Apart from the references to Nineteen Eighty-Four, the appeal to alcohol and gambling has been a staple of the Conservative’s appeal to the working classes since the 19th century. It was Gladstone, who said that the Liberals lost an election in a torrent of cheap gin after being beaten by the Tories over the issue of pub licensing laws, if I remember. Thatcher initially increased the time pubs could stay open by a half an hour, while back in the 1950s or 60s or the Tories also legalised gambling, or allowed it to expand with the licensed betting shops. It’s all part of a policy of keeping the masses distracted to stop them realising the way they’re being kept poor and exploited.
(not satire – it’s the Tories!)
Here’s an extract from George Orwell’s novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four (my highlights):
“Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbours, films, football, beer, and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult. All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism which could be appealed to whenever it was necessary to make them accept longer working hours or shorter rations. And when they become discontented, as they sometimes did, their discontentment led nowhere, because being without general ideas, they could only focus it on petty specific grievances.”
Remind you of anything?
Don’t say we weren’t warned!
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Related articles by Tom Pride:
Oops! Tory Chair Grant Shapps admits Tories are not hardworking people
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