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?

One of Gary Linnekar's sons is a Business Development Manager .

Classic sketch! 🤣

Might add that an independent school attended by a niece and nephew, which used to come fairly high in the academic league tables 30/40 years old ago, has now dropped significantly. According to my relative, that’s because far fewer of the sort of people who used to send their children there can now afford to do so. A lot of highly paid footballers apparently live in the area, and their children form a good part of the intake.

"the sort of people"🤔

I don't think footballers' kids are going to be any less able.....

Yes & the Geldofs too.
Bono & the rest of U2s children are extremely MC now

Bob Geldof was middle class to start with surely, the accent on him, such an MC drawl.

Paul Hewson, his family had less money and his accent not so MC.

But Bob Geldof's children haven't become mc, they've just become rich!

The beckham kids all attended top private schools including the ones with tough entrance requirements

and got asked to leave after a year because at least one of them couldn’t keep up

and got asked to leave after a year because at least one of them couldn’t keep up

🤷‍♀️ if that's the schools policy it will apply to any pupil

But Bob Geldof's children haven't become mc, they've just become rich!

what like Kate Middleton ?

Having kept up with this thread since it started, it appears that what many would class as a MC lifestyle (big detached house with a big garden, ski trips, expensive clothes and food, several abroad holidays a year (maybe staycations too) music lessons for DC etc) is quite expensive in todays real money terms.

Adding in private schooling, what would you say a household income has to be to afford all of the above? To me, it sounds about £200k?

Well, no, he is and was middle class, fame or no fame, wealth or no wealth.
He was born in Belgium because that's where his father was working, his family returned to live in Glasthule not Dun Laoghaire as Bob always says, he plays down his privilege. He went to the hardest to get in to private school. His father was in to sailing.

If you can't tell from his accent that BG is very middle class then that means that you discount Irish people from ever being mc. That makes no sense to me but I do realise it's how a lot of British people think. They apply the British measure to everybody.

I would say that Bob Geldof's girls are very MC! Neither BG nor Paula Yates were WC really for all that Bob Geldof would have you think otherwise.

The Rolling Stones and the Beatles were part of the 60s 'turning tide' of meritocracy. If ever there was a decade to make it the 60s were surely it? And they were all clearly bright guys, some with more MC backgrounds than others. Remember that John Lennon (despite singing about being a WC hero) had a more MC upbringing and went to art school. Mick Jagger's dad was a PE teacher (or something similar) and he himself started a course at the LSE. And I'm sure Keith Richards went to grammar school too?

But Bob Geldof's children haven't become mc, they've just become rich!

A the kids allowed to be MC then? 😉

I don't think even 200k would be enough. I'd say 150k each so 300k in total. And whilst people say that it's not about money, you definitely cannot afford any of these things without a very high family income especially in London

@LouisCatorze exactly, bob was trying to shake off that mc image he would have had in Dublin. But in the UK, it's different, you're allowed to be privileged.

A) Some of them (Bob Geldof, Mick Jagger, a couple of U2) were MC to start with

B) None of their kids are middle class, they are upper class, new money division. All aristocrats and the rest of the traditional UC started as new money remember, and it will only take another generator or so for that new money to be regarded as old/establishment money.

Having kept up with this thread since it started, it appears that what many would class as a MC lifestyle (big detached house with a big garden, ski trips, expensive clothes and food, several abroad holidays a year (maybe staycations too) music lessons for DC etc) is quite expensive in todays real money terms.
Some posters think these are very 'old school' and rather outdated as the only qualifications. There are more than one tribe of MC.

Yes it seems being a musician is your cultural capital, so regardless of your roots- the shift to middle class can even take place place in one generation.

Look at Macca and indeed all the Beatles. All their kids are very MC. Macca I wouldn’t say is WC, even though we know his upbringing.

Also artists, painters-regardless of their background. Grayson Perry has spoke about this lots!

@ChairPose9to5 crossposted! Yes, you're right about his Irish accent too. He grew up in/near Dublin right? You've only got to compare him with Ronan Keating (who has a real strong Dublin WC one) to hear the massive difference.

Macca's mother was a midwife so you'd probably say he was LMC, as she was educated and a professional in an era when it wasn't entirely normal for women to be so!

Grayson speaks about his WC trait of walking around the house with his top off, which his MC wife just doesn’t understand. Or is it taking his jeans off? Can’t remember, one of the two!
But he accepts that he is MC even though his background is WC

Yes, so obvious (to an Irish person) but I guess English people think they talk the same.

@2356vw that's very interesting as only the minority will earn c. £150k. Investment bankers, entrepreneurs/business owners, financial professionals etc. Not many people at all will achieve that as it's just very unusual

rock stars can't sing songs about how easy they had it, relatively

Grayson Perry's wife went to Cheltenham Ladies College and is a professional so very UMC.

I would say intellectual curiosity goes hand in hand with cultural capital too (which is what many of the rockstars of yesteryear have in buckets. Keith Richards is an avid military historian apparently!).

For me in my humble opinion it's all about the lifestyle, the beautiful home & garden, the long swishy "rich girl" hair & subtle tan, the kids activities & private school