Such as having a relationship with his father that was at times so strained that they didn't exchange Christmas cards. Such as, in fact, the long journey Prescott has made from 11-plus failure to the cabinet room. Such a journey and such an arrival should have made Prescott more self-confident, more self-assured, less thin-skinned. That it did not may go a little way toward explaining why he reacted in the way he did last Wednesday that and the excellent boxing training he received during his time in the Merchant Navy.For the key to Prescott is that chippiness, that sensitivity to being mocked or laughed at, precisely what that grinning, egg-throwing protester seemed to be doing. This is often coupled with a certain ambiguity about his origins. It is, in truth, not uncommon in politicians from that sort of background such as Neil Kinnock or John Major. It manifests itself as a super-sensitivity to being patronised.It should, then, not be surprising that the Deputy Prime Minister has seen the film Billy Elliot five times.
Or that he can quote large tracts of dialogue from the story about a young boy who rebels against the strictures of working-class life to become a ballet dancer. Prescott confided in an interview earlier this year: "I do see a bit of myself in Billy. This lad Billy rose up against the prejudices of his community and against the very structure of that community and said, 'This is what I am This is how I want to live my life.' And yes, that moved me. Billy Elliot dancing his heart out, to make his father understand that he must live a different life, makes me cry."Prescott had some difficulty making his own father understand certain things He died earlier this year, aged 90. Bert Prescott was a railwayman, something that helped to endow John with a life-long interest and practical expertise in the railways. The Prescotts were not affluent, but neither could they be described as deprived. Indeed the Prescotts won £1,000 in a competition to find the "most typical British family of 1951".What was atypical was the way class distorted Prescott's relations with his father.
Bert Prescott once said: "John never used to be spiteful but he's changed. All I said was that John is working-class he is the grandson of a miner and the son of a railwayman But he thinks he is middle-class and took exception He has snubbed me and other relatives ever since. He has wrecked our family life." To be fair, his son has never been particularly consistent on the subject of class, claiming: "Don't make any mistake about it: I am proud of being working-class", but, more famously, he is remembered for stimulating a minor national debate by saying that he became middle-class when he became an MP; "I am by definition in all its aspirations and identities middle-class." Or, more colourfully, "I no longer keep the coal in the bath. I keep it in the bidet."Prescott's early experiences established a characteristic resentment of class and privilege. The most important of these experiences was his failure to pass the 11-plus exam.
