June 29, 2010
Jeremy Hunt: The Importance of Class in Politics?
Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, recently revealed his vast ignorance of British footballing history whilst managing to insult thousands:
“[A]s a Minister I was incredibly encouraged by the example set by the England fans, I mean not a single arrest for a football related offensive and the terrible problems that we had in Heysel and Hillsborough in the 1980s seem now to be behind us and I think, you know, there is small grounds for encouragement there even though obviously we are very disappointed about the result.”
Anybody with even a basic knowledge of English football will know that what happened at Hillsborough had absolutely nothing to do with hooliganism. They will know that the disaster – which left 96 Liverpool fans dead – was the result of poor crowd management, as confirmed by the 1990 Taylor Report (PDF). Suspicions, however, have long lingered about the role of the police and its account of events following the disaster.
Hunt’s comments cannot be easily dismissed as a “slip of the tongue”. The controversy surrounding Hillsborough ensures that nobody with even a basic understanding of the disaster could now make the mistake of blaming hooliganism. That the Secretary of State is apparently more influenced by the outrageous lies of the Sun Newspaper than with what actually happened calls into question his competence to be a minister for sport. That Hunt was shadow secretary for the same office during last year’s 20th anniversary Hillsborough memorial services is an even greater indictment of his callous ignorance.
But could there be something more going on? Economists and psychologists frequently employ the concept of cognitive bias. It’s worth asking whether any are at work here. I can think of 3 possibilities:
1. Not only is Hunt ignorant about the history of English football, but he is predisposed to think of football as a yob sport where trouble is usually caused by yobs. Given that 44-year-old Hunt would have become socially aware in the 1970s and 80s (when English hooliganism was rife), this explanation is very plausible.
2. Hunt, as a conservative, is predisposed to trust figures of institutions and authority over the masses in need of control. This means he is more likely to assume that fault lay with yob crowds than with police authorities.
3. Hunt is extremely privileged and has grown up and worked amongst similarly privileged people, likely to have low interest in football and low interest in a disaster that affected working class Liverpool fans. Accordingly, he’s never been in a social situation whereby 1. and 2. above could be adjusted, or his ignorance about Hillsborough corrected.
Number 3 will, of course, set the cat amongst the pigeons. But I suspect there’s something to it. Having grown up lower-middle class and attended a normal state comprehensive with lots of working class kids, it is unimaginable to me that someone could not know the truth about Hillsborough. Yes, I grew up on Merseyside. But in Southport there were as many Manchester United as Liverpool fans. And for crying out loud, by Mum knows what happened at Hillsborough and she’s French and doesn’t like football.
Of course, we musn’t be deterministic. Plenty of people have privileged backgrounds and manage to care about those less fortunate than they. Harriet Harman, for all her faults, stands as a good example. Equally, sometimes people from working class backgrounds can’t wait to join the elites and dump on those they’ve left behind. Hello David Davis, hello Norman Tebbit.
And believe me, I know how irritating it can be to have your (perceived) class background used against you. Just ask Captain Swing. But all that having been said, does Jeremy Hunt offer proof of what I and many others were saying about Double Dip Dave and Boy George before the election? That class matters; that being a millionaire Bullingdon Boy will affect the way politicians see – and attempt to influence – the world around them.
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Chris Brooke said,
June 29, 2010 at 12:19 pm
“Anybody with even a basic knowledge of English football will know that what happened at Hillsborough had absolutely nothing to do with hooliganism.”
This isn’t true. What happened at Hillsborough had nothing to do with hooliganism on the day itself, true enough. But that the disaster happened at all has everything to do with the history of violence associated with football matches, and the various authorities’ hamfisted responses to that history, and their fears of further violence. The Taylor reports are absolutely clear about this. There was a reason the Leppings Lane end had been a giant cage since, I think, 1977, from which fans couldn’t escape onto the pitch; and there was a reason the police tactics on the day were what they were — and the cage and the tactics were, above all, the reason so many people died.
Having said that, Hunt’s form of words are obviously insensitive, he probably is the repulsive enemy of the working class you describe (he is, after all, a Tory), and he may very well be making the mistake you suggest.
Paul Sagar said,
June 29, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Chris, you are of course right that Hillsborough happened in the wider context of football hooliganism and the police’s attitudes for dealing with it. I was wrong to say “absolutely nothing to do with hooliganism”, as the contextual point you make is right.
But I’m pretty doubtful that Hunt’s comment stemmed from any contextual view, as oppose to assuming that hooliganism on the day was the cause of the disaster.
chris said,
June 29, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Isn’t it just trivially true that class matters? I mean, our beliefs are shaped by our background and environment, and class is a part of that.
Of course, class isn’t everything – and the ways in which it influences beliefs are sometimes subtle. But to claim that class is irrelevant must, surely, be plain moronic.
Paul Sagar said,
June 29, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Chris (Dillow). Of course it’s plain moronic. And naturally that has never stoppe the Tory party. I’m also going to guess that people over at Liberal Conspiracy are saying that class doesn’t matter – though I’ve haven’t got the soul to go and check.