Arthur Mullard

If you are old enough you will remember Arthur. He was a massive brute of a man who epitomised a certain type of working class heavy - he actually payed a crook called Brassnuckles in the Peter Sellars film "the Wrong Arm of the Law". But in the 1970s he was cast as a proto Royle Family type character, living in a caravan and blissfully unaware of his Social Class 5 status. In one episode a con man convinces him and his wife to part with what little cash they have for a get-rick-quick scheme; eagerly anticipating riches to come Arthur turns to his on-screen wife and says "there you go - I told you all these years of voting Tory would pay off one day",

I've been a Labour Party member on and off all my life and rejoined most recently after the 2010 election. Whatever its faults it does at least espouse the opposite of the Tory con-trick, which is basically "I'm Allright Jack" (another Peter Sellars film title incidentally), except for the fact that the richest do very nicely out of it thank you and perpetuate a class system that makes you want to weep for the very concept of evolution.

So I'm wearing my Labour Party membership with pride, although its an institution in dire straights at the moment. The Arthurs are a challenge. So too are the Prosecco Socialists that the media sneer at. Not sure where its all going; but I do know that Arthur was wrong then and the modern version is wrong today.

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