How potent words can be. Sneering is not a nice thing to be
called. It oozes disregard and supposed superiority. I’m increasingly hearing
this phrase directed at liberal minded folk, for being, well, liberal minded. Currently,
it’s a dig at Remainers, for whom EU membership was an overall plus and for
whom immigration is a net benefit which certainly should not have been used as
a referendum-deciding issue in the unsavoury way that it was.
However, I find the implied concern for the disadvantaged
hypocritical, to say the least. For 6 years prior to the vote, the poor have been
on the receiving end of cuts in welfare and services brought in by many of the
same people who now claim to champion their cause. Questioning of my values and
attitudes by those who themselves have failed to give due consideration to the increased
prominence of a disenfranchised underclass just doesn’t wash.
If by elite they mean having benefited from an education, being
lucky enough to have enough money to live on and feeling generally contented
for most of the time, when many others haven’t, aren’t and don’t, then I’m glad
to be part of it, but I know I’m fortunate.
Instead of lambasting well-meaning folk, let’s accentuate
the positive by using words which aren’t intended to insult. Our railway
heritage is just one area of experience where service and achievement is recognised
and valued with dignity and without resort to inflammatory language – I hope.
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