Tristram Hunt is sorely mistaken

Tristram Hunt has spoken to the Cambridge University Labour club to tell them that they need to be dissenters in the Labour party and that: “You are the top one per cent. The Labour Party is in the shit. It is your job and your responsibility to take leadership going forward.” More on this story here.

Tristram Hunt seems to be very confused. The Labour Party was founded because no political party spoke for the working people of this country (at the time, there were a couple of working class Liberal MPs, known then as 'Lib Labs' but they all toed the party line and that usually meant supporting employers and opposing trade unions). It was set up and led by ordinary working people who understand the issues faced by the vast majority of the public.

Hunt is now disappointed that the leader of the Labour party is not an Oxbridge graduate. Now, I have absolutely no problem with the Labour leader being an Oxbridge graduate, provided they also understand and represent the majority of the public. What Hunt is saying is something different: he is saying that the leader of the Labour party MUST be in the "top one per cent", meaning graduates of one of the top Universities. But why? There seems to me to be a great deal of evidence to suggest that many - though not all - Oxbridge graduates are protected from normal life in this odd world of antiquated social systems and hierarchy, ornate and historic oak-panelled rooms in buildings often dedicated to religious figures and, of course, a far higher-than-normal level of wealth among the students and staff. Others have pointed out the similarities in the halls of top public Schools, Oxbridge and Westminster. It's as though the future of these students is carved into them from an early age like the faces of unelected leaders of old in the houses of parliament.

Of course I know that there are plenty of Oxbridge students who are not from public school backgrounds and many who are inclined to avoid the rituals of the self-appointed ruling classes and get through University without being part of some special group. But those people, who go to Oxbridge as a route to an excellent degree and a good career are not who Hunt was speaking to. Hunt was talking to the next generation of Tristram Hunts. Those who feel they want to be in power but either have reason to be a little more compassionate than the Conservatives, or don't feel they have the right connections to reach a senior level in that party and think they might fare better as a Labour politician.

Hunt is ignoring the opinion of the majority of Labour members by encouraging these students to act against the Leadership. I'm not aware of this ever happening against Tony Blair, who had a smaller majority than Jeremy Corbyn and who turned out to be far more conservative than many of those who had voted for him hoped. And even if it did, it would at least have had history on side, unlike what Hunt and his ilk are doing, which is an attempt to appropriate Labour on behalf of the privileged at the expense of those the party was founded by and in the interests of.

Tristram, take your too-posh-to-brush hair and set up your own party. Or join the Tories. Labour - that is REAL Labour - don't want you.