Good stuff, and a very welcome rebuke to Finkelstein. The last thing these places need is an invasion of the Creative Class. and I speak as a member of that class.
Then this:
‘Funding committees do love an ugly shed filled with second-tier modern art and less-than-compelling museum exhibits, but theirs is the logic of the cargo cult.’
Yes, they did something like this in my home town some years ago, in an old mill. Needless to say it was always empty and closed down after a couple of years.
Alison Houston
3 years ago
Excellent criticism of the Finkelstein rhubarb. You don’t seem to understand though, that borrowing the votes of former dyed in the wool Labour voters in order to win power for your metropolitan, liberal, left party, by making vague promises of small amounts of money (small but sufficiently Monopoly money sounding to impress us Northern Neanderthals) and referencing Roosevelt, is not the same as intending to conserve or produce anything in conservative communities.
Grossly over subsidising Ulster, Scotland, and even Wales, should cease with immediate effect, and the funds redirected to the North of England. Charity begins, and ends, at home should be the watchword from now on.
Even to a classicist like Boris, it must be glaringly obvious, there are no meaningful votes to had from the three greedy, ugly, ‘sisters’, Ulster, Scotland and Wales.
Martin Adams
3 years ago
An excellent critique of Finkelstein’s ideas. Mr Franklin’s identification of the assumptions on which Finkelstein’s arguments rest is impeccable. Well, I can’t think of any other assumption except, perhaps, an inherent sense of moral superiority over those proles who voted against the beliefs of the enlightened ones.
My point about assumptions of moral superiority is perhaps implicit in the way that Mr Franklin addresses the third of Finkelsein’s assumptions:
And thirdly, that the values of either the Government or left-behind Britain are so culturally conservative as to have a negative impact on the economy.
I agree with the way Mr Franklin tackles this erroneous assumption. However, I have a strong suspicion that the power of this cultural conservatism is being under-estimated; and that the under-estimation happens because most commentators fail to identify its roots, which are far deeper than the immediate appeal of an economic fillip.
The phenomenon of the working-class Tory is special to England, though it does exist, or has existed, in Scotland and Wales also. Its roots in England are very old indeed; and it is so unusual among the nations of Europe generally that it has attracted a number of academic studies, for it defies the traditional caricatures of the English class system and the kinds of class allegiances to be found in most continental nations.
One German study, published some 20 years ago (I can’t find it now), noted that interviews with working-class Tory voters in the north of England highlighted two values in particular that made such folk refuse to vote Labour (though some of them might have voted Liberal). The first was the conviction that financial reward was deserved principally via hard work and personal discipline. Concomitantly, there was a suspicion of welfare because they believed it tended to sap initiative. A second dominant conviction was that, although such voters were often sympathetic to those is difficulty, they also had a profound antipathy to collective action ” to what they saw as the power of the mob. I’m sure this study presented other characteristic beliefs; but those are the ones I remember. The German author argued convincingly that those beliefs rested on the fact that what his great compatriot, Max Weber, had called “the Protestant ethic” was deeply embedded in English culture ” in religion, in education and in institutions.
There are other studies of a comparable kind. One that I have read more recently was published in The British Journal of Sociology in 1967 (“Working Class Conservatives: A Theory of Political Deviance”). Its author, Frank Parkin, was notable as a free thinker who rejected the Marxist perspective of “class interests”, which saw a working-class Tory as a traitor to fellow members of his class. Noting that approximately one third of working class voters tended to vote Tory, Professor Parkin developed a much more nuanced theory, capable of incorporating the infinite variety of human nature. He emphasised the lack of uniformity among such voters, and suggested that the main area they had in common was a sense of identification with:
the dominant institutional orders and central values of the society ” of which the Conversatives may be said to be the political guard.
The Alf Garnett caricature of the working class Tory contains elements of truth; and so it is often hilariously funny. But taken at all seriously, and it becomes a calumny. Therefore it is all the more unfortunate for the Labour Party that, as the Emily Thornberry “white van” episode showed, such instincts about working-class voters who do not vote Labour are alive and flourishing.
