Who really holds power? The cultural illusion of middle-class dominance

Class conflict is back on the agenda. Not that it ever really went away, but now it’s front and centre in polite political discourse again, thanks in part to rising inequality, the housing crisis, and the ongoing aftershocks of Brexit and 14 years of Tory rule.

Yet the conversation has taken a turn: we are no longer just talking about the economic elite versus the rest, but about a supposed cultural dominance by the metropolitan, liberal middle-class, a managerial overclass who sip flat whites, tweet their outrage, and supposedly set the boundaries of public debate.

Here’s the thing: when we talk about the “upper class” today, what do we actually mean? Dukes and Duchesses are no longer running the show, at least not explicitly. Nor are they the target of most contemporary political ire. The cultural anxiety and political anger that defines our moment is aimed squarely at the so-called “liberal elite”, aka middle-class professionals with degrees, living in “hub cities” like London, New York or Paris.

A wide spectrum of values

Of course, the large buckets we dub “working-class” or “middle-class” aren’t monolithic. There are plenty of middle-class people who share the supposedly working-class values of being opposed to immigration or ideas like critical race theory. Some of them I went to university with and live in big cities.

The values gap between these two broad archetypes of middle-class people can be described as the difference between young and old, or centrists and lefties, or liberals and socialists. Let’s go with liberals and socialists so that we don’t get bogged down in political science definitions.

Liberals vs socialists

The socialists are more likely to have supported Jeremy Corbyn, be more vocal about migrants and trans rights, and have strong views on Gaza. The liberals are more likely to be hostile to the above and prefer technocratic solutions based around public private partnerships. Probably the biggest divide between the two is what they think of Keir Starmer.

Both groups are opposed to the Donald Trumps and Nigel Farages of the world. Both tend to be Remainers and live in cities. The middle-class values that are supposedly dominant in culture and public institutions are more likely to come from the liberal side of the divide. Yes, there was a trans character playing a limited role in Dr Who, and yes, fringe theatres in London are making noise about Palestinian rights, but this is not the cultural mainstream that’s supposedly dominated by the woke. That’s the domain of the liberals.

Old and young working-class

The working-class also varies a lot. There’s the young Amazon worker in Bradford struggling on a zero hours contract and living in a damp infested flat, and there’s the retired Boomer who bought a council house with right-to-buy in the 80s, sold it on and now lives in a leafy suburb. Neither went to university or lives in a big city.

These two people live very different lives and have very different values. There’s also a wide spectrum of different circumstances and values in between them.

When we talk about working-class values (or middle-class values) they can’t possibly capture these huge differences. To avoid confusing definitions, like ‘Instagram Progressives’, which require a lot of describing and only make sense if you want to target precise political messages at precise groups of voters, we use middle-class and working-class values as shorthand for certain political beliefs. However, what are those beliefs?

Championing “working-class values”

The middle-class values self-actualisation, liberalism, progress, multiculturalism, and globalism. The working-class often values community, stability, belonging, and a strong national identity. These are not inherently better or worse, they are just different.

This creates strange political contortions. Many politicians now compete to champion “working-class values”, whether said politician grew up in a council flat or went to private school. By championing “working-class values” they mean being patriotic, hating immigrants and trans people and slamming the middle-class left. Except, some middle-class and quite well-off people hold these exact same values.

Problems with political solutions

Who speaks for the metropolitan liberals who are suffering? They’re dealing with low wage growth, spiralling rent, raising children when childcare is astronomically expensive, while watching their jobs become more precarious by the year.

They moved to cities for work and, yes, like an occasional craft beer and for migrants to have dignity. These people are not working-class enough for right-wing columnists to stand up for.

In the scramble to represent “real” Britain, whatever that is, we risk leaving behind people who are struggling. They’re not struggling as much as an unemployed single parent in a cockroach infested flat in Whitehaven, obviously, but they’re still struggling with problems that have political solutions. If someone will act.

Class conflict

This is where the whole “debate” starts to unravel. Class conflict isn’t just a naturally occurring phenomenon. It’s structured. Designed. Encouraged. It serves a purpose; and that purpose is division.

When working-class voters are told the middle-class is sneering at them, and when middle-class liberals are told the working-class is reactionary and dangerous, we all forget who actually has the real power: the ultra-wealthy. The asset-owning, hedge-funding, landlord elite. The people who don’t just own property, but shape policy. The ones who benefit when we fight over culture while they offshore their wealth.

This is not to say class doesn’t matter, but we must be precise. Today, class is less about income and more about education, values, and where you live. A system that allows wealthy small business owners to be called “authentic” and struggling graduates to be labelled “elite” is not a system designed for justice. It’s a system designed for distraction.

Vibes based social class

We must also make sure that the arbiters of class are not conservative political commentators who will define working-class as people who hold a set of right-wing values, such as an opposition to immigration, net zero, anything considered “woke” and being nice to anyone at all. Funnily enough these commentators don’t consider raising taxes on the wealthy to improve public services a working-class value, despite the polling showing that it is.

Given half the chance these commentators will define working-class as a general conservative vibe that has nothing to do with wealth, property ownership or political influence. Alan Sugar is working-class because he didn’t go to uni and doesn’t like Corbyn. A graduate on minimum wage in a Shoreditch coffee shop isn’t because they have a friend from Poland who once visited an art gallery, which makes them part of the cosmopolitan global elite.

Whose views get listened to?

The debate over class is important because it determines whose views are listened to or get coverage in news or political debates. It’s easy to dismiss someone as out of touch when they say they’re in favour of open borders and easy to say someone should be listened to due to their humble life experience when they oppose immigration.

That isn’t to say that working-class views are well represented in political debates and the news. Certainly, working-class people are not represented well in politics or the news. Their views are only aired when they agree with the right-wing establishment, from Brexit to trans rights to the environment. When a working-class person calls for higher taxes to pay for better public services, that is dismissed as not practical. The right-wing media is good at elevating stories and voices that represent the working-class only when they’re making traditionally right-wing arguments.

The people who get listened to the most are swing voters in the seats that change hands from Tories to Labour at a general election. These are the people who Starmer has staked everything on appealing to. These were the people alienated by Corbyn. They tend to be socially conservative, homeowning, relatively comfortable, non-university educated and many claim to be working-class. Whether you are working-class if you own a four-bedroom detached house, have a management level job (or run your own business) and don’t live pay cheque to pay cheque is a big question, but defining these people as working-class based on their socially conservative views is vibes-based class.

Who has power?

So no, the middle-class isn’t the dominant class. No, having a Black, gay Doctor Who doesn’t mean liberal values are hegemonic. Not when the government is throwing trans people under the bus to win tabloid headlines to get the votes of people who didn’t go to uni but do own their own home.

We don’t need to play the game of “who is the most oppressed.” We need to remember that class conflict, at its heart, is about power; and the biggest divide remains between those who have it, and those who don’t. For almost all of us, middle-class or working-class, we don’t have power. The billionaire class does.