tractor; 13 October 2014, 07:19.

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          #5
          Originally posted by tractor View Post
          Chances at what? Perhaps they are just happy.

          Anyway, people in the last 3 generations have not had the same opportunities as everyone else. People like Parris have seen to that.

          His wonderful insight actually smacks so much of jealousy and bad losership, he may just as well have stamped his little feet and scweamed
          Well if you assume that a generation is approx. 25 years then we are talking since 1950.

          Rationing stopped in 1954 - so prior to that pretty much the majority of the UK population had nothing.

          75 years on and where are we now? Why is there such a difference?

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            #6
            I don't really see anything wrong with what he wrote. No arrogance, and the snobbery is probably as innoffensive as anyone in Britain gets when talking about people who aren't like them.

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              #7
              I think people are getting the Clacton result out of proportion. He was a well liked local figure and reputedly an excellent constituency MP and also is a national name - for crap reasons, natch, but there's no such thing as bad publicity. It would be interesting to compare the vote split this time with the previous GE result when he stood as a Tory: I'm guessing he personally pulled close to the same percentage.

              Meanwhile, the intelligent, committed and well informed voters of Clacton have elected an MP who is proven to lie to his party colleagues, represents a party with even fewer coherent policies than Millipede's rabble, put personal ambition ahead of UK's best interests and tried to sabotage the ruling Coalition. So I'm with Parrish; people get the MPs they deserve.
              Blog? What blog...?

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by malvolio View Post
                Meanwhile, the intelligent, committed and well informed voters of Clacton have elected an MP who is proven to lie to his party colleagues, represents a party with even fewer coherent policies than Millipede's rabble, put personal ambition ahead of UK's best interests and tried to sabotage the ruling Coalition. So I'm with Parrish; people get the MPs they deserve.
                That's just a definition of a politician really though...

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by IR35 Avoider View Post
                  I don't really see anything wrong with what he wrote. No arrogance, and the snobbery is probably as innoffensive as anyone in Britain gets when talking about people who aren't like them.
                  He might have added 100 constituencies up north to that.

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by IR35 Avoider View Post
                    I don't really see anything wrong with what he wrote. No arrogance, and the snobbery is probably as innoffensive as anyone in Britain gets when talking about people who aren't like them.
                    well we can't all go to Cambridge can we?


                    They are Thatchers and B'Liar's children, they are to some extent what they made them
                    What great schools are there in Clacton?
                    What exciting local industry to pull them out of the rut?

                    Thought not!

                    plenty of studies show if you get the boy (or Girl) out of poverty and despair you can get them out of of the Boy.

                    He is a privileged (By Clacton's standards) idiot, if he is prepared to write off an area because they lack get up and go or belief in that one day they will have a better life then he might as well write off 90% of the electorate having watched their wages fall.
                    Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

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