Essex man
Essex man and Mondeo man are
Background
Although the
Their children enjoyed housing, education and employment opportunities far removed from the experiences of their parents.[5]
Essex man and Thatcherism
Margaret Thatcher's policies during her tenure in office from 1979–90 included: lower taxation, control of inflation and sale of council housing stock at subsidised prices. These policies (in particular, the right to buy scheme) are thought to have caused many people who had traditionally voted Labour in Essex to switch their allegiance in the elections of 1979, 1983 and 1987.[6]
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) lists the earliest reference to the Essex man as one from 7 October 1990, in an anonymous article penned by Simon Heffer for The Sunday Telegraph. However, the 26 January 1990 issue of Campaign has the following reference: "Representative [David Amess] of new Essex man, working class, father electrician, right wing, keen hanger, noisily rambunctious, no subtlety".[7] Owing to the similarities between the politics of Thatcher's UK and Ronald Reagan's US, the contemporary term Reagan Democrat is roughly analogous to Essex man.[8]
Mondeo man
The concept of the "Mondeo man" was popularised by a phrase used by then
His dad voted Labour, he said. He used to vote Labour, too. But he'd bought his own house now. He'd set up his own business. He was doing very nicely. "So I've become a Tory" he said. In that moment, he crystallised for me the basis of our failure... His instincts were to get on in life. And he thought our instincts were to stop him. But that was never our history or our purpose.[10]
This is the story that is often credited with inspiring Blair's concept of New Labour, and the "Mondeo man" superseded the "Essex man", as the target of the campaign for the 1997 general election for the Labour Party.[11] (By 1993, the Sierra had been replaced by the Mondeo in the Ford model range, hence the misquote that gave birth to Mondeo Man).[12][13] Under the leadership of Blair, Labour subsequently won the 1997 general election, with a record landslide majority of 179 MPs.[1]
See also
References
- ^ a b Ollie Stone-Lee, Who's the new Mondeo man?, BBC News 2 January 2005
- ISBN 9780230240568.
- ^ "Margaret Thatcher and rise of 'Basildon man'". BBC News. 9 April 2013. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- ^ Tanner, D., Political Change and the Labour Party 1900–1918 (1990)
- ^ Butler, T., Social Change and the Middle Classes (1995)
- ^ Israeli, R. and Ball, S., Mass Conservatism (2002)
- ^ "What sort of person signs up as an advertiser?", Campaign, January 26, 1990
- ISBN 9780230240568.
- ^ British Political Speech | Speech Archive, "BritishPoliticalSpeech", accessed 25 March 2018
- ISBN 978-0333775714– via Google Books snippets.
- ^ Michael Streeter, Election '97: This time, prime target is Mondeo Man, The Independent, 10 April 1997
- ^ George Jones, Does Mondeo Man Matter Any More?, The Daily Telegraph, 28 April 2007
- ^ Taxation: Squeezing middle Britain The Guardian, Monday 31 January 2011