November’s edition of Progress is a special issue devoted to the issue of class.
We have exclusive polling by YouGov and a commentary by its president, Peter Kellner, showing that working-class attitudes are not what some in the Labour party imagine them to be.
Progress contributing editor Hopi Sen argues that while Britain may not have become a ‘classless society’, most political parties have abandoned using broad social groups to develop campaign strategies.
We also have a debate between the former secretary of state for local government and communities, Hazel Blears, and Owen Jones, author of Chavs: The demonisation of the working class, on how Labour can win back working-class voters.
Wes Streeting examines the Tories’ attempts to win over blue-collar workers, while its parliamentary candidate, Suzy Stride, reports from Harlow, the ‘resolutely hardworking and working class’, frontline in the battle for a Labour majority in 2015.
Finally, we have a package of pieces about the trade unions. The former head of external affairs at 10 Downing Street, Kirsty McNeill, argues that confusing ‘working class’ with ‘trade unionist’ distracts us from the real ways we can attack class-based injustice, while Peter Watt, the former general secretary of the Labour party, urges Labour and the unions to undergo some marriage counselling. Rafael Gomez and and Alex Bryson ask whether unions can redress the fall in working-class turnout, and The Progressive offers his take on recent calls for more ‘working-class MPs’.