Saturday, January 06, 2007
John Cruddas insults secretaries and hairdressers
In an interview with LabourHome, John Cruddas, the deputy leadership candidate has called secretaries and hairdressers "low skilled". There is nothing low skilled about touch typing at 60 words per minutes, nor is there anything low skilled about being able to cut someones hair well enough that they are happy to pay for it. It never ceases to amaze me how the Left patronises people as if only they can save them from their economic condition.
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I agree - in Switzerland for example the person who sweeps the roads is a trained and valued member of the community. The President of the Confederation is greeted by fellow travellers on the bus he takes to work each day. In France and other EU countries, you do a two year apprenticeship to be a retail sales assistant. We are all human beings, and we can't exist comfortably without the skills and help of others. It's about time NuLabour stopped being so arrogant and practiced it's own respect agenda. But then, what can one expect from liars ands trimmers
And survey after survey shows that hairdressers have the highest levels of job satisfaction. Good for them.
So what language would you use to describe the skill level of those in low paid service sector jobs?
Well let's see, I wouldn't patronising blanket generalisations about job and their pay.
It does not follow that if you are a secretary are low paid. Nor does it follow that hairdressers are, by definition of being a hairdresser, low paid.
I don't see why one needs to describe skill level frankly, because it's an utterly non-egalitarian and totally un-meritocratic thing to do. It makes the assumption that those people are somehow "lesser" than others.
I would never be so presumptuous as to call a secretary, a waiter, a hairdresser, or even a till operator for that matter as unskilled because I couldn't just drop everything and suddenly do their job without training.
But then I believe in social mobility and those that talk in the way that Cruddas don't.
This man has no real skills that the "man in the street" would pay him to do, generating hot air and pissing our money away are not skills.Does he not realise he works for us so he is the employee of these people.
In the era of globalisation there is a lot to be said for being a hairdresser or gardener. these jobs will always need ot be done locally and can never be outsourced. A smart career choice for many.
I wouldn't like to sweep the streets or be a dustbin man. So those people who do it are valued members of our society, otherwise the streets would littered and I would have to dispose of my own rubbish.
Labour talk of class warfare, but they are the ones who keep it alive by trying to put everyone in their place. Maybe they hope that by calling someone 'low-skilled' they will naturally vote for them?
Can we be assured then, that come next election time, Cherie Blair will dispense with a skilled hairdresser and use the cheapest unemployed person available.
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