To think that the middle classes are liars and actors?

Woah bonkers!!!

😂😂😂

Exactly this!

You wouldn't know to hear me speak (cos I grew up in Sarf Lundun innit), but my family background is from the central European nobility - used to dine with the Austro-Hungarian Emperor, silver mines, outrageous levels of gambling, &c.

These sorts of things have a habit of changing over the generations, and they shouldn't make a blind bit of difference anyway.

@SweetSakura it's not what OP is driving at, at all. She's outraged she got "taken in" , did snooping on one man's family (wtf?!?) and since there's not a lot negative to actually say about them , she decided they are fake, actors and snobs.

It can't possibly be that they grew , and changed and adapted to their environment like a lot of people do. Or that the arty/writer woman could have always been like this regardless how she was raised.

It's OP who is the snob and has strict views on class and how people from a certain class should look or behave.

To sum her post up , in her eyes , these people have no right to act, look and behave as they do as they come from working class families.

Yes exactly.

I think it's fabulous when people discover a hobby they love, and break into it whatever their background. (Sailing/skiing /rugby/opera). Wonderful, of course anyone can enjoy any hobby.

What I find sad is when people force themselves to do things or pretend to like things because they want to appear more "middle class", whatever that may mean. A constant kind of fakery that is really strained.

Similarly people who don't wear /eat etc what they want but instead focus on what they feel they "should" do.

I think that's what op is driving at.

@Passwordsaremynemesis as I have already said, it's one thing modifying your accent to be understood as you describe. That's just pragmatism. A totally different matter reinventing oneself and modifying how you speak because you feel that you have to hide your roots. The latter is what I referred to as losing a little bit of your soul.

I'm suspicious. Is it a total coincidence that there is, apparently, a new TV show called The Hardacres (I believe, not sure) coming out soon. Something about a working class family investing their earnings from their fried fish stall (or some such shite), becoming very wealthy as a result and having problems with snobbery in the upper echelons of society. Maybe getting people talking about class to encourage an interest in what, quite frankly, sounds like utter shit.

Synopsis
New rags-to-riches saga following the lives and fortunes of a working-class family as they move from a grimy fish dock to a vast country estate in 1890s Yorkshire.

First episode 7th October somewhere I can't be bothered to look up.

I might be too suspicious and quite batty but in my defense it is past 3 in the morning and I'm tired now.

I love the NI accent but the words come out very fast so it takes a minute to get my ear in!

God if I hadn’t been able to change my accent, I would be screwed. I am from an NI housing estate, but was lucky enough to get a grammar school education and a degree. After graduation I got a job in London and no-one could understand a word I said, so I had to adapt quickly! Years later I moved to Cork and had to adjust my accent again. Now I am in Oz and work in a very international workplace so it’s different again! My friends take the piss as if I have a few drinks my old NI accent comes back, they think it’s hilarious. I really wouldn’t give two shits if you judged me for being fake though, and I certainly don’t feel like I’ve lost part of my soul, as a previous poster suggested. The British obsession with class is very odd though, I can’t say I miss it.

Mindblowingly, lots of people at private schools have elocution or oratory lessons to refine their accent and boost their cooffence speaking.

Are they lying and faking being middle class?

And there's a road to it. I read that in a book somewhere.

Didn't realise middle classes had 'glamorous backgrounds'. Is this like the comedy sketch 'I look down on him...'? You say someone who worked their way up with their own business acts like the prince of the county. I think someone who worked their way up has more right to be proud of it because they earned it, rather than being handed down. Don't think Kate Middleton should have kept to her middle class roots and how dare she now live the life of an aristocrat?

This us the kind of bonkers thread that makes MN worthwhile😅

Jeremy Clarkson is from Doncaster, his mum was a teacher and his dad a salesman. But i believe he was educated at Repton. He’s obviously insanely wealthy and hangs out with David Cameron. I wonder if the OP would think he’s a working class just acting at being middle class? 🤷‍♀️😁

@JudgeJ Doncaster trumps Wigan, because it’s a well known fact Yorkshire people are vastly superior to any Lancastrians.The pier counts for nowt.

I carry the shame of my father being from Doncaster and even worse, my grandmother coming from Wigan.

Oi, why does Doncaster trump Wigan!!! Wigan had a Pier for a long time, that should count for something!!

i spent half of my childhood holding things to be soldered, and dodging sparks (my dad was not very H and S conscious), but not really. What I’ve always wanted to learn is plastering, but weirdly few people are prepared to teach moonlighting academics.

Don't worry OP. Gen X is the last generation guaranteed to better than their parents because the boomers started and still are bleeding the country dry. Order will be restored and by the time I'm old enough to be mean about younger generations, they will be back trapped in their rightful places, working to keep the rich man in buckshot.

But, I should add, I'm, not sure why you are so down on construction. I work in the industry and it is awash with money. Always has been.

Welding's a proper skill, have you ever tried it?

Surely no one is dense enough to believe this, yet it gets produced with a great air of wisdom on every class thread.

Sure, @tillytoodles1, there’s no difference in income, educational level, lifestyle, qualifications, likely life expectancy etc between the CEO of AstraZeneca and a minimum-wage care worker. They both work, right?

No that’s not how class is defined, if it was what would retired peiple or folks on benefits be?

you can google if you wish to understand more about definitions of class. But if it helps, working class is unskilled and earns a wage, likely paid by the hour.

middle class is semi skilled or skilled labour, that earns a salary, and has had further education.

upper class is landed gentry or aristocrates

all three classes work, it is the type of labour they do that defines the class.

If you have to work to support your lifestyle then surely you're working class.

You need help

This story of rags to riches applies to most people - it's totally normal. In the 20s 95% of people were working class and there was a huge division between classes that most people had no chance of crossing. In the 50s (my parents generation) most people were still working class. Nowadays everyone has access to education, which is a great leveller - a medical degree is the same no matter what your accent or hobbies. Most 18 year olds see university as an option for them if they want to go. I know plenty of people born in the 60s and 70s of working class origin who did not have chance at university as they were expected to leave school at 16 and went straight to manual work. Now their children have been to university. University isn't the only marker of being middle class but it demonstrates the opportunity is there. Living conditions in this country have improved hugely over the last century. Unfortunately social mobility has stalled and even reversed a bit under the recent Tory government but overall the trend has been upwards.

People who are genuinely middle class since the generation before their parents or grandparents alive in the 50s are very much the exception