Working Class Tory: Entrenchers of Privilege

Thursday, 3 December 2009

Entrenchers of Privilege

Benedict Brogan's blog features parts of an Evening Standard interview with Sally Bercow, wife of John, a Labour supporter and council candidate, who says:

I don’t even want to send the children to the grammars in John’s constituency. I’m strongly against selection, because it entrenches privilege.

Well why is she standing for the Labour party? The Parliamentary Labour Party is full of grammar school pupils. These ones, for example, went exclusively to a grammar school. There are several others who also went to private or comprehensive school.

Diane Abbott (Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Nick Ainger (Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire)
Graham Allen (Nottingham North)
David Anderson (Blaydon)
Janet Anderson (Rossendale and Darwen)
Hilary Armstrong (North West Durham)
Charlotte Atkins (Staffordshire Moorlands)
John Austin (Erith and Thamesmead)
Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West)
Vera Baird (Redcar)
Margaret Beckett (Derby South)
Stuart Bell (Middlesbrough)
Roger Berry (Kingswood)
Liz Blackman (Erewash)
Hazel Blears (Salford)
David Borrow (South Ribble)
Karen Buck (Regent's Park and Kensington North)
Richard Burden (Birmingham Northfield)
Colin Burgon (Elmet)
Alan Campbell (Tynemouth)
Martin Caton (Gower)
Colin Challen (Morley and Rothwell)
Ben Chapman (Wirral South)
David Chaytor (Bury North)
Paul Clark (Gillingham)
Vernon Coaker (Gedling)
Ann Coffey (Stockport)
Rosie Cooper (West Lancashire)
Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North)
David Crausby (Bolton North East)
Tony Cunningham (Workington)
Janet Dean (Burton)
Andrew Dismore (Hendon)
Frank Dobson (Holborn and St. Pancras)
Jeffrey Ennis (Barnsley East and Mexborough)
Bill Etherington (Sunderland North)
Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Frank Field (Birkenhead)
Michael Foster (Hastings and Rye)
Hywel Francis (Aberavon)
Bruce George (Walsall South)
Neil Gerrard (Walthamstow)
Mark Hendrick (Preston)
John Heppell (Nottingham East)
Stephen Hesford (Wirral West)
Patricia Hewitt (Leicester West)
Keith Hill (Streatham)
Kate Hoey (Vauxhall)
Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North)
Kim Howells (Pontypridd)
Beverley Hughes (Stretford and Urmston)
John Hutton (Barrow and Furness)
Eric Illsley (Barnsley Central)
Glenda Jackson (Hampstead and Highgate)
Alan Johnson (Hull West and Hessle)
Diana Johnson (Hull North)
Martyn Jones (Clwyd South)
Gerald Kaufman (Manchester Gorton)
Barbara Keeley (Worsley)
Alan Keen (Feltham and Heston)
Stephen Ladyman (South Thanet)
Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central)
Andrew MacKinlay (Thurrock)
Christine McCafferty (Calder Valley)
Sarah McCarthy-Fry (Portsmouth North)
John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington)
Tony McNulty (Harrow East)
Alun Michael (Cardiff South and Penarth)
Austin Mitchell (Great Grimsby)
Madeleine Moon (Bridgend)
Kali Mountford (Colne Valley)
Denis Murphy (Wansbeck)
Edward O'Hara (Knowsley South)
James Plaskitt (Warwick and Leamington)
Greg Pope (Hyndburn)
Stephen Pound (Ealing North)
Joan Ruddock (Lewisham Deptford)
Christine Russell (City of Chester)
Martin Salter (Reading West)
Alison Seabeck (Plymouth Devonport)
Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield)
Siôn Simon (Birmingham Erdington)
Alan Simpson (Nottingham South)
Dennis Skinner (Bolsover)
Andrew Smith (Oxford East)
John Smith (Vale of Glamorgan)
Peter Soulsby (Leicester South)
Helen Southworth (Warrington South)
Jack Straw (Blackburn)
Gerry Sutcliffe (Bradford South)
David Taylor (North West Leicestershire)
Stephen Timms (East Ham)
Paddy Tipping (Sherwood)
Jon Trickett (Hemsworth)
Des Turner (Brighton Kemptown)
Neil Turner (Wigan)
Joan Walley (Stoke-on-Trent North)
Alan Whitehead (Southampton Test)
Alan Williams (Swansea West)
Mike Wood (Batley and Spen)
Phil Woolas (Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Tony Wright (Cannock Chase)
Derek Wyatt (Sittingbourne and Sheppey)

She surely shouldn't be happy sitting with any of those "entrenchers of privilege".

14 comments:

Jim said...: Point taken - but broad churches, eh?; 3 December 2009 23:02
Young England said...: Where is Harriet Harman in your list?; 3 December 2009 23:26
Working Class Tory said...: Young Hattie went to private school, so can be found in the post before this.; 3 December 2009 23:52
toryrascal said...: Posted by the Telegraph! Good work!; 4 December 2009 12:16
Working Class Tory said...: Thanks!; 4 December 2009 12:17
Edward said...: Is that why we have such a poor prime minister - he didn't go to a grammer school or a public school?; 4 December 2009 13:15
Working Class Tory said...: Could be; 4 December 2009 13:22
worlseyite said...: I think you'll find Harriet Harman's deputy went to a grammar school.

