Are all prejudices the same?

On Saturday, I chaired a sparky question time style debate at the Fabian conference 2012 (which, incidentally, was the best Fabian conference I’ve been to). It was a great session which included a fair amount of heckling and even a walk-out. There was loads of energy in the room and between the panelists which made it thoroughly enjoyable. Towards the end of the session as time was short I cut off two questioners as there were pretty strict rules about the format (one short question per questioner, Question Time style) and thought nothing more of it.

In a later session, someone accused me of cutting off the working-class scouser but not the middle-class woman. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there to respond – and I would have responded extremely robustly as the allegation is an offensive one.

Firstly, it was false as both questioners had been cut off. Secondly, I don’t see why it is OK to accuse someone of classism but not, say, racism. No-one to my knowledge – and I’m happy to be corrected on this – responded to this allegation in the moment and pointed out that it was offensive unless there was some clear evidence. Thirdly, there is no knowing someone’s class from their accent – is everyone from Liverpool working-class? Of course not.

As someone whose family is packed full of working-class scousers (you see….you don’t always know someone’s background by sight or accent) it’s probably a bit more of a sensitive allegation.

If the allegation were one of racism would no-one, eg the person who chaired the session, have challenged the person who made it to provide hard evidence or withdraw it? So why in the Labour Party are some willing to accept someone bandying around allegations of classism in a way that we absolutely would not in the case of racism or sexism?

To be honest, I did feel a sense of personal upset that someone had made the accusation and that it wasn’t seen as out of order. But there’s a bigger issue here – do we see classism as less severe than other forms of prejudice so we are more willing to throw around and accept people throwing around such accusations? Or is there a political motive under this – is it only people on the left of the party who can claim that they care about the working-class? Others of us are seen as somehow against the party’s traditional core.

If so, it becomes even more offensive as a result.