The ABC of class for children

I had a nanny. A few in fact. One was a Dutch harpist and she used to practise outside my bedroom door as I went to sleep; I soon learned that this was not normal. A later nanny was keen to ensure I minded my manners and was quick to upbraid me: 'Don't say what, say pardon'. Confusingly, however, my mother was just as swift to insist: 'Don't say pardon, say what'. And thus it was, in my tenderest years, that I was introduced to class consciousness.

As a child grows it becomes aware of groups around it. A classic trope of the American high school genre is the sorting of the student body into well established cliques: the jocks, the stoners, the nerds, the thespians, and, of course, the princesses. This selection occurs by a process of self-identification but also by a form of group sifting and enforcement.

English schools don't tend to replicate these groupings. They do however provide a constantly renewing supply for a uniquely English form of categorisation namely the class system. The branding of an English education will dictate, to a very significant extent, what tribe you belong to and what tribe you are accepted by. 

'P'olitics as an activity is receding ever faster from most people's lives 'p'olitics has never seemed more accessible and urgent. The opening paragraph readily betrays the political tribe of my upbringing. However it doesn't take long working in the criminal courts to find one's political steering wheel turning sharply to the left.

For a time I was a member of the Labour Party before it succumbed to its current orgy of self-identification. In recent years I have pinned my colours to the mast of the Women's Equality Party. Some deride supporting what is condescendingly referred to as a protest party on the basis that split votes will keep Labour out of power.

However until Labour abandons its obsession with symbols and its mythology at the expense of communicating its values it will, in fact, be the protest party. A core article of faith for many tribal Labour supporters is hatred of the Tories. I will never subscribe to compulsory demonisation of an opposition party because politics and the exercise of power has to be dictated by pragmatism not ideological purity.

In the desert of talent and integrity that is the current Parliament there are a few, sadly vanishingly few, politicians that are prepared to distance themselves from 'my party right or wrong'. Jess Phillips is one such politician. The frenzy with which she has been accused of class betrayal for wearing 'nice' clothes and for having a professional mother is perhaps a reflection of how many on the left are threatened by a plain talking woman ready to communicate far beyond tribal Labour.  They would do well to encourage her because, in or out of the party, she won't be stopping any time soon.

Meanwhile I need to get back to giving my son his tea/supper/dinner.