She's not on your list.; 4 December 2009 16:01
Working Class Tory said...: Could you email me the details of that?

matt@workingclasstory.com; 4 December 2009 16:14
worsleyite said...: Mount St Mary's College WAS a grammar when she went there. See wikipaedia entry.; 4 December 2009 16:17
Working Class Tory said...: Amended - thanks!; 4 December 2009 16:31
Sandy Jamieson said...: You forgot to add Gordon Brown (Kirkcaldy) who went to Kirkcaldy High School. Now strictly speaking we didn't have Grammar/Secondary Moderns in Scotland but we had Senior Secondary Schools and Junior Secondary Schools and Gordon Brown passed his 11+ to go to Kirkcaldy High School (a Senior Secondary School) on a fast track scheme; 5 December 2009 20:22
Phil Taylor said...: Not only was Kirkcaldy High School effectively a grammar, it aped public schools to the extent that Brown lost the sight in one eye being injured in an old boys' rugby match.

With a history going back to 1582 and a traditional house system Kirkcaldy was an elite school when Brown was there.

In his 2007 conference speech Brown said:

I attended the local state primary school in Kirkcaldy a few streets away from where I lived - and then I took the school bus to the local secondary school up the hill.

This was an out and out lie. He went to the only grammar (senior secondary in the then Scottish system) in the area.; 6 December 2009 17:37
Anonymous said...: To everything there is cost like Ms Bercows expenses for her government flat. Its seems the labour party will be paying for them now.; 6 December 2009 21:23

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-We thought we signed up for a free trade area, but what we are really getting is a European superstate. This is why I want to go to Brussels: not to gain power for me, but to give power back to you. That does not make me an anti-European. That makes me a democrat - Jean-Paul Floru, 2009.

- The European currency was a thinkable idea two years ago, but now it is just going to be dross. You should be careful because a European currency would mean that your savings and your pension are going to be diluted to fund public saving schemes in Greece and Spain and France - Alan Clark, 1997.

- What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone? - Winston Churchill, 1908.

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- Gordon Brown's lack of fiscal responsibility will damage our ability to compete, and mean further tax rises for hard working families - George Osborne, 2006.

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- The view which has been dethroned in this process is conservatism. This can be summed up as a pessimistic view of humanity and society based on a Christian belief in the imperfectibility of man, demanding the exercise of individual conscience, strong self-restraint, deference to established authority, sexual continence and constancy, patience, respect for age, for hierarchy and for institutions, patriotism and monarchy - generally combined with a strong predisposition in favour of hard work and thrift and a horror of idleness and debt. These views were once held widely by voters on both sides of the political divide. The modern person may recognise all these things under the other names which progressives give to them: ‘repression, religious bigotry, snobbery, sexism, chauvinism, xenophobia, suburban and/or “Victorian” values etc.’ Call them what you like, but don't imagine that your choice of name doesn't betoken an opinion on an important issue. They once were dominant and are now despised and rejected - Peter Hitchens, 2009

- Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence - Ronald Reagan, 1970.

- The historical experience of socialist countries has sadly demonstrated that collectivism does not do away with alienation but rather increases it, adding to it a lack of basic necessities and economic inefficiency - Pope John Paul II, 1991.

- What our generation has forgotten is that the system of private propery is the most important guarantee of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do not. It is only because the control of the means of production is divided among many people acting independently that nobody has complete power over us, that we as individuals can decide what to do with ourselves - Friedrich Hayek, 1944.

- Anyone who votes Labour ought to be locked up - Bernard Montgomery, 1959.

- Those who, in the nineteenth century, argued the dangers of a mass democracy in which a majority of the voters would have no stake in the country at all, had reason to be fearful. But the remedy is not to restrict the franchise to those who own property: it is to extend the ownership of property to the largest possible majority of those who have the vote. The widespread ownership of private property is crucial to the survival of freedom and democracy. It gives the citizen a vital sense of identification with the society of which he is a part. It gives him a stake in the future - and indeed, equally important, in the present. It creates a society with an inbuilt resistance to revolutionary change - Nigel Lawson, 1985.

- If I did not believe that our work was done in the faith and hope that at some day, it may be a million years hence, the Kingdom of Heaven will spread over the whole world, I would have no hope, I could do no work, and I would give my office over this morning to anyone who would take it - Stanley Baldwin, 1928.

- A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both - Milton Friedman, 1990.

- Socialists cry "Power to the people", and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean—power over people, power to the State - Margaret Thatcher, 1986.

- The day may dawn when fair play, love for one's fellow men, respect for justice and freedom, will enable tormented generations to march forth triumphant from the hideous epoch in which we have to dwell. Meanwhile, never flinch, never weary, never despair - Winston Churchill, 1955.

