Tag Archives: MIke Bennet

Identity has no class

The Bristol 24/7 VANITY PUBLISHING website for E3 media bosses, Mike “GORDON” Bennett and Dougal “FAT BASTARD” Templeton, gushed about “Girl Power” in a patronising headline on May 8 after Bristol returned four female MPs to Westminster.

What the website didn’t point out in its usual rush to sell Bristol as THE NEW PARADISE OF URBAN COOL is that all THREE of the city’s Labour MPs now live in leafy BRISTOL WEST. An area of town where property prices and rents are through the roof and the poor are being FORCED OUT on a daily basis by gentrifiers.

Newbie Bristol West MP “FASCIST GROOVE” Thangam Debonaire lives in wealthy hippy outpost, St Werburghs; Bristol East MP, Kerry “AND THE BANSHEES” McCarthy, opts for a dockside apartment in Redcliff and new South Bristol MP Karin “WHO?” Smyth lives in the Georgian splendour of leafy Cotham.

All very nice indeed. But what does this tell us about the WEALTH and STATUS of our Labour MPs? Do these MPs, all homeowners from professional backgrounds who aren’t really short of a penny or two, adequately represent the whole of this city?

Or are we supposed not to ask because they’re ALL WOMEN and this trumps any issues around wealth, status and class?

Surely if the Labour Party are serious about reconnecting with communities and their electorate they’re going to have to start handing senior party roles in Bristol to people who aren’t middle class, POLITICALLY CORRECT SNOBS and to people who have genuine connections to the communities they claim to represent?