David Bell
3 years ago
Finkelstein’s argument falls apart when you consider the number of entrepreneurs who come from communities that are anything but metropolitan. Many of the area he appears to be think off are middle class areas dominate by civil servants and other members of the employed professionals classes. They are not the wealth creators!
vince porter
3 years ago
Exhibit A in arts and cultural refinement, and, its effect on economic development might be Venice. It’s population has been halved in the last 30 years, plunging from 120000 to just 50000. It could be argued that the creative classes have destroyed it, perhaps, primarily because only the truly affluent can afford the housing costs. Cities like London, New York, and Toronto, should worry about the stresses and inequality in housing leading to social unrest rather than continued prosperity.
Art and cultural refinement hasn’t hurt cities like Vienna, Paris, Munich and so on. Venice (geography?) is a special place.
Rebecca Bartleet
3 years ago
It is not only the north that is losing out to metropolitan selfishness, greed and snobbish superiority.
Constant surprise is still being expressed at how inexpressibly stupid the Cornish must be to have voted for Brexit when they have benefitted to the tune of billions of pounds from EU largesse.
The truth of the matter is that all this funding is distributed via Whitehall, and the good people who work there have long believed that the people of Cornwall don’t really deserve this money, and so do everything they can to allow as little of it as possible to be spent in Cornwall.
A Cornish transport company asks for investment in better roads to enable them to compete with companies upcountry? Bad, very bad, climate emergency blah blah blah.
A bunch of ex-teachers who have become self-appointed Druids, and who want to spend thousands trying to revive a language that died out over two hundred years ago and that only a handful of people can understand, okay that’s great!
There are many more similar examples but that, my friends, is basically why the Cornish voted to Leave the EU.
Of course the sad irony is that their enemies weren’t the good folk in Brussels, but are much closer to home in their own capital city!
Jeremy Smith
3 years ago
Tories (Maggie) tried to save the left-behind areas with free market reforms. New Labor tried to save the left-behind areas with massive transfers of funds and art museums…we know how that worked out. The reality is that many of those areas are beyond salvation. What are you going to do about former sea resorts towns (that voted c70% leave) ….make Spanish/Greek vacations illegal? Industrial manufacturing (like financial services in London) require clustering effect, that is why most of the manufacturing in the European continent takes place around the Alps (northern Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Southern Germany etc.). Northern England (despite Tory/Leaver patriotism – or delusion?) can not compete with Southern Germany for jobs, capital and markets.
Christopher Chantrill
3 years ago
I think that the best way to approach this is through something like my Three Peoples theory or Curtis Yarvin’s Three Layers.
There is the educated gentry, the Creative Class, the metropolitans.
There are the Commoners, ordinary people that just follow the rules, go to work, and obey the law.
There are the Clients, or Victims, who live subordinate lives relying on the handouts of a patron.
The scam of the educated gentry, ever since Marx, has been to form over-under coalitions against the “bourgeoisie,” buying the votes of the Clients.
The nationalist-populist movement in Britain and elsewhere is all about according respect to the ordinary Commoners. What a concept.
Tony Taylor
3 years ago
The conservatives here in Australia seem to have had their own Damascene conversion regarding the technical and skilled groups. (Or they’ve been swapping intel with conservatives abroad – both the Republicans and the Tories are swinging hard for the industrial classes.) Now that the gig economy has lobbed the onus of running their own companies on techies and tradies, there’s a large group of people who shun the old shop floor red-raggers (and progressive ideas like climate change) and look to the right to facilitate their businesses. Writing as someone from a conservative background but who has worked in mining and industry his whole life, I say ra-bloody-ra, it’s about time.
Kevin Armstrong
3 years ago
Enjoyed that and confirm its conclusions; whilst the London buzz is real, it’s also suffocating, Internet and social media means badly educated but creative Northern folk can, well, create. The transport links are a scandal, if much of your mental resources are taken up with just getting through the day’s obstacles, precious little is left to raise productivity. The recent attempts to reduce planning bureaucracy started by Cameron’s government (started by Thatcher reform of Building Control) must continue, not stalled by Grenfell and Guardianist panick about deregulation. Give a young and energetic couple a plot of land, and freedom from petty rules blocking progress, and the property-owning democracy will return. London urbanites can sip their latte, while the children of us boomers get on with the dirty stuff, like they used to.
Adrian Smith
3 years ago
Whilst levelling up requires the transfer of money and power to regional government, for it to have the desired effect Boris also needs to do something about the shockingly low level of competence at that tier of government. I have just been having a robust discussion with my county council on the relationship between reduced efficiency of HWRCs (dumps) and increased fly tipping; the phrase piss ups in breweries springs to mind.
Good stuff, and a very welcome rebuke to Finkelstein. The last thing these places need is an invasion of the Creative Class. and I speak as a member of that class.
Then this:
‘Funding committees do love an ugly shed filled with second-tier modern art and less-than-compelling museum exhibits, but theirs is the logic of the cargo cult.’
Yes, they did something like this in my home town some years ago, in an old mill. Needless to say it was always empty and closed down after a couple of years.
Excellent criticism of the Finkelstein rhubarb. You don’t seem to understand though, that borrowing the votes of former dyed in the wool Labour voters in order to win power for your metropolitan, liberal, left party, by making vague promises of small amounts of money (small but sufficiently Monopoly money sounding to impress us Northern Neanderthals) and referencing Roosevelt, is not the same as intending to conserve or produce anything in conservative communities.
Grossly over subsidising Ulster, Scotland, and even Wales, should cease with immediate effect, and the funds redirected to the North of England. Charity begins, and ends, at home should be the watchword from now on.
Even to a classicist like Boris, it must be glaringly obvious, there are no meaningful votes to had from the three greedy, ugly, ‘sisters’, Ulster, Scotland and Wales.
An excellent critique of Finkelstein’s ideas. Mr Franklin’s identification of the assumptions on which Finkelstein’s arguments rest is impeccable. Well, I can’t think of any other assumption except, perhaps, an inherent sense of moral superiority over those proles who voted against the beliefs of the enlightened ones.
My point about assumptions of moral superiority is perhaps implicit in the way that Mr Franklin addresses the third of Finkelsein’s assumptions:
I agree with the way Mr Franklin tackles this erroneous assumption. However, I have a strong suspicion that the power of this cultural conservatism is being under-estimated; and that the under-estimation happens because most commentators fail to identify its roots, which are far deeper than the immediate appeal of an economic fillip.
The phenomenon of the working-class Tory is special to England, though it does exist, or has existed, in Scotland and Wales also. Its roots in England are very old indeed; and it is so unusual among the nations of Europe generally that it has attracted a number of academic studies, for it defies the traditional caricatures of the English class system and the kinds of class allegiances to be found in most continental nations.
One German study, published some 20 years ago (I can’t find it now), noted that interviews with working-class Tory voters in the north of England highlighted two values in particular that made such folk refuse to vote Labour (though some of them might have voted Liberal). The first was the conviction that financial reward was deserved principally via hard work and personal discipline. Concomitantly, there was a suspicion of welfare because they believed it tended to sap initiative. A second dominant conviction was that, although such voters were often sympathetic to those is difficulty, they also had a profound antipathy to collective action ” to what they saw as the power of the mob. I’m sure this study presented other characteristic beliefs; but those are the ones I remember. The German author argued convincingly that those beliefs rested on the fact that what his great compatriot, Max Weber, had called “the Protestant ethic” was deeply embedded in English culture ” in religion, in education and in institutions.
There are other studies of a comparable kind. One that I have read more recently was published in The British Journal of Sociology in 1967 (“Working Class Conservatives: A Theory of Political Deviance”). Its author, Frank Parkin, was notable as a free thinker who rejected the Marxist perspective of “class interests”, which saw a working-class Tory as a traitor to fellow members of his class. Noting that approximately one third of working class voters tended to vote Tory, Professor Parkin developed a much more nuanced theory, capable of incorporating the infinite variety of human nature. He emphasised the lack of uniformity among such voters, and suggested that the main area they had in common was a sense of identification with:
The Alf Garnett caricature of the working class Tory contains elements of truth; and so it is often hilariously funny. But taken at all seriously, and it becomes a calumny. Therefore it is all the more unfortunate for the Labour Party that, as the Emily Thornberry “white van” episode showed, such instincts about working-class voters who do not vote Labour are alive and flourishing.
Finkelstein’s argument falls apart when you consider the number of entrepreneurs who come from communities that are anything but metropolitan. Many of the area he appears to be think off are middle class areas dominate by civil servants and other members of the employed professionals classes. They are not the wealth creators!
