Time to man the class war barricades

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To judge from the reaction to Gordon Brown's "playing fields of Eton" jibe at PMQs this week you would think he had unleashed the dogs of class war by lobbing a Molotov cocktail through the front door of Tory HQ.

Labour's red rose army must be massing on the banks of the Thames ready to storm the Palace, lynching anyone in a top hat from the nearest lamp post and checking class credentials by examining finger nails for signs of good, honest dirt.

Mind you, Gordon Brown cracking a genuinely funny joke during question time was almost as revolutionary.

In fact, all the prime minister did was repeat, albeit in the most effective way yet, his well-rehearsed line that David Cameron's plan to increase the inheritance tax threshold (something Labour is pledged to do as well) was designed to help his rich friends.

This week, however, the line was given added oomph by the revelation that Tory candidate and Eton educated "toff" Zac Goldsmith was lying offshore, where his inherited millions are out of reach of the ferociously efficient British tax man.

But is this "taunt the toffs" approach a good idea?

After all, there are plenty of posh individuals on the Labour side who have taken advantage of privileged educations for themselves and their children, most notably the deputy party leader Harriet Harman.

And Brown has been warned by some of his strategists that playing the class card didn't work in the disastrous Crewe and Nantwich by-election and simply does not chime with voters.

Others, however, believe things have changed and that seeking to portray the Tories as the party of the rich and privileged might be back in fashion, thanks largely to the economic crisis and the fact there are more old Etonians in top Tory jobs than there have been for decades.

They argue there is now a widely perceived divide between ordinary punters, who will be feeling the pain of the recession for years, and those who seem either immune from it or believe it should not affect their lifestyles - think bankers and City wide boys.

If Labour can condition voters into picturing Cameron in a tail coat every time the words "greedy bankers" or "City bonuses" are mentioned, Brown might be on to a winner.

The bonus for the prime minister is that it is often Tory strategists who think like this.

It is they who have, apparently, gone to great lengths to Tippex out any references to public schools in their leaders' CVs.

And there is the question of why that infamous Bullingdon club photograph has been removed from circulation.

So it is partly Tory nervousness over this that has encouraged Brown to step up the class warfare attacks, undoubtedly aided and abetted by his old pals Alastair Campbell and Charlie Whelan.

It is also a pretty safe bet that chancellor Alistair Darling will use next Wednesday's pre-budget report to continue the exercise by, probably, abandoning his own IT plan and attempting to offer a less painful way out of recession than shadow chancellor George Osborne is currently threatening.

Labour's core voters, ignored or taken for granted for the last decade, and most of Brown's backbenchers will welcome this approach and might start warming to their man again.

But the big question is whether those vital, Middle England swing voters will be won over.

Do they harbour the same sense of resentment over bankers and the City and are they open to the suggestion that the Tories are that group's political representatives on earth?

Time to man the barricades.

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