Voters Going Nowhere!

UKIP appeal to the lowest common denominator...the us and them factor. We don't have to take any responsibility if we can blame 'them'. Problems in the NHS....blame 'them'. Overcrowded schools....blame 'them'. Lack of jobs...blame 'them'. Whatever your prejudice....blame 'them'.

I have met Mathew Parris and he seemed a decent reasonable guy and I have always helped him in high esteem - so I too am surprised by this outpouring.

Vampirequeen, It wasn't my intention to bang the drum for UKIP. My observations and comments are more directed at an elite, irrespective of their party colours, who continue to patronise and sneer at a certain section of the population. I thought we had entered the age of "inclusiveness" now. Does this extend to all? Hence my shock at the words of Matthew Parris, "It's time for main political parties to ignore the voters who are going nowhere" the voters presumably being mainly white, working class, possibly older people.

Like Mishap, Matthew Parris is a writer I have always held in high esteem and enjoyed listening to him when he appeared on Question Time. His words shocked me. I had to read them twice.

Once again I am not a UKIP supporter just a bystander who can see that if the Gillian Duffy's of this world are to be treated with such contempt and derision, they may just turn away from the main three political parties who seem to view them as some sort of social problem.

The simplistic truth is that everyone has a vote and all votes are equal. If a large section of the disenchanted suddenly choose to exercise their right to use that vote then you ignore them at your peril.

Exactly, Anya.
It is the feeling of being ignored that spurs many to vote UKIP, in desperation, and UKIP is happy to foster the view that they are on the side of the ignored.

I tend to agree with you TerriBull - very snobbish.

If it is true that UKIP attracts the sort of "no-hopers" that Parris describes, that is surely an indictment of a system of inequality of education and opportunity which has marginalised poorer sections of the community. I feel it is something for which all parties should feel responsible rather than make cheap comments about people who have not led such privileged lives.

Also, given the antics of the "upper class" Bullingdon Club set, I'm not sure that any group can claim superiority in terms of intellect or sophistication.

And what's wrong with the Bee Gees?

Ana

A 2010 parliamentary report looked at the makeup of the commons.
The number of former manual workers serving as MPs has fallen from 16% in 1979 to 4% after the last election.
That's why the Labour Party is wanting Alan Johnson back on the front bench, to give them some credibility. Many MPs have been parachuted in from London, Oxford, Cambridge, etc. This is why people like Matthew Parris can get away with saying what he does, and it's also why less than half the electorate votes.

Ana yes indeed what is wrong with the Bee Gees? I always found them supremely talented. Starting off with as a memorable 60s group, then just when we thought they had faded into oblivion, they reinvent themselves with a different sound and the sublime soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever. Clearly too lowbrow for some though!

durhamjen agree with your comments about the credibility of our MPs now, which seems to be the way the three main parties are going. Hence the desperate clamouring for candidates of the calibre of Alan Johnson. His kind of background in politics is now such a rarity. I believe Andrew Marr made the comment that he thought prospective MPs should be 40 before they enter parliament and at least have lived some sort of life other than being spat off the Oxbridge PPE/Adviser production line straight into the narrowness of the Westminster village.

Anybody who is at all interested in voting now knows this to be true. A large percentage of the population can't be arsed to vote at all, that's their way of dealing with their disillusionment of our political class. Voting with their feet by not voting is now quite commonplace.

That of course is a problem for today's politicians, but possibly a greater one is a proportion of the remaining sheep who are refusing to be herded back into what would have been considered their appropriate pens.

Has the proportion of voters dropped in recent years? I know it varies depending on the type of election, e.g. there is usually a higher turnout for general elections than for local ones.

Should have said "proportion of voters who actually use their vote"

I'd like to be surprised by those comments from Mr Parris but I'm not - I suspect it's how most of them think; the public are just the hamsters on the wheel that provide their lifestyle (imo).

And had Alan Johnson, an orphaned working-class boy who lived in a council flat before becoming a postman and working his way up to become Home Secretary, stood for the Labour leadership in 2010, he might well have won.

You could have included David Davis Had things gone only a little differently in 2005, David Davis, the self-made son of a single mother, brought up on a council estate, might be the Conservative Party’s leader today.

If Mr Davis and Mr Johnson were facing each other across the House of Commons, then British politics today would have a very different — and, I am bound to say, much healthier — atmosphere.

