The real division is not between the people of somewhere like Stoke,
and the metropolitan elite of London. The division is between people
in Stoke itself, just as it is between people in London itself, and
similarly, it is not a division between Britain and foreigners, but
between people in Britain.
The Alt-Right politicians throw up concepts such as “the
metropolitan elite”, in the same way that they throw up
“foreigners”, as an ill-defined other that can be blamed. In the
same way, there is an attempt to divide younger generations from
baby-boomer generations, by ludicrously claiming that baby-boomer
workers are to blame for today's astronomical property prices and
pension black holes that were actually created by the conservative
economic policies from the 1980's onwards, designed to inflate asset
price bubbles, whilst failing to invest in productive-capital, house
building or employer pension contributions.
In a place like Stoke, as elsewhere, the real division is between
capital and labour. But, even within this context, and even in a
place like Stoke, there are further divisions that do not tally with
the concept of the metropolitan elite, and the conclusions drawn from
it, by the Alt-Right. If you are an older worker, with relatively
little education, who for decades worked on a potbank, in the mine,
or at Shelton Bar steelworks, then your experience of the last 25
years, after those industries largely disappeared, may have been
pretty miserable. The same can be said for workers in similar
conditions elsewhere in Britain, or in the US rust belt. You are
probably not going to have been re-educated or trained, so as to be
able to find a job in some new higher value employment. Yet, such
jobs do exist, and have been created in North Staffordshire.
Its tempting to hope that those old jobs and industries might come
back. I too would like to re-live all the good things of my youth.
Unfortunately, hope and reality are not the same thing. Those old
jobs are not coming back either here in Britain, or in the US
rust belt. Its not, in many cases, foreign workers that have taken
those jobs and industries away, but machines and robots, and if the
UK or US wants to compete in those industries, with the same
industries in China or elsewhere, it will only do so, by introducing
even more machines and robots, and clearing out even more workers.
What is more, to do any of that on a sufficient scale, and with
sufficient overall planning and regulation can only be done on a
continent, i.e. EU wide basis.
Whether it is Trump or the Brexiters, the hope they give of those
jobs returning is false hope, thrown out simply to garner short-term
popularity and electoral support, whose failure to materialise will
lead to only further anger and alienation.
There are higher value jobs that have been created, for example, in
Stoke, such jobs have been created at the Science Park at Keele
University; the NHS is the largest employer, and employs large
numbers of often younger, and better educated workers; and a range of
new industries have developed in the areas of design, computing and
media production. Even in the pottery industry, the large-scale
production jobs may have disappeared, but there are now a smaller
number, of higher value jobs in design, and materials development.
In large part, many of these newer jobs are taken on by the new
generation of younger, better educated workers that have grown up in
a world where those ideas that the Alt-Right attribute to the
metropolitan elite, are, in fact, taken for granted, rather than seen
as, in some way, alien, optional extras. That is one reason that
across the country, including places like Stoke, those younger
workers were strongly in favour of remaining in the EU, and are far
less likely to hold all of the other bigoted views held by sections
of the older generations.
When the Alt-Right attack the metropolitan elite, who they are
actually attacking are all those workers, particularly younger,
better educated workers, in places like Stoke, who are also concerned
with all of those issues that workers consider necessary for a decent
life, in respect of freedom from discrimination, the ability to move
freely, and to enjoy and create a better environment. But, its
precisely for that reason that the Alt-right define the metropolitan
elite in such vacuous, anonymous terms.
But, nor is it just young better educated workers for whom this is
true. If we take the issue of Brexit, and the EU referendum, for
example, its clear that the very narrow margin in favour of Leave was
driven by a very concentrated vote amongst a relatively narrow
section of the population, a section that is more or less
economically and socially irrelevant. It was driven by a very high
number of old, mostly retired people, who voted by a large majority
for Leave. It was supplemented, in parts of the country, like Stoke,
by a similar large majority of people who have become detached from
economic activity, for the reasons described above.
Its quite clear that big business did not want Brexit, even many
smaller and medium sized businesses opposed Brexit, whilst the
Richmond By-Election showed that amongst the educated middle-class
there was a large opposition to Brexit. What is also now clear,
however, is that, even in places like Stoke, the majority of Labour
voters, also opposed Brexit, by nearly the same kind of majority as
elsewhere in the country.
The idea that the Leave vote in places like Stoke was driven by
workers in those areas rejecting a forward looking agenda, associated
with the metropolitan elite, therefore, simply does not tally with
the facts.
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