Corbyn: Champagne Socialist?

[Zacs-Master]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/Jeremy_Corbyn/11818744/Jeremy-Corbyn-the-boy-to-the-manor-born.html

[Cloverjo]

I don't see a problem. You don't have to have come from a humble background to be a socialist.

[sunny-dave]

I smell desperation in the Tory gutter press - perhaps they are scared that a conviction politician (rather than a ToryLite clone) will do some damage to the cosy club at Westminster.

[Sqad]

No, sorry.......i don't think it matters one iota whether Labour Politician comes from a privileged and Public School upbringing or that a Tory Politician comes from a council estate or is a member of the Bullingdon Club .

[mikey4444]

I agree with Cloverjo. This is a non-story.

Is it now a requirement that we should know the circumstances under which all our politicians were born, in order we can assess them ?

Yet another attempt by the Tory press to attack Labour. ( failed )

Play the ball, not the man !

[Zacs-Master]

So the LABOUR party should (again) be lead by someone who has no understanding of the people's lives he is representing? It's easy to preach socialist values when implementing those values will have no effect on your lifestyle.

[sunny-dave]

So - the flip side of that is only a card carrying toff could lead the Tories - because otherwise he couldn't understand the lives of the land owning gentry and banking scum that is serving?

[sunny-dave]

'he is serving'

[Zacs-Master]

The Tories represent (govern) everyone Dave. Not sure what point your trying to make.

[sunny-dave]

My point is that LABOUR also govern/represent everybody ...

[sunny-dave]

You can't pigeon hole Labour on one hand and claim that the Tories are all embracing on the other - it's illogical ...

[Zacs-Master]

They do but the people they are tying to appeal to, in the main, are the working class. How can someone who's never been part of the working class empathise with their plight?

[Zacs-Master]

I didn't say the Tories were all embracing, as Labiur aren't. But Labour (the clues in the name) aim to represent and better the lives of the working class, in the main.

[sunny-dave]

And the Tories exist to advance the interests of the rich and land owning (in the main) - so ... how can a working class kid lead the Tories - when their power base is alien to his culture ... ?

[DTCwordfan]

//in the main// - yes, I agree that Labour are all at sea. I'm waiting for the fallout when this election hits the court system......

[Khandro]

Sometimes observation from the top-down, gives a clearer view than that from the bottom-up.

[Zacs-Master]

My post isn't about a working class kid leading the Tories. I don't think I'd want that. My post asks how can someone from a fairly privilidged background represent / empathise with the needs of the people he is, in the main, representing?

[Svejk]

I couldn't care less about the background of this dead party's leadership.
But the hypocrisy of some Labour supporters is hilarious. 'Tory Toffs' 'Bullingdon Boys' etc. ad infinitum.
Now we mustn't 'play the man'. Lol.

[sunny-dave]

An example from history - which I have chapter and verse for, because a close relative was there.

Montgomery of Alamein was an astonishing snob - haughty, patrician and intolerant. A member of 'the ruling classes' by birth, education and inclination. Anyone with less likelihood of empathising with a welder from Hartlepool is hard to imagine.

His insight into what his men needed was, however, beyond compare - as was his iron determination to get it for them. As a result they adored him and would (and did) follow him to hell and back.

You don't have to be 'of the masses' to fight 'for the masses'.

[sandyRoe]

If the Tories had a little empathy with hard-working, working class families would they have so readily cut Family Tax credits?