Fuck! Apparently I'm The Elite!!!

[hopefullyhelpfully]

Genuinely a bit confused. At a Halloween party tonight when a friend of a friend who I know vaguely said that I was part of The Elite and so would automatically be biased towards maintaining status quo. She was sort of joking but not IYSWIM?

This is news to me. Do I get a badge? Is there a T-shirt? A handshake?

I suppose I'm interested in other people's opinions. Does the Elite now encompass the well off middle class whatever their background? I don't know anyone with any influence nationally....
In context I'm from Manchester, went to a bog standard Comprehensive. DH from Luton. Our parents are respectively a printer, teacher, nurse and warehouse manager. We both benefited enormously from free university education (Oxbridge and Imperial) and the house price boom (we're late 40s) and are in lucrative jobs London living in an expensive house. We privately educate both children for secondary but not for primary.
This makes me the poshest person I could ever have imagined as a child BUT surely not this nebulous Elite???
I'm honestly interested in how other people see this...
(DH just laughing. He's now drinking a cup of tea in his dressing gown and a bow tie!)

Fuck. Went to sleep drunkenly last night on about 80 comments....

This was interesting. I'd obviously never have posted this sober as I know this sort of thing gets really toxic on here, but reading through the comments most people have responded thoughtfully, albeit with massive differences of opinion. Some really funny people as well.

It's been a bit of a shock to me and has made me question why the comment upset me enough to actually risk posting about it. I think I'm feeling guilty.

To the posters accusing me of faux naïveté . I provided the background i thought was relevant and I was genuinely agitated. And drunk obviously.

Finally... a message from the friend who hosted checking her other friend didn't piss me off ... I obviously said that I barely registered what was said and was absolutely FINE.

That BBC quiz is bullshit!!! Apparently I’m also the elite 😂
We are comfortable financially and have dc at private school but in no way elite!
I have a working class background (although I went to grammar school and educated to Masters level) and dh had a very middle class, private school upbringing (but didn’t do amazingly at school, didn’t go to uni and works in a fairly manual job, albeit in a senior role now after many years).

Well there was a few of us so you can keep your biscuit for your hang over

I don’t know why it would upset you though? Why do you think that is

You don't need to go into the nitty gritty of your finances but do you or don't you accept that a 20 yr old today in a similar financial position to yourself would find it more difficult now to have what you have in 17 yrs time? This may be too personal but which way do you vote?

PS I'm only a bit younger than you &
do own some of my home (it has a mortgage) & I'm in London. I just recognise that whilst I did/do work hard & did all the sensible things (paid NI since 17, paid into private pension from my 20s) I would not be where I am today without parental help & if I happened to be just a few yrs younger that help wouldn't have been enough to get me on the housing ladder. I also like the idea of having more than 1 home (for my own use) but feel very uncomfortable when home ownership is so prohibitive for the younger generations.

Seriously? You come home a bit pissed from a party and can’t think of anything else to do but start this thread?

@chippychip1 I do agree hence why I have put money away from the inheritance for our two dc. We were lucky in many ways, I lived at home whilst at university and have no student loans. Neither did my dh.

Well you answered your own question. Not many NQTs are able to get on the housing ladder these days alone let alone overpay.

So I assume your not in favour of changes to inheritance tax then & want to maintain the status quo for your children?

if you benefit from right wing conservative governments then you're privileged.

All those tenants who bought their council houses at a bargain price under right to buy are surely loving all their privilege.

Pumpkinpie66 - the problem with your argument is that it does not reflect current reality. You claim that you think that cleaners have equal value to lawyers, so how do you show the the cleaner has equal value to the lawyer? Certainly not in this society by paying them the same, and how does a capitalist society assess value? What meaning does "value" have to you? What does it look like so as to differentiate it from a fairly meaningless word?

How about voting? Do we have to listen to the "experts" before we decide how to vote? Should we? Who are the experts? Does a vote based on misinformation or misunderstanding have equal value to an "educated" vote? Do we always trust our plumbers to be giving expert, impartial advice? Or do we sometimes think they may be self-interested and trying to get one over on us? What should we do when the experts disagree, or when an issue is so complex, that the direction you go in depends on the area of expertise you assign most importance to? Where does equal value get you then?

Yes, or that.

Hmmm. Is there a metre clearance on either side? Otherwise I'm going to have to reassess my elite boundary.
Though, tbh I'm just jealous. Our kitchen is about the size of a bath tub.

All those tenants who bought their council houses at a bargain price 9 right to buy are ‘surely loving all their privilege.

Well a huge number of them sold to developers and longterm investment landlords as soon as they were able to, netting them millions....

(The developers and landlords that is, not RTBers)

Ugh. Seriously. This whole thread is the epitome of smugness disguised as naivety.

This.

No it doesn't but it may make them keen to maintain the status quo & their privilege. I presume they are not all in favour of changes to inheritance tax or capital tax thresholds or selling their properties to tenants?

You mean, they want to retain their assets i.e. not hand them over to the Inland Revenue?

You mean, they want to retain their assets i.e. not hand them over to the Inland Revenue?

Yes just like Philip Green & co & companies like Facebook, Starbucks etc

Your thread really made me laugh OP, you sound fun. Although I'm a bit gutted we just spent £600k to live in a flat in champagne socialist land and there's no kitchen island sob .

Noone knows who the elite are, it's a divide and conquer tactic. Reminds me of the press talking about people on benefits swanking about in huge houses with 60 inch TVs, rather than the realities of being on benefits.

DreamongofSunshine

10 points.

I think the "Elite" is usually referring to the actual rich and powerful, as in, the people who murder journalists for exposing shell companies and mass tax avoidance in Panama and rich men in prison cells threatening to expose which of them used his private underage sex ring, etc.

I live in Islington, have a kitchen island AND know Grayson Perry. I must be truly elite. Not.

‘Elite’ in this context was surely meant for the ears of disaffected leave voters/leave leaders in labour seats. Not as some well defined reality. Everything we hear now will be designed for specific ears rather than speaking do specific truths I think.

Gordon Ramsey in the programme about their kids said he was working class with a big house

If that’s how Ramsey sees himself then there are very few elite people out there

What? What are RU babbling on about? I have no idea what this bollocks is about and am quite sure not many other people do either. You are not elite noone is I'm afraid. I don't think more of people if they have better education job or better hair than other people u is chatting shit love soz