tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33696095.post6033441399804066472..comments2024-03-12T15:05:35.529+00:00Comments on Norfolk Blogger: Did the Tories create the new underclass they now tell us about ?Nich Starlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04237390959601973501noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33696095.post-70511731418814313852006-12-16T12:23:00.000+00:002006-12-16T12:23:00.000+00:00I think you'll find historically, it was the Torie...I think you'll find historically, it was the Tories, under Thatcher who first dismissed the notion of an 'underclass'.<br /><br />Today, the Tories under Polly Toynbee, are now embracing the concept they rubbished not so long ago.<br /><br />I think it's quite instructive to see a lib-dem uncritically falling for this sociologically undefined notion - because you can't blame the 'mass cull of industrial manual jobs under the Conservatives' for the moral failings of an immoral 'underclass', can you?<br /><br />How would you define the 'new underclass'? Who are they? In the past, the unemployed were still seen as a part of the working class. Now, if you are a long-term unemployed, who sniffs glue all day long, and a single parent, this seems to be enough to qualify you as a section of the 'new underclass'.<br /><br />Such a perpective would say a lot more about your reactionary state of mind than it would about the urban poor or the long-term unemployed.Courtney Hamiltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00123189158273701629noreply@blogger.com