- Jan 3, 2012
- 17,355
I possibly chose the wrong expression in "out of touch", but I don't think anybody would doubt that his political views are fairly extreme. He is from a hugely privileged background and I have just read something which estimates the combined wealth of himself and his wife at about £100,000,000. Thaat does not indicate that he would be in tune with the struggles of people trying to survive doing three jobs all on the minimum wage and still going to food-banks
But - out of touch. Just a couple of extracts from his Wikipedia entry. I know Wikipedia is not the be-all and end-ll, but I can remember all of these happening:
In September 2017 Rees-Mogg suggested that food banks fulfil a vital function, and proceeded to argue that "to have charitable support given by people voluntarily to support their fellow citizens I think is rather uplifting and shows what a good, compassionate country we are". He went on to argue that "the real reason for the rise in numbers is that people know that they are there and Labour deliberately didn't tell them."
During the same interview Rees-Mogg conceded that people have "found life tough" but suggested the best way out of poverty was through employment.
He has called children who went to state school and were not privately educated "potted plants"
Regarding climate change, Rees-Mogg thinks solutions that do not hinder technological progress should be sought. He has argued for abolition of environmental protections: "We could say, if it's good enough in India, it's good enough for here. There's nothing to stop that. We could take it a very long way...I accept that we're not going to allow dangerous toys to come in from China, we don’t want to see those kind of risks. But there's a very long way you can go."
Rees-Mogg is a supporter of zero-hour contracts, arguing that they benefit employees, including students, by providing flexibility and could provide a route into more permanent employment.[108]
End of Wikipedia bits. Some people might think that those are not "out of touch", but I do.
But what I probably should have said is that I would not vote for him in a million years because I fundamentally disagree with everything he says, thinks, writes and does and all the views he holds about which I have read. His political views have been described as High Tory, reactionary, traditionalist, right-wing populist, and socially conservative. I am about as far away from all of that as it is possible to be.
And his conservative views on abortion and gay marriage do not come in to it because, to be fair, he accepts that his views would never be taken in to law.
