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The derision directed at pro-Corbyn MPs like Richard Burgon tells you a lot about attitudes to class, education and politics in Britain. Burgon has the Oxbridge qualifications the British establishment demands, but he's a northern working-class socialist, so it doesn't count. https://twitter.com/PolhomeEditor/status/1247096678768939015
Diane Abbott: Oxbridge too, but not only is she a working-class socialist, she's also a black woman, so she must be "stupid". Rebecca Long-Bailey: northern, working-class, has a law degree from a university that *used* to be a polytechnic. She gets this kind of sneering about it.
(That comes from the house journal of Progress, the Blairite cargo cult.) Being working-class isn't the problem as such: if you're a Tory or Labour-right politician with that background (David Davis, Alan Johnson), it becomes an impressive part of your back story.
Jess Phillips is given honorary working-class status, adding to her "authentic" brand, because she has a regional accent, although her family was middle class. John McDonnell gets no such fawning despite putting himself through night school to earn a degree as a mature student.
McDonnell was evidently head and shoulders above Westminster's PPE brigade as an intellectual, but wasn't given credit because of his background. Corbyn, on the other hand, came from a middle-class family, but didn't have the Oxbridge credentials, so he didn't belong, either.
Seumas Milne was a glorious exception to the rule: pure establishment background (his dad was BBC director-general!), Winchester/Balliol education, obviously ferociously bright, so they never tried to patronize him. Instead he got the "evil Svengali controlling Corbyn" treatment.
All in all it's a familiar story for the British establishment: heads we win, tails you lose, this is a club and you don't belong, guys; no, you can't ask to see the membership rules. And the only lesson to draw is, don't be suckered into playing the game by their rules.
