The New Snobbery

The Brexit referendum marked the first time in generations that the working class flexed its political muscle and helped to change the direction of the country - against the almost universal advice of the ruling political, business and cultural classes. Three years later, the same voters proved to be pivotal in the result of the 2019 general election, with the so-called 'Red Wall' crumbling. But just as they seem to be important again, a new and insidious snobbery has taken root in society, which is aimed squarely at working-class voters. In part, this is a reaction to the power of these new voters and in part it is the result of cultural and economic changes over recent decades. This rousing polemic explores the roots and the reality of this new snobbery. It considers how the working class has been excluded and how this has been emphasised during the COVID-19 pandemic. It describes how the working class has been abandoned by its traditional champions who spoke about empowering it whilst building a middle-class movement that left working people politically estranged; and it sets out the cultural and educational disenfranchisement of the traditional working class, which creates polarisation and entrenches the new snobbery.