Pete Dorey thinks the middle class feel increasingly alienated, betrayed and frightened, while Andrew Grant-Adamson believes anti-government votes are consolidating behind the candidate most likely to win. Plus letters from Jeremy Beecham, Stephen Jakobi, Derek Schofield, Daniel Scharf and John Whitfield
Although there have previously been remarkable Liberal and Lib Dem byelection victories that failed to lead to a longer-term challenge to the Conservatives, the Chesham and Amersham byelection might still herald a weakening of middle-class support for the Conservative party, and a crumbling of the “blue wall” (Senior Tories warn Boris Johnson ‘blue wall’ is at risk after byelection defeat, 19 June).
Increasing sections of the middle class are suffering the downsides to free-market capitalism and corporate power, which the working class have always suffered: stagnant earnings or pay cuts, while their employers and shareholders get obscenely richer every year; loss of creativity or flexibility in the workplace due to micro- or macho-management and top-down performance targets; increasing job insecurity due to fixed-term contracts and repeated redundancies (the precariat); longer or more unsocial working hours, so less time with family, friends or engaging in community activities; constant attacks on “unaffordable” occupational pensions; up to £50,000 of debt for a university education, which until relatively recently was free; unaffordable housing or exorbitant rents for their young adult offspring; and the need to sell the family home to pay for nursing home fees in old age – so no inheritance for their children.
