Champagne socialist

Champagne socialist is a pejorative political term originating in the United Kingdom. The phrase is used to describe self-identified socialists whose comfortable upper middle class lifestyles are perceived to be incompatible with their professed political convictions. The term is used by opposing politicians to portray and ridicule their opponents as hypocritical.

History and origin

The label arose from the perceived activity of proposing toasts to famous socialists with champagne.^{[citation needed]} A similar concept, with aristocracy in place of capitalism, comes from the 19th-century philosopher Alexander Herzen, who in From the Other Shore (1855) wrote "It is they, none other, who are dying of cold and hunger...while you and I in our rooms on the first floor are chatting about socialism 'over pastry and champagne.'" The term "champagne socialist" has been applied to such figures as Margaret Hodge.

Comparable terms are parlor pink, limousine liberal, gauche caviar, Neiman Marxist, Chardonnay socialist, cava socialists or asti socialists. The term Bollinger Bolshevik is used in the same way.

See also

• Hampstead liberal
• Liberal elite
• Chattering classes
• Blue rinse brigade
• Islington

Synonyms

• Chardonnay socialist, Australia and New Zealand
• Toskana-Fraktion, Austria and Germany
• Rosedale socialist, Canada (Ontario)
• Shaughnessy socialist, Canada (British Columbia)
• Gauche caviar, France
• Radical chic, Italy
• Limousine liberal, United States
• Esquerda caviar, Portugal
• Gauche divine, Pijo-progre, Spain
• Rödvinsvänster (red wine left) and Lattevänster (Latte left), Sweden
• Cüpli-Sozialist, Switzerland
• Caviar left, Peru
• Smoked Salmon Socialist, Ireland

External links

• Dylan Jones: Card-carrying champagne socialists are looking to swap sides - but they want to do it with dignity