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This New England

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Representations of Working-Class Life 1957–1964

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Abstract

In October 1959 Labour suffered its third successive general election defeat. In the inevitable inquest which followed, a central issue was the party’s working-class image. Douglas Jay saw Labour’s two fatal handicaps as ‘the class image and the myth of nationalization’.1 Patrick Gordon Walker said simply: ‘The Tories identified with the new working class rather better than we did.’ Richard Crossman observed that ‘each year which takes us further, not only from the hungry Thirties but from the austere Forties weakens class consciousness’,2 while the Party Leader Hugh Gaitskell warned of ‘the changing character of labour, full employment, new housing, the new way of life based on the telly, the frig., the car and the glossy magazine — all have their effect on our political strength’.3

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Notes and References

  1. D. Childs, Britain since 1945 (London: Ernest Benn, 1979) p. 127.

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  5. Ibid., p. 100.

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  6. Ibid., p. 105.

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  59. The expansion of television in this period is discussed in Chapter 6.

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  1. Stuart Laing
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© 1986 Stuart Laing

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Laing, S. (1986). This New England. In: Representations of Working-Class Life 1957–1964. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-18459-0_2

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