the US is about race, the UK about class Posted on May 7th
it was a guardian article - Gary Young I think - were he recited the truism that US politics are fundamentally about race, where those in the UK are about class. So, amongst all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over Boris’ win, it was interesting to come across the detail of who voted, and which direction the voting trends were going. Again, it was in a paper I don’t have to hand, but the outer suburbs, the richer suburbs, had a 49% voting rate - up on previous years. The inner, poorer (and blacker) city had at best a 43% voting rate. In the richer suburban ring voting was at one of its highest levels. The opposite was true in the inner city. Perhaps the all city walls will be reconstructed once more to keep people in this time. It is interesting to see where it starts for Boris though - drinking on the underground will be bound (no doubt drinking in the street will be next). Then ‘young offenders’ will be forced to clean walls, kids who listen to music on their phones too loudly on public transport will be shot… the palpable fear of the dangerous classes can only get worse in the coming times as peoples incomes are threatened, housing remains out of reach and mortgages become stones around the middle classes collective necks. I wonder how much of Italy’s present is the UK’s future now that Blair’s conservatives have gone home?
