Britain | Bagehot

The rise and fall of class dysphoria in Britain

British politicians have stopped pretending when it comes to class 

An illustration showing a hand holding a mug with its pinky finger sticking out. The mug reads "workers unite" with a logo of a hammer crossed out.
Image: Nate Kitch

For a brief period in the middle of the last decade, the easiest way to flummox a Labour politician was to offer him a cup of coffee and a choice of biscuit. In an interview in 2016 Owen Smith, a former Labour MP, panicked when a waiter brought him a “frothy coffee” in a cup and saucer. “Seriously, I would have a mug normally,” he said, playing up his credentials as a mug-toting, working man and forgetting the word for “cappuccino” in the process.

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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Class dysphoria ”

From the October 28th 2023 edition

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