Britain would find itself with two leaders whose personal histories of education, aspiration and hard work would surely strike a chord with millions of voters, making them worthy successors to state-educated politicians such as Labour’s Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan, or the Conservatives’ Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

Alas, it was not to be. Instead, the two parties elected leaders who, in their different ways, embody some of the very worst aspects of our modern political class: its arrogance, its remoteness, its elitism, its obsession with London, and above all, its sneering contempt for those who do not share its values, feel frightened by change

Taken from: www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2788866/our-sneering-political-elite-howl-rage-change-politics-forever-writes-historian-dominic-sandbrook.html#ixzz3G3JWmglG

Your post is very interesting and thoughtful, TerriBull and in fact I think it should be published as a response to Matthew Parris's disturbing view of Clacton voters.
No, there would be howls of rage if he had said something similar about immigrants or any ethnic minority.

The quote from Hollydaze was most interesting and makes us think about what is lacking in politics today - there is no-one we could call a 'statesman' amongst the leaders. (I was surprised to see the source as well - say what you like about the DM - and many on here do - it is increasingly critical of many of our political class, not just Labour.)

Well there you go. I've got a track suit, I wear trainers, I've been known to drink in pubs and I bake a mean meat pie.

And I'd be relieved if Mr Parris ignored me. Imagine the embarrassment if my friends thought I knew him.

MiceElf

I've never succumbed to the smug charms of Matthew Parris for a number of reasons including:

In the early 80s when he was assistant to Mrs Thatcher he replied to a constituent who'd written about a problem with his council house - Parris replied that the person should be grateful to have a council house and shouldn't be complaining!

In an effort to prove that people could live on £30 a week Social Security he took part in a TV programme whereby he lived on a council estate for a week - fortunately the smug git ran out of money, disproving his theory.

And finally, he outed Peter Mandelson, then an MP, as gay on Newsnight, when he himself was firmly in the closet when an MP.

Riverwalk, I vaguely remember the £30 a week trial, I didn't realise that it was MP who carried out that experiment, I can recollect another MP with the same apt MP initials (Michael Portillo) doing something along those lines.

MiceElf, you may wear track suit and trainers, (I certainly wear the latter if I'm on my 10,000 steps mission) however, I think if you make and bake your own meat pies it suggests you are in another league altogether. It's possible His Grace would deign to eat a homemade pie. Nice rustic peasant food! as opposed to nasty mass produced peasant food. Something along the line of a "Gingsters". This fits in with the overall picture of a spit and sawdust pub where the humble people of Clacton spend their miserable lives hunched over their scratch cards whilst simultaneously having their ears assaulted by The Gibb Brothers' falsettos!

Thank you rosequartz. I think it's possible that Matthew Parris may regret what he wrote. His lofty tone damns him and many others who fit into that niche privileged life that they seem to take for granted. The general public are not the fools that the Metropolitan elite take them for and their true colours show all too often. Once that has been done, there is little point in backtracking. A brilliant brain and common sense seemingly don't go hand in hand. Hence the disillusionment of the electorate with the calibre of person who represent us across the political spectrum and which many deem to be totally out of touch.

Sometimes a simple phrase just nails it - 'smug git' is perfect River

And I'd be relieved if Mr Parris ignored me. Imagine the embarrassment if my friends thought I knew him. MiceElf

Trying to live on £30 for a week was a pointless exercise; it is trying to exist on a very limited budget for a more extended period of time that is difficult.

DH likes a Ginster pasty occasionally, but in fact there is nothing like a proper Cornish pasty (even the ones made in Devon!) to make the mouth water. Matthew Parris should try one some time, together with a pint of real ale or proper cider. Might make him topple off his lofty pedestal.

'Two-faced git' also comes to mind after reading some of the above.

Now we all know what he thinks of us serfs/plebs/prols whatever term he may use to refer to those of us who work for a living, wear trainers and eat meat pies. (Actually not at the moment thankyou, I am trying to lose weight.)

DH likes a Ginster pasty occasionally

So do I. I used to take my children to an area called The Lickey Hills - a beautiful area with a lovely play area for children and it also has a cafe, at lunchtime, I'd have a Ginster's pasty and a coffee and the children had whatever they fancied - we'd sit in the parkland eating it and it was lovely . If that makes me common, so be it

Holly Daze when chomping through your Ginsters are you are wearing your trainers and trackie bottoms, with a pocketful of scratch cards at the ready to scrape away at once you have digested your lowly snack? If this is you, well you sound rather sad, there's not a lot more I can say really!

Holly, drinking a coffee with it makes it posh! Especially if you ate it in the Lickeys which have Royal connections. (Miles from Devon or Cornwall I know, but never mind, only us South-West yokels will get exercised about that.)

Trainers and trackie bottoms Terribull - how very common, I prefer to call them my outdoor casual sportswear (and I'm too mean to buy scratchcards)