Why we the Working Class need our own voice
If you've ever listened to a politician (any of 'em) on the box and thought, “I don’t speak like that?”—there’s a reason for it.
Back in the 60s, a bloke called Basil Bernstein figured out how people talk in two types of the same language: restricted code and elaborated code.
(Working class) Restricted code is how we talk down the pub, on the shop floor, or round the kitchen table. It’s direct, shared, relies on context, and gets straight to the point without needing big dictionary words to make a basic idea sound clever.
Elaborated code is what the middle class lawyers, academics, graduates, and politicians use. It’s full of abstract jargon, self-important framing, and formal grammar designed to make simple things sound complicated—and keep regular folk out of the loop.
I managed to blag my way into teaching in a brace of universities for years, and believe me, I heard, read and wrote it first hand. They (the middle class) think if you don’t speak in elaborated code, you don’t know what you're talking about. They’re wrong.
We are split into socio-economic groups
In the 1960s market researchers split us up. Into the NRS social grades (A, B, C1, C2, D, E); they were set up mid-last century by advertisers and market researchers.
Grade Social Status Occupational Types
A Upper Middle Higher managerial, administrative, or professional
B Middle Intermediate managerial, administrative, or professional
C1 Lower Middle Supervisory, clerical, junior managerial/administrative
C2 Skilled Working Skilled manual workers
D Semi Skilled Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers
E Unskilled Casual workers, state pensioners, unemployed
Market researchers didn't design these to be polite; they needed them to reflect cold, hard reality so companies knew who had the cash to buy what. If their model was fake, their clients lost money. So those grades mattered—they showed who held the cash to spend on what, who had a secure trade, and who was scraping by. They are still used today - what group are you in? I'm an old pensioner down at the bottom end, me!
The Last Proper Labour Government
Looking back, Harold Wilson’s 1964–1970 administration was probably the last true Labour government. It was rooted in the old trade union tradition and looked after the industrial working class. Every Labour government since—from Blair right through to the modern setup—has bought into neoliberalism. Instead of backing working people and public ownership, they started managing the market, cosying up to big business, and treating public services like private firms.
1968: The Peak of the Working Class.
(I actuall think 1969 was the peak of humanity, but you are probably to young to remember)
In 1968, the year the five-day working week became standard across British industry, the socio-economic makeup of Britain looked very different from today.
• AB (Middle & Upper-Middle Class): ~12%
• C1 (Lower-Middle / Clerical): ~22%
• C2 (Skilled Manual Working Class): ~31%
• D (Unskilled Working Class): ~26%
• E (Lowest Earners / State Support): ~9%
Back then, the manual working class (C2 and D combined) made up nearly 60% of the country. A bloke with a trade in C2 could earn a solid living, buy a home, support a family on one wage, and expect a decent pension. C1 was distinctly "white-collar"—clerks and admin staff who felt a cut above the shop floor.
Thatcherism and the Race to the Bottom
Then came Margaret Thatcher in 1979, bringing in the harsh economic philosophy known as Thatcherism—or neoliberalism.
Neoliberalism is based on dog-eat-dog: grasp and grab. (I’m quite good at it to be honest).
It smashed the unions, sold off public assets, deregulated the banks, and destroyed Britain's manufacturing base. The result? Secure jobs with proper pensions were replaced by gig-economy shifts, zero-hours contracts, and agency work. It systematically forced wages down and turned the job market into a permanent scramble where working people carry all the risk while the top takers rake in all the profit.
The Scene Today: The Great Assimilation
If you look at the socio-economic breakdown in modern Britain, the shifts tell the whole story:
• AB (Higher & Intermediate Managerial/Professional): ~27%
C1 (Junior Managerial, Administrative, Clerical): ~28%
• C2 (Skilled Manual): ~20%
• D (Semi & Unskilled Manual): ~15%
• E (Casual / State Support): ~10%
On paper, it looks like C1 grew and C2 shrank. But here's the reality: the old C1 group has been completely assimilated into the working class.
In 1968, sitting in an office typing memos or answering phones placed you in a secure lower-middle-class bracket. Today, call centre staff, junior admin workers, and basic desk workers in C1 face the exact same low pay, high rents, job insecurity, and lack of control as traditional manual workers.
Real middle-class status today belongs strictly to the AB group—the senior managers, and graduate professionals who own property, hold capital, and set the rules.
Why Westminster Doesn't Speak for Us
And that brings us to a core of the problem: who sits in Parliament today?
The vast majority of current and recent Labour MPs come straight out of the AB group. They went from university to special adviser roles, think-tanks, law firms, and PR consultancies. They were raised on Bernstein’s elaborated code—they speak in polished, focus-group-tested, academic policy-speak.
Because of this language and class barrier and it is a class barrier - whether this is Marxist or not Benrstein identified the number one class barrier. The two groups literally cannot understand each other. Labour MPs cannot communicate in the restricted code of the working class.
They don't know what it’s like to work on a shop floor, run a machine, or worry about next week’s shift pattern, be dog-tired after nights and still not have the time or money to look after kids. When they try to talk to working people, it sounds patronising or completely fake. They think they're representing the working class, but they're just AB professionals managing a system that keeps wages down and real power out of our hands.
Until we get our voice in Parliament who speak plain, direct code and know what a day's real work feels like, nothing's going to change.
That’s why it is no change from Burnham
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