Deindustrialisation has led to the crumbling of working class communities and the consequent massive weakening of the unions and Labour movement. Socially disorientated people in a fragmented society - ripe prey for populist propaganda offering the bogus solidarity of nationalism
And as working class communities and organisations have crumbled, working class individualism has been on the rise - working class people who are proud that they have made good through their own efforts, and feel that others should do the same.
Both the working and middle classes are now fragmented into groups with economic positions that push them into different political directions. Neither class forms a coherent basis for a political force. The working and middle class politics of the industrial epoch is dead
Instead of economic status, the social basis for politics is far more determined by the divide between social liberalism and conservatism. Social liberals are typically comfortable with the social changes of the last 50 years, social conservatives feel alarmed and disorientated.
Class does have an impact on the divide between social liberals and Conservatives. Many people who grew up middle class still live in a familiar world of leafy suburbs, children's music practice, university and professional jobs. They have been little troubled by social change.
Conversely, older people from working class backgrounds, even if economically comfortable, can feel deeply troubled by the loss of the communities they grew up in. It is disorientating to find the familiar has become unfamiliar and strange.
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