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He rose to the top partly because his father was a successful well-known journalist and newspaper editor, partly because he is a clever and competent organizer,
by Veen 5y ago
He rose to the top partly because his father was a successful well-known journalist and newspaper editor, partly because he is a clever and competent organizer, and partly because he plays a role that appeals to a certain class of people. His family were not aristocratic in the sense this article discusses: his father was the middle-class son of an Irish American Catholic immigrant. William Rees-Mogg went to Oxford on a scholarship and succeeded in life through hard work, intelligence, and contacts he made at Uni.
Jacob has more of an advantage than his father because of Eton and because his father had climbed the greasy pole before him, but his background is exactly the type that "We came over with William the Conqueror" aristocrats look down on. He has more in common with Otto English's mother than he would probably like to admit. Just like her, he is a caricature of the British upper classes, not the real deal.
Plus, of course, he has risen to the top because the people in his constituency vote for him.
- dwb 5y agoI'm struggling to find the source for this (there is one), but it's overwhelmingly more likely constituents voted for the Conservative party, and not Rees-Mogg as the particular candidate.
- Veen 5y agoThat's hard to say, and it doesn't really matter. Voting for the candidate and voting for the party are difficult to separate. His constituency (North East Somerset) is a new one created in 2010, and he's the only MP to have represented it. But the previous consituency (Wansdyke) that covered a similar area was Labour from 1997 and until 2010 (the Blair/Brown years), when it was abolished and replaced by North East Somerset, at which point Rees-Mogg won it for the Tories. Prior to 1997 it was historically Tory. So, we might conclude that it's a moderate Tory seat that doesn't mind going Labour provided its moderate Labour and not Corbynite-type Labour. It's certainly not populated by bunch of dyed-in-the-wool intransigent Tories, so there's every chance Rees-Mogg might have lost if the constituency didn't like him. Interesting, Rees-Mogg is an arch-Brexiteer but his constituency only very narrowly voted in favour of Brexit (51%), so perhaps they like him and not just the party. Although the Labour and Lib Dem opponents split the Remain vote 50/50, which certainly helped him.
- thinkingemote 5y agoits possible that he is a good local MP too. i dont know. doing a good job should be more important than how one appears, however people's tend not to be rational.