Jacob Rees Mogg

I’m afraid I spent a decade in the Conservative youth wing, Annie, and I certainly did meet them. The word “peasants” was thrown about a lot. It was also used at my school to refer to people who were state educated.

I would like to think that Cameron’s attempt to clean out the worst of the youth wing was successful, but I know from younger friends it was not.

I really don’t understand why some are so troubled by what they see as ‘class’. To say JRM calls people peasants , the false assumption all tories are wealthy , this is so not true.

In rural France the paysans would be highly insulted if they knew about the derogatory use of the word.
They're very proud of their status as small landowners. And so they should be - they're the backbone of the agricultural industry.

Thank you Diana, you heard they reffer to people as peasants? We have several country estates here, I have never experienced meeting people who were like those you met.

Sorry Anniebach I should have said "we think"

I don't mix with the "awful people" these days but I gained plenty of experience in my first 20 yrs. On the mid 1960s the local kids including myself were recruited as beaters on the Estate Shoots the going rate was 15/- a day. We did exactly what the gamekeeper told us, the guns did not regard any of us at all, although none of us actually got shot the impression was that it wouldn't really have mattered if we did.
At 15 I got a job as a waitress in a cafe that was nice enough but then was offered some evening work for an outside caterer. One event was a Tory party dinner, the organiser set the tone by telling risqué jokes and it all went downhill, they were talking down to the waitresses all night, not just the men, women as well and at the end quite a lot of groping too.
From what I've been told if anything it has got worse, no respect at all for hospitality workers which is why most Brits won't do it, hotels and restaurants have to use migrants.

That why I don't mix with these awful people.

I asked our guide "who are those people" his reply a very snooty " ignore them they're just peasants".
I tend to ask that every time I go to Lidl.

control a lot more than you think

So I asked Diana, how do you know what I think ?

Because someone in China referred to peasants you claim people here do the same, you must mix with the awful people to hear that

Curious, what?.

And you know what I think Diana ?

Anniebach
Not house owners from tenants but if your family is old money and you have been privately educated you have a different outlook. Certainly, not all are clever like JRM there are plenty of wastrels who squander the family wealth, not all are landowners either, many are "something in the city", these old families control a lot more than you think.

Baggs. I don't know where you got that from but I guess it depends who you call middle class, for instance is a skilled plumber working class or middle class, self employed might often be termed middle class but is a minicab driver in Cairo middle class, or is it just how you regard yourself.

China has indeed got the fastest growing middle class, on my trip to China we were traveling by train and slowed for a station, there were a lot of locals milling round obviously destitute. I asked our guide "who are those people" his reply a very snooty " ignore them they're just peasants".

Don't get me wrong I don't dislike the "toffs" I don't envy them either, they are different, I don't want to socialise with them and vice versa, but I accept that very often they are effectively the " ruling class".

So we are devided ? land owners and tenants, you have missed the many into between Diana

The peasants are revolting!

Financial Times and The Times.

Apparently more than half the human population of the world is now middle class. The number of middle class people in China is rising faster than elsewhere.

Now I'll see if I can find my source for that info....

We are not in China or India

Peasants

Anyone who doubts the class or income divide in China or India should go there and open your eyes and you see it in many other countries there is always an underclass held in very low regard by the elite.

In the UK "old money" families preserve their wealth, most live quite modestly but make sure the children are educated separately and are taught that they are "better" than state educated children. Those children have every advantage in the job market, a phone call from daddy will get them an interview, in the marriage market they are introduced to suitable partners at arranged parties.

"New money" tends to spend much more freely and does not have the contacts or "pedigree", they can buy their way into the same society but are not usually wholly accepted.

Some moneyed people genuinely have the common touch others regard any donations, as " crumbs to the peasants", and any empathy is keeping up the illusion of caring to get votes. I was brought up in an estate village, my parents were tenants and the Lady of the Manor was termed "lady bountiful" and did "good work" locally. The Squire was the opposite only interested in money and pheasant shooting of course.
We really were peasants and not much has changed. Their wealth has multiplied, tenants struggle even more to pay the rent.

Could you give an example of his "sneering sense of entitlement", varian, if only because one shouldn't be making such accusations without evidence. Thank you in anticipation.

No link varian to him referring to peasants, he must have, you said so.

I have never been engaged in any class war, Annie, unlike many LP members. I know some perfectly decent folk with money, including some Old Etonians. What I object to about Mogg is his sneering sense of entitlement, misplaced sense of superiority, no sense of compassion and absolutely no sense about the lives of most ordinary UK citizens. He is a very poor example of a Christian.

As for the "potted plants" quotation referring to something he said twelve years ago, I am reminded of a remark by Chris Patten, who knew JRM as a child and talked about how he would pontificate from an early age. He said "Jacob had some very excentric views when he was eight and he still seems to have the same excentric views at forty-eight", so we can't blame Eton.

Still fighting the class war Varian

Oh now you've started a song in my head- that Flanders and Swan thing about some plants climbing to the left and some to the right! Misalliance!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYr0eNtpDHs

I've read the link and realise now it was Jacob R-M who said it, but I'm not quite sure what he means - and it is a link from 2006 which was 12 years ago (how clever of me to work that out!).

How would he describe state school pupils who went to Oxford or Cambridge? Or privately educated students who went to other universities?
Climbers? Ramblers?

State school pupils are 'potted plants', says Tory
I'm going to comment on that before I read the link.

State school pupils are potted plants - planted with care, nurtured and cared for to enable them to grow and blossom.

Now I'll read the link.

How do we know that JRM despises most of us? This might give us a clue-

State school pupils are 'potted plants', says Tory

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/state-school-pupils-are-potted-plants-says-tory-418767.html

Or for those who prefer to get their news from the Daily Mail-

'Pot plant' jibe at candidates who went to state schools

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-408444/Pot-plant-jibe-candidates-went-state-schools.html

Of course it has been shown that those with the lowest level of education were most likely to believe the lies of JRM and his brexity friends, so he probably despises them the most.