Now isn’t this just the sort of thing we need a new think thank to tell us? That low income people are working class, or even that some half of low income people consider themselves to be working class.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]New research on low-income Londoners from the Centre for Labour and Social Studies and the Runnymede Trust found that while just over half identified as working class, almost all shared what could be described as a working-class experience.[/perfectpullquote]No, really, it’s in a report and everything!
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]MethodologyDhelia Snoussi, primary author of this report,
conducted interviews with a total of 78 people,1
mostly within the borough of Kensington and
Chelsea, over 12 months of qualitative research.
The report draws directly from the stories and
narratives she collected, mostly from people from
low-income backgrounds coming from various
walks of life: BME migrants, white British Londoners,
younger and older people, social housing tenants,
and front-line community services staff.[/perfectpullquote]
It is possible to slightly wonder. What class are low income people expected to think they are in? The aristocracy? Leaving their considerations aside, that experience? Well, given that we generally start with the working class earning less than the others, how wouldn’t low income and working class experiences overlap?
No, really, for this knowledge Owen Jones started a think tank.
This finding will certainly change my life…
Owen Jones started a Think Tank. That’s got to be a joke surely?
That reminded me of John Prescott talking to a couple of obviously working class girls (single mothers on benefits, if I remember correctly) and describing them as working class. “I ain’t working class” said one of them, “I don’t work”.
I don’t know how she would describe herself, Lady of Leisure, perhaps.
“Working class” only became a descriptor in the early 20th century to replace “lower class” because political correctness, yea even back then. Lower class would be a better descriptor here.
78 people mostly within 1 borough as a representative sample of 9 million people in London? OK maybe that should be 4 million as they are only looking at lower-income people.
The Centre for Labour … and Ruynnymede Trust clearly have no shame.