Middle Class Pretentiousness

For me, the 2010 UK general election was a massive relief. Finally, the disgraceful shambles of 'new Labour' - perhaps one of the most successful PR stunts in British history - came to an end. My only regret is that David Cameron did not have a large enough mandate to govern alone. I suppose he never was; Britain is plagued by a "personality politics" culture that stops someone like Cameron, who exacerbates the 'problem' of being an Etonian by doing a shoddy job of hiding it, achieving true popularity.

But there was one piece of awful news from Brighton from this election. The idiotic Green Party gained its first MP ever, in the form of its smug leader Caroline Lucas, from this constitutency. I suppose it was the closest to a 'safe-seat' the Greens had; a retiring Labour MP and a place famed for its pretentious desire to be 'alternative' (hence the thriving gay scene).

The British middle classes are full of pretenses. Many of them in the middle middle try, pathetically, to talk and act like the upper middle class in order to seem 'erudite', 'well-educated' and so on. I see nothing wrong with the upper middle class existing and being themselves, but trying to emulate them to seem somehow better is futile and, frankly, makes the person doing it look like a complete twat. The people that do this are the self-obsessed middle class; those who care only for their own pride and so on.

Conversely, there is a new type of equally pretentious middle class that seems to consist of much of the Brighton electorate. These people often have roots (sometimes very distant ones) in the working class, but their financial and social status is assuredly middle class. Instead of concerning themselves with trying to be something they're not, they spend their time worrying about left wing concerns. They are the sort who join Amnesty International (whose letter writing has been massively undermined by the Arab Spring), lecture others on charity and the carbon footprint, and vote either Lib Dem or Green. These people are easily swayed by fads, so long as it appeal to their innate belief in fairly wishy-washy morals. Thus, they are easily influenced by 'alternative' lifestyles, such as the acceptance of transgender people.

One particular pet hate of mine is the practice of meditation by everyday, non-religious people. It is not so much the fact that they meditate to relax themselves (though for the record it is a placebo), but the fact that they do so with little to no understanding of what meditation really is. It is entirely superficial.

Caroline Lucas and her party belong to the latter group. They are self-righteous and condescending, and Lucas care little for any cause other than trying to make history as the "first Green MP" and so on. It's all very petty and, frankly, laughable. The people of Brighton, in their willingness to be faddish, jumped on to yet another bandwagon in voting for this lady. As such, they've effectively thrown away their opportunity for having a true voice in the Commons. This is a party with a very narrow view of politics that thrives on voters who embrace them simply because it "upsets the status quo". The fact that the Guardian made a big thing of it is indicative of their audience. I'm not the sort to believe that two party hegemony is the only way, but trying to change it for the sake of changing it, as per the Green Party, is pathetic.

As far as I'm concerned, if people want to be left wing, alternative and PC, vote Lib Dem. They may be a political disaster, but at least they're not as upstart, fake, and opportunistic like the Greens. Let us hope that this Green voice in Parliament really is a passing fad and, come 2015, Lucas and her smug face are booted out of the Commons by the voters (though they'll probably elect some LBGT independent candidate in her place). If the Greens become a Parliamentary fixture, it's a bad sign that democracy is degenerating; how can so narrow a party ever become a legitimate political force?