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.
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.
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.
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.
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