Interesting political gender differences

I think that some young white males are feeling marginalised. It's important to look out for the needs of women and BAME people and to learn about things like women's emancipation, slavery and empire in our history, but I think that continually highlighting it could make young white men feel like they are not valued, maybe even that they are not trusted. But what many people do not know is that white working class boys are now the most under achieving group in education, with the poorest life chances. Perhaps they feel that Reform make them feel included for the first time in their life. It's only rich men that have an advantage in life.

As a woman in my sixties, I have lived experience of inequality, so I can assure everyone that I'm strongly in support of equality. But this means making everyone feel equally worthwhile. It's not an easy thing though.

I wonder how many young white men realise that people like Farage see them as cannon fodder?

I think a lot of working class people are brought up with the idea that theres something wrong with education, that it will make you posh, take you away from us, to good for us. I know I was bought up with this attitude, to stay on at school when you leave was almost inconcievable, you had to get a job and earn money. Whilst for some this was an economic nessicity as the family did really need extra money cooming in, or they had to because they'd had to leave home, for many it was the expectation of following in the family footsteps of working in the local factory, pit, steelworks or whoever was the biggest local employer. that was what gave you status in the local community. You could start off low down and work your way up to a foreman or something. Sometime in the 80's this changed, staying with the same employer started to be seen as unambitious and lazy, having a job had to be replaced with having a career, of course this all coincided with the deliberate destruction of our manufacturing industries putting thousands out of work. I think that whilst the world changed, women took advantage of the opertunities that were opening up for them both educationally and in the workplace, men didn't, it was beneath their dignity to work in a call centre, the women could and did, it was low paid and status free, so the men often didn't see it as fitting to thier previous status as providers. I think these things have carried on across two or three or even more generations now. The other thing to remember was how warped the old 11+ system was, it was deliberately biased in favour of boys and against girls to maintain the illusion of male intellectual superiority.

He world has changed, but men haven't and now I think they realise that it's not going to change back, that they're going to have to get real, get educated and compete on equal terms with the groups they've historically looked down on.

I wonder how many young white men realise that people like Farage see them as cannon fodder?

I think a lot of working class people are brought up with the idea that theres something wrong with education, that it will make you posh, take you away from us, to good for us. I know I was bought up with this attitude, to stay on at school when you leave was almost inconcievable, you had to get a job and earn money. Whilst for some this was an economic nessicity as the family did really need extra money cooming in, or they had to because they'd had to leave home, for many it was the expectation of following in the family footsteps of working in the local factory, pit, steelworks or whoever was the biggest local employer. that was what gave you status in the local community. You could start off low down and work your way up to a foreman or something. Sometime in the 80's this changed, staying with the same employer started to be seen as unambitious and lazy, having a job had to be replaced with having a career, of course this all coincided with the deliberate destruction of our manufacturing industries putting thousands out of work. I think that whilst the world changed, women took advantage of the opertunities that were opening up for them both educationally and in the workplace, men didn't, it was beneath their dignity to work in a call centre, the women could and did, it was low paid and status free, so the men often didn't see it as fitting to thier previous status as providers. I think these things have carried on across two or three or even more generations now. The other thing to remember was how warped the old 11+ system was, it was deliberately biased in favour of boys and against girls to maintain the illusion of male intellectual superiority.

He world has changed, but men haven't and now I think they realise that it's not going to change back, that they're going to have to get real, get educated and compete on equal terms with the groups they've historically looked down on.