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- To me a Tory is a person who believes that authority is vested in institutions - Enoch Powell, 1992.

- I joined this party because I believe in freedom. We are the only party believing that if you give people freedom and responsibility, they will grow stronger and society will grow stronger - David Cameron, 2005.

- Fifty years on from now, Britain will still be the country of long shadows on cricket grounds, warm beer, invincible green suburbs, dog lovers and pools fillers and, as George Orwell said, 'Old maids bicycling to holy communion through the morning mist' and, if we get our way, Shakespeare will still be read even in school - John Major, 1993.

- There can be no self-government without self-discipline. There can be no self-government without self-control. There can be no liberty unless it is grounded in moral discipline and the ability to do what is right - Alan Keyes, 1999.

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- It's that sort of entrepreneurial spirit the Conservatives believe in and Labour doesn't understand - Alan Sugar, 1992.

- Throughout the 20th century, the strongest and most successful, most vibrant, most interesting societies were those infused with the principles of political, economic and religious freedom. The best-performing economies were those where citizens were given the maximum incentive, under the rule of law, to make the choices they considered best for themselves and their families. This is not a matter of ideology of faith. It is an unassailable fact of history. The Berlin Wall did not fall by accident. It fell because millions of people living in societies crippled by the failures of excessive government control yearned for the freedoms they saw in the West. The socialisation of the means of production and distribution had manifestly failed them, and they aspired to something better. The Berlin Wall fell also because leaders like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher had the courage to hold to the conviction that the most successful and stable societies would always be those where the power relationship was defined by popular consent – where government served the people, rather than people being slaves to the dictates of government. In this belief, they were relying on one of the great intellectual inheritances of Western society, indeed one of the great intellectual inheritances of British society - Malcolm Turnbull, 2009.

- The great political reform of the last century was to enable more and more people to have a vote. Now the great Tory reform of this century is to enable more and more people to own property. Popular capitalism is nothing less than a crusade to enfranchise the many in the economic life of the nation. We Conservatives are returning power to the people. That is the way to one nation, one people - Margaret Thatcher, 1986.

- If the spirit of the Reform Bill implies merely, a careful review of institutions, civil and ecclesiastical, undertaken in a friendly temper, combining, with the firm maintenance of established rights, the correction of proved abuses, and the redress of real grievances,—in that case, I can for myself and colleagues undertake to act in such a spirit and with such intentions - Robert Peel, 1834.

- The truth is that a prosperous world based on free and open markets is a world of co-operation and interdependence between the people of all nations. By contrast, a world of closed, State controlled economies is a world disposed towards confrontation and conflict - Nigel Lawson, 1988.

- The Government's obsession with gimmicks, spin and gestures betrays the victims and puts the public at risk - Dominic Grieve, 2009.

- A major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself - Milton Friedman, 1962.

- My policies are based not on some economics theory, but on things I and millions like me were brought up with: an honest day's work for an honest day's pay; live within your means; put by a nest egg for a rainy day; pay your bills on time; support the police - Margaret Thatcher, 1981.

- The reason Labour flourished many years ago was the "them and us" situation that prevailed in England. There were the rich and there were the poor. At that stage maybe I would have sympathised with the need for a Labour government. But that's all been changed now. Look around. Yes, there are the very poor and more should be done for them. But almost everybody's got a microwave oven, a car and a colour television - maybe more than one colour television in their homes. Let's be honest with each other. 'Them and us' doesn't exist any more - Alan Sugar, 1992.

- You might however consider whether you should not unfold as a background the great privilege of habeas corpus and trial by jury, which are the supreme protection invented by the English people for ordinary individuals against the state. The power of the executive to cast a man in prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government, whether Nazi or Communist - Winston Churchill, 1943.

- Conservatives are humble enough to recognise the unlikelihood that they have all the answers, so they don't try to provide them. They are disbelieving of those who claim special abilities to transform society for the better. They are realistic enough to recognise that life isn't always fair but that across the spectrum of things that make a person happy the politician can positively influence one or two at most. Conservatives hate few people, if any; they love their communities and their country and feel no need to intellectualise why - any more than they feel the need to explain their love for their parents/spouse/children. Conservatives have no dogma, no manifesto, no slogans. We are not capitalists, we do not celebrate 'freedom', we abhor authoritarianism and chuckle at those who think this is contradictory. We recognise our present is intimately tied to our past and our future. We are patriotic, loyal, affectionate and peaceful. We are not socialists and we are not libertarians - Gary Monro, 2009.

- Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children what it was once like in the United States when men were free - Ronald Reagan, 1961.

- The word 'conservative' is used by the BBC as a portmanteau word of abuse for anyone whose views differ from the insufferable, smug, sanctimonious, naïve, guilt-ridden, wet, pink orthodoxy of that sunset home of the third-rate minds of that third-rate decade, the nineteen-sixties - Norman Tebbit, 1990.

Working Class Tory

Thursday, 3 December 2009

Entrenchers of Privilege

14 comments:

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