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Bouvet says PC blinkers have prevented the Socialists from addressing working-class anxieties about immigration and the rise of Islam – even in its moderate form – in areas where the so-called Français de souche (born-and-bred French) find themselves outnumbered by those with a different religion and cultural habits.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/22/alienated-french-working-class-vote-far-right-claims-analyst

Can you please explain to me what the meaning of "PC blinkers" in the above sentence is? Does it mean that French socialists are politically ignorant and not perceptive?

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PC is "politically correct", used scornfully to signify adherence to sentimental (usually leftist) political ideology. Blinkers are devices on a horse's gear which restrict its side vision so it will not be alarmed by movement outside its path.

Bouvet means that an ideological belief on the inherent solidarity of the 'working class' with similarly 'oppressed' minorities blinds French socialists to the fact that many workers are anxious and resentful about those minorities, especially in neighborhoods where the minorities are majorities.

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  • Or, more precisely, that the Socialists, though they might be are aware of those anxieties, are unable to see that the anxieties need to be addressed.
    – Brian Hitchcock
    Commented Mar 22, 2015 at 11:13
  • @BrianHitchcock Yes. M. Bouvet is further quoted: “The left is trying to make up to what it calls ‘real minorities’ who it believes are discriminated against. In doing so it has become indifferent, even scornful, of the wider French working class. They say to these native French ‘you have not understood, you are racist and sexist’...”
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Commented Mar 22, 2015 at 11:47

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