If you go down to Notting Hill today, you’re sure of a big surprise. It’s slowly but surely being taken over by a group of chi chi young Tories who have more in common with American preppies than the Notting Hill carnival.
You’re more likely to see a Pringle sweater with a cravate emerging from its collar than a colourful Caribbean shirt. As the gentrification of the inner London suburb continues apace, places like Notting Hill have become the place to move to for the Georges, Arabellas, Tamzins and Nigels of this world. They’ve become inhabited by thirty something young Tories who are on the up. These upwardly mobile socialites will deny it, but they’re playing an unwitting game of follow-my-leaders.
Most of the Cameron clique lives in this urban heaven – George Osborne, Ed Vaizey, Steve Hilton, Rachel Whetstone and Michael Gove all live in London W11 and it’s the postcode most admired and aspired to by the young thrusting researchers at Conservative Central Office.
But every city in Britain has its own Notting Hill, and these increasingly gentrified areas are slowly being taken over by Cameron clones – successful career oriented men and women who live life to the full and mix with each other in their own social circles rather than venture out and meet the hoi polloi. They throw raucous dinner parties but don’t cook themselves as they can afford caterers. Babysitters are rarely out of work in places like Notting Hill.
But these are not the Tory dinner parties of yesteryear. They’re not infested by Tory Toffs seeking to recapture the glories of some bygone age. The places to be invited to nowadays are three story town houses, rather than the country piles of the Tory rich and famous. Gone are black ties and cocktail dresses. Woolly Pullies and cords are de rigeur for the men, while the women (as opposed to ladies – these are after all thoroughly modern career women) are just as happy in jeans as Gucci.
The ‘OK Ya’ days of the 1980s Thatcher loving Sloane Rangers have been replaced by the twenty first century New Model Tories. There’s less of the Hooray Henry, more of the Dishy Dave. The braying upper class accents haven’t quite disappeared altogether but they are less obvious and intimidating to the few New Model Tories who haven’t had the same level of education as their dinner companions.
But the class system which has bedevilled Britain for centuries is still there in the background. The New Model Tories give off an air of confidence which seems to be inbred among the public school, Oxbridge educated classes. In fact, they see themselves as completely classless and are horrified by the thought of anyone thinking otherwise. But to the comprehensive educated non Oxbridge attending Tories they still appear cliquey and slightly aloof. They don’t deliberately exclude others, but like most areas of the animal world, they’re more comfortable with their own.
The W11 types are busy people. They have good jobs, they earn good money. They work hard but they also like to play hard. What’s more they like to play together. They even holiday together by renting large villas in Sardinia, Crete or some other Mediterranean idyll. Nannies are obligatory, both domestically and on holiday. Like Samantha Cameron, our New Model Tory Women are career minded. They belong to the Nicola Horlick school of thought in that they believe they can ‘have it all’. They’re home-makers but they’re successful in their own right. No longer do they spend their days shopping absolutely fabulously and regarding their primary role in life to be seen as a socially acceptable appendage to their husbands.
W11 woman is fiercely independent and has made her own way in the world. Any thought of subjugating her own life and career in deference to her husband is anathema to her. Samantha Cameron has become something of a role model to W11 woman. She has three children, a husband with a 24 hour a day job yet she has still managed to combine her domestic and family life with a successful career at Smythsons. ‘How does Samantha do it?’ is often the main subject of dinner party conversation among New Model Tory Women. As yet, the question hasn’t been answered.
The New Model Tories also represent a paradox. One thing they all have in common is money. They’re well off and not ashamed of it. The paradox is where the money has come from. Sometimes it’s inherited wealth but more often than not it’s the result of hard graft and a successful career. These are, after all, Thatcher’s children. But the wealth is not ostentatiously flaunted. Their houses may be relatively large, but the décor is not over the top. Indeed it’s often understated with practical, comfortable furnishings rather than expensive antique chaises longues which may be nice to look at but highly uncomfortable to sit on. Domestic life is governed by what is needed rather than by what looks good. Just as the New Model Tories are comfortable with themselves, they’re comfortable in their own homes.
The New Model Tories are often seen as quite cliquey. It’s because they’ve known each other for years, having met at university or in their early careers. There is a certain Bruderbund mentality about them. They’re loyal to each other and come to each other’s rescue in a crisis. They may be independent but they like hunting as a pack if they’re under attack. In the end, it’s their individual self confidence which sees them through the various tests of life which come their way.
But is this self confidence enough to help David Cameron into Number Ten? It may well be. But no one would be surprised if having got there, Cameron broke with tradition and returned home to W11 each evening. It is, after all, where he’s most at home – among his own.
