Seven Classes

[poliphilo]

According to a widely publicized piece of research Britain now has seven distinct social classes. I can't see the idea catching on- seven is too many to memorize or keep track of- but it might help explain (as Martin Kettle suggests in the Guardian) why our political system- which is predicated on the existence of only three- is so manifestly unfit for purpose.

Comments

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

Poor Ray, it's all getting a bit too much for him. First he fears he has lost his working class cred because he now stops to actually taste the wine and check the grape before he drinks and now, after I took the test yesterday on the BBC website, it appears that our cultural score has shot us further up the line. It's tough being an Eastender these days.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I discovered to my surprise that I'm "traditional working class". At first I thought they'd got it completely wrong but then I reflected on the area I live in and the work I've mostly done and decided they know me better than I know myself.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

I also did the test and got "traditional working class". I was amused, and with my socialist leanings not that surprised. In market research we still use the old tried and tested ABC1C2DE categories, where A is your elite and E is benefit only.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We Brits love nothing better than to talk about class :)

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

I don't feel elite. I was never in the Bullingdon club. All I've done is bought a reasonable house in the south-east of England, and been to a few museums. I have never had any class privilege under the OED definition "a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group". I've decided this thing is a nonsense.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I had a middle-class upbringing and an elite education but the test says I'm "traditional working class". At first I thought "piffle". And then I remembered that for the past 27 years I've lived in a working class area and done working class jobs.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Nonsense it most certainly is- 'Established middle class' when I'm first generation off the council estate?

Oh per-lease!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

But are we defined by our origins? I'm not sure we are.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Probably not, but how can I possibly be 'established' in one generation?

Like they say, you can take the girl out of the council estate, but..............

I still have a lot of friends living on the one that replaced it! :o)

Unlike some people I could name of the journalistic persuasion, I don't despise my roots.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

I thought we are genuinely (or not) defined by our current circumstances irrespective of our origins. At one time I was a high earner that would have comfortably put me in the middle class (or in market research terms top end of the B's).