The rise and fall of class dysphoria in Britain

For a brief MPperiod in the middle of the last decade, the easiest way to flummox a Labour politician was to offer him a cup of coffee and a choice of biscuit. In an interview in 2016 Owen Smith, a former Labour , panicked when a waiter brought him a “frothy coffee” in a cup and saucer. “Seriously, I would have a mug normally,” he said, playing up his credentials as a mug-toting, working man and forgetting the word for “cappuccino” in the process.This was an era when anything slightly middle-class was to be spurned. When was campaigning to be Labour leader in 2015, he was asked to name his favourite biscuit. He replied: “Give me a beer and chips and gravy any day.” It did not make him sound working-class; it made him sound like an alcoholic. Politicians struggled with their identity. Class dysphoria reigned.