Hardworking families


The phrase "hardworking families" or "working families" is an example of a glittering generality in contemporary political discourse. It is used in the politics of the United Kingdom and of the United States, and was heavily used by the political parties in the campaign of the 2005 United Kingdom general election and the 2007 Australian federal election where the Rudd Labor Party used the term extensively.

Origins

Emerging from some British newspapers around 1995, Gordon Brown expressed gratitude to Bob Shrum for suggesting the phrase between 1994 and 1997.

Quotations

Some examples of politicians using the phrase:
Sometimes the use of the phrase by politicians is echoed in media reports on political events, or indeed the news medium itself employs the phrase as part of its own editorializing, in the expectation that its readers will infer that it is referring to them:
"Hardworking" is also, by itself, a glittering generality: