If you read the Tory blog, ‘conservativehome‘, you’ll see they’re deluding themselves into thinking that David ‘call me Dave’ Cameron has escaped his ‘toff’ tag just because Labour aren’t using it as a jibe now.
(Cameron is shown, left, next to his ancestor, King William IV – also known as ‘Silly Billy’ – who twice tried unsuccessfully to force a Tory government on the country, in 1832 and again in 1834/35.)
Cameron IS a toff in the traditional sense of the term because of his privileged background, and trying to shrug off the image is pointless. It is precisely because Cameron, Osborne and many other Tories have this privileged, upper-class experience of life – and an obvious vested interest in preserving it – that their claim to have the welfare of ordinary citizens at heart is so unconvincing.
Why would the Tories be so sensitive about the ‘toff’ thing if they weren’t desperately embarrassed about it in electoral terms? They know it will lose them the votes of those who just can’t identify with their upper-class values, so they – and Dave – are trying to kid us that he’s one of us really. That – in their own words – they’re not the ‘nasty party’ any more. Trying to kid us that what Conservatives are interested in is mending our ‘broken society’. Right…
If indeed it is ‘broken’, they will desperately want us to forget – of course – that it was the many years of Tory government and sleaze in the 1970s, 80s and 90s which promoted the philosophy of greed and fat profits at the expense of ordinary working people. This allowed and encouraged the rise of fat-cat bankers and financial chancers who have finally wrecked our economy and made many thousands of us unemployed.
The Tories are wholly responsible for widening the vast gap between the rich and the rest of us, laying the foundations for today’s society where young people can’t afford to buy a home any more and where there is nowhere near enough social housing to meet the needs of ordinary British citizens. And yet they now have the gall to blame the Labour government for all this.
(Labour were stupid enough to get sucked in by pandering to the greedy, just to get elected in 1997 and to stay in office, but they weren’t responsible for the philosophy that created these conditions. It still tries vainly to ‘square the circle’ of creating social equality while placating the better-off middle classes who are only interested in tax cuts and big bonuses at the expense of the rest of us. But that’s another issue…)
The reality of a Tory government is one where the rich and privileged look after their own.
IF they manage to fool enough of us to get elected to office, then we’ll see them revert to type: serving the interests of the rich and powerful, of the big businesses and of their fat-cat political sponsors, while paying lip service to helping ordinary working people.
Just look at the way Cameron’s fellow Eton toff, Boris Johnson, is now handing out planning permissions left right and centre to a host of ugly buildings in London that won’t do anything to improve the lives of Londoners and which will vulgarise the London skyline.
(Wonder if any of his supporters, sponsors and cronies are involved in property development? We probably know the answer to that one…).
Tune in to BBC Parliament / City Hall or look at it on the BBC iPlayer and watch how Tory toff Boris deals with the business of being Mayor of London. He’s certainly funny – but see how he obviously has total contempt for the democratic process and treats the Mayor’s question time meeting like a public school debating society. He waffles and blunders his way through it all, while those he no doubt sees as his social 
inferiors try to pin him down on anything without success. It’s all a great joke to him, but a frustrating and sickening sight and a good indication of how his privileged kind behave towards the rest of us.
It’s an unfortunate fact of life that people have short memories and there are many people of voting age now who have only ever seen this newly-concocted, almost vomit-inducing Tory sincerity, so they know no better.
Everyone over the age of 35 knows the truth about Tory fat-cat priorities, their contempt for workers, trades unions and the millions of ordinary people like us who serve only to line the pockets of them and their cronies.
Once a toff, always a toff – and forever a fat-cat Tory – however they dress themselves up or use a nice green tree as a party logo.
