Sir Nicholas Winterton Implies Common Folk Are Inferior

LONDON– Upcoming elections in the United Kingdom have prompted dramatic actions in the past, but Sir Nicholas Winterton, incumbent Conservative MP (Member of Parliament) for Macclesfield in Cheshire County, Northwestern England, may have erred slightly in his quest for votes. First of all, he has forgotten that he no longer needs to quest for votes, as it was announced last May that he would step down in the next election, after a scandal where it was revealed that he was using his MP’s expenses to pay rent. At the time, Sir Winterton defended his actions, saying, “I try to tackle matters of expenses in a responsible way, I don't spend any more money than is absolutely necessary.” True to his word, he committed his second blunder, when he defended MPs’ right to pay for first class tickets on trains with government funds, which has recently come into question.

In a radio interview, he said that he could not ride standard class because, “If I was in standard-class, I would not do work because people would be looking over your shoulder the entire time, there would be noise, there would be distraction.” He claimed that this was because, as he delicately put it, “They [standard-class passengers] are a totally different type of people… They may be reading a book but I doubt whether they're undertaking serious work or study, reading reports or amending reports that MPs do when they travel.” Incidentally, in an unrelated scandal, he remarked, “I’m quite a normal person.”

The Conservative party, which has largely led in polls against the Labour party, is led by MP David Cameron of Witney, Oxfordshire County, in southeastern England. Mr. Cameron’s policies within the party have been to fight this trend of high class politicians with “their old chilly image as a stuffy bastion of the elite, the mean-spirited, the entitled and the clueless.” He admits that it has been an uphill battle. “If the next election is about… [not having a posh prime minister] …we’re not going to win it.”

And Sir Winterton isn’t helping. He drew the ire of BBC News Magazine readers, who expressed their outrage in the comments section of one article (URL below). One anonymous commenter from London asked for the “respect of the MPs who serve us.” Another anonymous commenter said that he would like to give him “45 hacks in the neck with a blunt axe.”

Mr. Cameron, however, has been quick to distance himself and the rest of the Conservative party from Sir Winterton and his odd remarks (which have, in the past, included such oddities as “Will I slap a colleague on the back?... The answer is – it is certainly possible.” This was his defense when he was accused of slapping Labour MP Natascha Engel's rear.). Luckily for Mr. Cameron, the Labour party is not exactly guilt-free. The party has been dogged by scandals of just about every sort.

However, first class train riders in the United Kingdom will have to be more wary of common folk like “Shambles” from London who swears that when he or she wins the lottery, “I'm gonna buy myself a season 1st class rail ticket and make it my life’s mission to annoy all the snobs on first class. Then they won't have an excuse.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/world/europe/23britain.html?ref=europe

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8557468.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Nicholas_Winterton