Middle class identifiers 2022

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I read a similar thread a few years ago & the main middle class markers were hummus, organic food, private education, boden, ski trips etc, farrow & ball..
Are these unchanged for 2022 or have the identifiers shifted?
Since the pandemic I've seen a rise in the "hipster" style MC especially the men, maybe the working from home has allowed them to relax into the unshaven, casual look which wasn't there a few years ago...
Private education seems to be on the wane but that may be due to the cost of living..
Any other main MC identifiers I missed?

I don't use kitchen roll as it is not environmentally friendly. I use reusable rags made from old clothes that can be washed or newspaper that can be composted.

I remember going to a lovely restaurant in Albert Park in Melbourne for our first wedding anniversary. We ordered a really expensive bottle of red and they poured us a glass and left us to it - no tops-ups, the staff disappeared after they presented our mains ...we could see it and we didn't feel happy with getting up and grabbing it - we paid the bill - no tip and asked for our wine back. That was 30 years ago - I wouldn't be so backward about coming forwards now - I never feel happy about wine off the table and I will be quite straight about where I expect it to be placed.

I think we will look back and see this kind of upwards social mobility as quintessentially 20th century. Already the 21st century trend is the opposite. Look at all the families cited on this thread where the privately educated parents can’t afford to send their own DC to private schools, or the younger millennials who have no prospect of owning a home in contrast to their ‘boomer’ parents.

Upward social mobility was already slowing before the pandemic.

I have never been to a restaurant where wine wasn't left on the table - I never even realised this was a thing!

I seriously use nothing. I eat on my lap. I only use a napkin in a restaurant.

In really swanky restaurants there is a wine waiter whose job is to pour the wine, noticing when you need a top up and the wine itself is kept on its own small table away from the table where you're eating. Presumably white wine is chilled. Their whole job is to sort out and serve the wine.

I've only been to a restaurant like that once. Wouldn't necessarily want to go again!

Living in a northern town, I still find accent the most reliable indicator of class. MC can be discerned by a faint local accent merging with RP, or no trace at all of our local accent.

Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again, you can be comfortable financially and be working class. It doesn't mean you are poor. Class is far more than income.

No, it isn't. But given that my life is otherwise pretty environmentally sound (by accident, rather then by design) I'd probably do the newspaper-then-composting thing if I read the Grauniad. But I don't, so I don't.

Look at all the families cited on this thread where the privately educated parents can’t afford to send their own DC to private schools

But the opposite also applies - there are still plenty of people going to private schools, and many of them are people whose parents didn’t go to private school themselves, so while some families are on the down, others are on the up.

The gap is definitely widening - in my country, growing up, wealth was distributed in a rugby ball type shape - the vast majority in the middle, and with just a few outliers at the bottom and top ends.

Now, there is more of a chasm in the middle, some at the top and many at the bottom.

And now, by dint of being his granddaughter, one of them thinks she's well positioned to ridicule and vilify those beneath her when they don't conform to what she believes is acceptable.

Yes, looking at you Alex Polizzi.

I fucking detest that, "I'm above you plebs..." attitude. She'd be nowhere if it wasn't for her grandfather's efforts and acumen.

(If you think I'm being harsh, watch last night's The Hotel Inspector. 😡)

When I drop a bottle of Tuscan Extra Virgin Olive Oil on my terracotta tiles I use an organic cotton cloth to remove it. If I drip ketchup off my chips in paper while watching 'my neighbours are scum' on c5 I use a paper serviette filched from the chippy. Or my sleeve, obviously. Horses for courses.

Have we named these tribes? I think we need to!

Aldi olive oil, thank you very much. It can't be anything else once you've paid the boarding fees.

I read that as using newspaper and rags as napkins!

We use washable cloths for cleaning, and if we need a napkin then we dig them out of the drawer. We also have nice napkins for Christmas (holly berries, not being precious).

Just don't call them serviettes

🤣

Agree, the kids have been born into it, it's all they know... The beckhams seem like lovely kids as do Wayne Rooneys boys

"Have we named these tribes? I think we need to!"

There was a link up thread where you could take a "quiz" to find out. I didn't see it, but I think I know the one they were talking about. It's all bollocks though

If you know, you know

Shopping at zero waste shops
reusable nappies
Lucy and yak
being very anti-Tory

Dear Lord above, how twisted have our perceptions become when being 'very anti Tory' is perceived as a middle class signifier? Terrible.

I'd love to think you're correct newnamethanks, but just look at the BBC, the Labour shadow cabinet, lefty lawyers etc etc

I've noticed a thing about the upper M/c - a couple might be very ordinary in terms of income - perhaps they do jobs like music teacher/ writer / researcher - jobs which reflect their interest rather than a profession.

But they will own their house outright because they had help to buy and have been on the ladder since their 20s.

And they might send the DC to private school because the family can pay.

And when they go on holiday they holiday cheaply and go to my best man Jim's holiday place in Cornwall or auntie Susie's holiday cottage on a Scottish island, or godfather Peter who has a little cabin in snowdownia or colleague Frank who is lending them his gite in Brittany.

And their own families have a little holiday place too - and they say oh do let us know if you want to use the house any time, it's just there for anyone to use.

Which is very generous. 🙂

I know several friends and family like this. They don't have huge amounts of spare money but they have huge cultural capital and connections.

This is a bit daft given the existence of the blue wall in well heeled shire seats. And if you think lefty lawyers are middle class, have a look at some of the rather less anti-Tory corporate ones!

I don’t entirely agree.

For the kids that live the jet set lifestyle- Beckhams, Elton John etc then yes they are born into it.

The Rooneys kids? And some other British footballers, I don’t really agree. These kids still grow up in a working class culture- the tv shows the family watches, hobbies, foods they eat, fashion sense, alcohol they drink, discipline of children, accents etc. In fact I think it’s amplified, because they only seem to spend time with people they trust, so rely heavily on their families. Have a very closed circle around them. The only difference is, they are extremely wealthy.

Very rarely do you see the kids of footballers excel at school and move on to a professional career. These kids will have had the very best of educations but still end up on love island (Gemma Owen), becoming influencers (one of the Gerrard girls). Does anyone believe the Rooney kids are going to be lawyers, doctors etc? No, probably jobs connected to the footballing world, that they’ve got because of their name.

They have vast wealth with a working class culture. How is that any different to certain lottery winners.

The forte family. Well they very much embraced british middle class culture, were all well educated, they are middle class.

🤣🤣🤣Oh yes - because the southern half of England has always returned masses of Tory MPs to Parliament due to the shortage of middle class voters down south. 🤣🤣🤣 Having political opinions and wanting to appear politically savvy, yes, but outside of London, middle class and “lefty” are clearly uncommon bedfellows in the south. It’s more the fact the middle classes dominate politics in general - whether by entering politics or voting - that being a Labour supporter can in any way be seen as a middle class signifier. And the whole left-wing BBC thing is manufactured and put out by middle class people and elites with a political agenda of their own.

The jet set lifestyle kids, have an extremely large, international and diverse social circle. That’s what makes the beckhams kids different from the Rooneys, who only seem to socialise with her family, who are solidly WC.

The Forte family. Well they very much embraced british middle class culture, were all well educated, they are middle class. They are established 'Society' figures now so can they be that and still regarded as MC? They're a tricky family to pigeonhole class-wise. BUT Rocco certainly wasn't 'rags to riches'. I believe it was his father who came over from Italy and made the money? By the time Rocco took over they had definitely 'made it' (they used to and probably still do feature in The Tatler a lot). And Rocco's wife Aliai (quite a bit younger than him?) is the daughter of a neurologist so solidly UMC in her own right.