Top of the posts: The Bullingdon Club, King Kong and Parents Got Talent

By Laura Davis
Notebook
Friday, 29 June 2012 at 3:19 pm

This week has been dedicated to dissecting the politics of class on Independent Blogs. Kicking the discussion off, was Alastair Campbell’s take of Laura Wade’s play Posh, which is loosely based on the Bullingdon Club (of which Conservative Trio Cameron, Osborne and Johnson were all members). The characters guffaw as they speak of their disgust for the poor, but are there any similarities to those who rule the country?

John Rentoul and Christina Patterson joined in the class debate, arguing whether we are indeed living in a culture of entitlement, which David Cameron asserted as he revealed plans to strip housing benefits from the under-25s. Following on from the welfare reform, Ruth Whippman also questions how benefits will be distributed in the future. Will Cameron have to run a talent-style parenting-judging contest?

Elsewhere, Richard Sudan describes how Israel’s interior minister Eli Yishai recently said in an interview in which he outlined the Israeli government’s view of African migrants: “Most of the people [immigrants] coming here are Muslims who think the land doesn’t belong to us, to the white man”. Oliver Cragg also makes a defence for ultraviolence within videogames, Grace Jacobson points out that exhausted parents who find time to make love (even if it is in the “SAME bed” as a sleeping baby), should be applauded – not accused of child abuse, and Simon Martin looks at the crass judgement of Italian magazine to depict Mario Balotelli as King Kong.

As the week comes to an end we’re also seeing today’s blogs by Owen Jones and Nicky Clark riding high in stats. Owen’s proposal that it is social class, as opposed to the school you went to, that determines educational success and Nicky’s post about the underrated role of carers in our society both narrowly missed the top 10 most read blogs this week, but expect to see them in there next week.

Here are the most read blogs this week, as determined by stats:

1. Note to refugees from South Sudan: Israel is for the white man by Richard Sudan

2. Bullingdon Club: The politics of Posh by Alastair Campbell

3. Italian press depiction of Mario Balotelli as King Kong is naïve by Simon Martin

4. Sex in the same bed as a sleeping baby is far from child abuse by Grace Jacobson

5. How we all started working for free by Ruth Whippman

6. Ed Miliband and Britain’s anti-immigration backlash by Owen Jones

7. Moral judgements have no place in the benefits system by Ruth Whippman

8. Young people are sick of being pushed around by Caroline Mortimer

9. If in doubt, GET IT OUT! The English culture of pressure play by Lee Williams

10. Laurent Koscielny at last appreciated, but will leave the headlines for others against Spain by Jamie Sanderson