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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Angela Channing" data-source="post: 45830" data-attributes="member: 33">I'm left leaning myself and I feel that many left wing parties have done a shift to the centre and right of the spectrum, after the Brexit referendum I have witnessed such anti working class bigotry from supposed "lefties" you know the very group that the left used to champion and wanted the working class become the ruling class, its staggering some of the things that are said.London Lefties make me laugh as although they read the guardian and support refugees, they are anything but leftist, I went to a discussion meeting a few weeks back on how and why Brexit happened and why many people in the north voted leave, the vast majority of those in the discussion were under 30, middle class and hadn't been beyond the M25 and the language used to describe northern people was frankly beyond contempt.It's worrying that there isn't a real left wing party or organisation anymore that truly champions the workers or those who live outside the M25 bubble, and why are modern "leftist" afraid to be proud of being English?Whilst in the subject did anyone watch Trevor Phillips channel 4 documentary yesterday on Political Correctness? It was a good documentary and makes you realise who really is to blame for the rise of the far right? The stagnant political establishment and the Metropolitan urban liberals are to blame.</blockquote>I would describe my politics as being socialist but I don't like being described as a "leftie" because I consider it to be a pejorative term invented by right wingers as an insult to people on the left, especially when proceeded by the word "loony".I'm a London socialist and I don't fit in with the stereotype you describe. I'm from a working class background (my parents were factory workers) and I'm over 30. I went to university in the north of England and I've worked all over the United Kingdom so I believe I have some appreciation of life outside of London. My experience of left wing Londoners is that they are very diverse in terms of age, social background, race and religion and more diverse than people on the right, who are more likely to be older and whiter.I honestly have never come across someone with socialist views that is anti-working class, on the contrary, those that I have met champion the plight of working class people. I find your comment that "there isn't a real left wing party or organisation anymore" to be incredible at a time when many commentators are saying the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn is too left wing. I suggest you look at the Labour Party website and you will see it is awash with left wing policies or maybe you can explain what left wing policies you think Jeremy Corbyn doesn't support that you think he should.My view is that the blame for the rise in the far right is the result of austerity policies which have hurt working class people disproportionately and the fact that right wing governments, like the evil Tory one we currently have the in the UK under Teresa May, constantly use the poor and immigrants as scapegoats for their own failure. Blaming political correctness is just another scapegoat used by right wingers to distract from their failure.Tories blame the increase in hospital waiting lists on immigrants using the health service when it's really down to their own cuts. They blame to lack of social housing on immigrants having to be housed instead of blaming their own policies of selling off council houses and cutting programmes to build more. They say Tory cuts are necessary because the benefits bill is too high rather than blaming the tax cuts they are giving to the richest people in Britain, many of whom fund the Tory party.When fed this constant diet of hate towards immigrants and the poor, people are attracted to the simple solutions put forward by right wing extremists e.g. Brexit, throwing out immigrants, cutting support for the poor and vulnerable, etc. If you want to know who to blame for the rise of right wing extremism, look toward the right wing governments and wicked politicians on the right like Teresa May and David Cameron.[/QUOTE]

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