Exhibit A in arts and cultural refinement, and, its effect on economic development might be Venice. It’s population has been halved in the last 30 years, plunging from 120000 to just 50000. It could be argued that the creative classes have destroyed it, perhaps, primarily because only the truly affluent can afford the housing costs. Cities like London, New York, and Toronto, should worry about the stresses and inequality in housing leading to social unrest rather than continued prosperity.
Art and cultural refinement hasn’t hurt cities like Vienna, Paris, Munich and so on.
Venice (geography?) is a special place.
It is not only the north that is losing out to metropolitan selfishness, greed and snobbish superiority.
Constant surprise is still being expressed at how inexpressibly stupid the Cornish must be to have voted for Brexit when they have benefitted to the tune of billions of pounds from EU largesse.
The truth of the matter is that all this funding is distributed via Whitehall, and the good people who work there have long believed that the people of Cornwall don’t really deserve this money, and so do everything they can to allow as little of it as possible to be spent in Cornwall.
A Cornish transport company asks for investment in better roads to enable them to compete with companies upcountry? Bad, very bad, climate emergency blah blah blah.
A bunch of ex-teachers who have become self-appointed Druids, and who want to spend thousands trying to revive a language that died out over two hundred years ago and that only a handful of people can understand, okay that’s great!
There are many more similar examples but that, my friends, is basically why the Cornish voted to Leave the EU.
Of course the sad irony is that their enemies weren’t the good folk in Brussels, but are much closer to home in their own capital city!
Tories (Maggie) tried to save the left-behind areas with free market reforms.
New Labor tried to save the left-behind areas with massive transfers of funds and art museums…we know how that worked out.
The reality is that many of those areas are beyond salvation. What are you going to do about former sea resorts towns (that voted c70% leave) ….make Spanish/Greek vacations illegal?
Industrial manufacturing (like financial services in London) require clustering effect, that is why most of the manufacturing in the European continent takes place around the Alps (northern Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Southern Germany etc.).
Northern England (despite Tory/Leaver patriotism – or delusion?) can not compete with Southern Germany for jobs, capital and markets.
I think that the best way to approach this is through something like my Three Peoples theory or Curtis Yarvin’s Three Layers.
There is the educated gentry, the Creative Class, the metropolitans.
There are the Commoners, ordinary people that just follow the rules, go to work, and obey the law.
There are the Clients, or Victims, who live subordinate lives relying on the handouts of a patron.
The scam of the educated gentry, ever since Marx, has been to form over-under coalitions against the “bourgeoisie,” buying the votes of the Clients.
The nationalist-populist movement in Britain and elsewhere is all about according respect to the ordinary Commoners. What a concept.
The conservatives here in Australia seem to have had their own Damascene conversion regarding the technical and skilled groups. (Or they’ve been swapping intel with conservatives abroad – both the Republicans and the Tories are swinging hard for the industrial classes.) Now that the gig economy has lobbed the onus of running their own companies on techies and tradies, there’s a large group of people who shun the old shop floor red-raggers (and progressive ideas like climate change) and look to the right to facilitate their businesses.
Writing as someone from a conservative background but who has worked in mining and industry his whole life, I say ra-bloody-ra, it’s about time.
Enjoyed that and confirm its conclusions; whilst the London buzz is real, it’s also suffocating, Internet and social media means badly educated but creative Northern folk can, well, create. The transport links are a scandal, if much of your mental resources are taken up with just getting through the day’s obstacles, precious little is left to raise productivity. The recent attempts to reduce planning bureaucracy started by Cameron’s government (started by Thatcher reform of Building Control) must continue, not stalled by Grenfell and Guardianist panick about deregulation. Give a young and energetic couple a plot of land, and freedom from petty rules blocking progress, and the property-owning democracy will return. London urbanites can sip their latte, while the children of us boomers get on with the dirty stuff, like they used to.
Whilst levelling up requires the transfer of money and power to regional government, for it to have the desired effect Boris also needs to do something about the shockingly low level of competence at that tier of government. I have just been having a robust discussion with my county council on the relationship between reduced efficiency of HWRCs (dumps) and increased fly tipping; the phrase piss ups in breweries springs to mind.