“One rule for MPs, one rule for ordinary people”: using discursive psychology to explore how class-based assumptions of “ordinariness” and “exceptionalism” are negotiated in political entertainment shows
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: To date, an estimated 14.4 million people in Britain live in poverty - a situation exacerbated by the current cost-of-living crisis. This has caused moral panics about who should and should not have access to public money to increase again. By returning to a case study of the 2009 UK Parliamentary Expenses Scandal, this article shows how politicians use class-based ways of speaking to sidestep financial and moral transgressions. Discursive social psychology was used to analyse five hours of Question Time and shows how two categories of ordinariness and exceptionalism were used. These categories were embedded with notions of status, deservingness and disposition, and were used dynamically by speakers. Ultimately, speakers drew upon class-based ideological assumptions to negotiate who can, and cannot, use taxpayers’ money. This article shows how our everyday talk around money can challenge, uphold, or perpetuate social class inequality.
Authors: Penny A. Litchfield, Mirko A. Demasi
Institutions: Loughborough University, Leeds Beckett University
Language: English
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4409679432