Working class conservatism or npb social distancing?

K Malik in the Observer analyses Britain's working class

it had become accepted almost as a given that the working class was intrinsically socially conservative.[yes -- dating back at least to the 1950s]  ..The working class, runs the argument, is rooted in communities and cherishes values of family, nation and tradition. It has little time for liberal individualism or for the language of diversity and rights. That belongs to the “metropolitan liberals” and to a different political tradition

The trouble with this argument is that the key feature of Britain over the past half century has been not social conservatism but an extraordinary liberalisation...On a host of issues, from gender roles to gay marriage, from premarital sex to interracial relationships, Britain has liberalised [including the British working class]

It’s true that there are deep class divides on immigration, with differences between the views of unskilled workers and those of professionals being the widest in Europe. Yet, nearly a third of unskilled workers are “pro-immigrant” and almost half think that Britain should allow in “many” or “some” migrants from poorer European countries.... In societies in which trust is low and social solidarity weak, hostility towards migrants is high, even when immigrants are few in number. Where trust in public institutions is high and social stability strong, people are more open to immigration. The BSA similarly found that attitudes to immigration were intertwined with issues of trust....

Working-class wariness of immigration is not an expression of an innate social conservatism but of the loss of trust, the breaking of social bonds and a sense of voicelessness. [There are some sound studies on this]...Working-class lives have been made more precarious... Immigration has become symbolic of this loss.

We should not, however, confuse anger at social atomisation and political voicelessness with social conservatism.

The abandonment by working-class voters of social democratic parties throughout Europe, and their embrace of populism, was seen by many as a rejection of the liberal values that define the left....[but]...many sections of the left have also given up on traditional modes of social change, retreating instead into the vapidity of identity politics and diversity talk. In so doing, they have often abandoned not just class politics, but their attachment to traditional liberal values as well

We need class analysis here too, though. It is the new petite bourgeoisie in the left who restlessly change the goal posts, so that old liberal causes are no longer enough to claim social distinction. Identity politics is an ideal form because it is also constantly changing and nebulous, giving a constant chance for those in the know to demonstrate their moral superiority.