Those who voted for the Alliance at the last election tended to be as hostile as Tories to nationalisation. They were nearly as fierce about the Unions too. But they were well disposed to redistribution, as keen on creating jobs as those who'd voted Labour, and on several of the 'moral' issues markedly more liberal. Who are they? Tories had the vote of two-thirds of the managers in private concerns; Labour of two-thirds of the workers in public ones; the Alliance, of nearly half of all graduates.[*] They are, in Julian Critchley's description, 'the examination-passing classes'. Decent people.

LRB 21 November 1985 | PDF Download