Do Sloane Rangers still exist

[Arbesque]

There used to be a lot of talk about them in the early 80s. Young people from wealthy families living rent free in expensive parts of London. The girls often worked in easy going jobs- helping out in a friend's gallery or somesuch, to pass the time until they married some Rupert or Hugo and moved back down to the country. The men walked into high paying jobs in banking because of their connections.

Jilly Cooper used to write brilliantly about them. Do they still exist or are they an extinct breed?

Kate M is definitely not a Sloane. But probably a yah. Specific stratifications of the English students at Scottish universities. And bloody annoying they were too.
Only moved in their own social circles, anyone else is basically scum to them. Not to say there aren't nice individuals. But as a group, impenetrable.

I'd say to be a Sloane you need to have daddys account at Peter Jones, not need to actually pay for anything.

They are welcome to live their separate lives. It's just when it's only that lot running the country/ economy that it's out of this world ridiculous.

Men that have nannies for their children, PA to organise work and wife to organise the rest of their life. And they have the arrogance to think that can make rules for the vast majority to live by. It is staggering.

Not sure about all the policies but someone like Jess Philips has a life alot closer to the majority of the population.

You’re spot on PP. The trad ‘Sloanes’ you describe aren’t keen, although they’ll often mask it, on what you describe ad the ‘Rahs’ especially as they have increasing clout.

Or ‘yahs’ even :)

I think they are all on the Fairfax and Favour adverts that seem to be constantly on my news feed. Its a good look, I'll give them that, much nicer than the boob jobby, balloon lipped, caterpillar eyebrow and moth wing false eyelash look that the Essex bunch sport. 🤭

Just imagining the same mocking thread about the bottom classes. Generations not working and scrounging off the state. Tattooed with fag in hand. Awful accents and no work ethic. Entitled, dirty, never clean their house. Overweight. Don’t prioritise or value education.

let’s laugh about them now?

Men that have nannies for their children, PA to organise work and wife to organise the rest of their life. And they have the arrogance to think that can make rules for the vast majority to live by. It is staggering.

And yet, people keep voting them in. That’s what I find staggering.

On the subject of Jilly Cooper novels, if you enjoy that sort of thing then Shirley Conran’s ‘Lace’ from the same era is an absolute page turner. A friend gave it to me as a joke and I couldn’t put it down. I vaguely remembered the TV series from when I was a child (god knows what my parents were thinking, letting me watch it, but Things Were Different Then.

Loads of them at any of the agricultural unis, particularly Cirencester. I am from a working class family and did one of the courses that girls often do at the uni completely unaware! Popular courses include things like equine management, land management, food chain management etc…

Many of the girls are very open with the fact that they are there to find a husband, my course had three boys in that were to inherit large estates and titles, there were 12 of us on the course. The other boys were from farming families without the titles. The chancellor of the uni told us at the induction that over 50% of the students go on to marry someone else from the uni.

Oh I remember Lace. I was too young to realise what world it depicted, but I liked the clothes, the colours, the drama.

I started listening to a Jilly Cooper yesterday (on the free Libby app, I didn’t pay for it, thankfully). I put it at 1.25 speed as the reading was so slow and well enunciated it was boring. I gave up halfway through as I could see where it was going. Spoilers: Alice gives up her Tory fiance to marry a dashing Scottish rich man who is in love and has sex with his half-sister, then Alice falls in love with the half-sister’s doctor brother etc. All enjoyable nonsense.

I agree!!! Love a Jilly and Octavia/Riders etc etc so enjoying the thread, but people are being pretty mean about a certain “type” and it’s coming across as jealousy (as always).
i mean wtf is “naff” about having blonde hair, being good at sports, going to Durham or Edinburgh (both quite hard to get into to and require a decent brain) and getting a job in the City (I mean it’s boring, but someone needs to, and the pay is great) or PR?Another decent, if competitive but more fun career choice? Basically people are talking about successful and attractive young women whose families are wealthy enough to have given them a leg up. Tbh, who wouldn’t want to do that for their girls?

I used to love the books by Chloe Rayban when I was a teenager- Sloane Ranger girl having weird sci-fi experiences!

I work at a university favoured by these types.

They definitely exist.

They're mostly thick as mince.

They all have a weird accent. Kind of a deep voice which always sounds like they've got a cold brewing. Prince Harry has the same voice. Boak.

Exactly this. My friends daughter is planning this exact route despite being academically clever . She also gets a bit of free stuff from Fairfax and Favour to put on her Insta - lots of shots on hay bales or looking foxy on a tractor.
Cirencester also is the third on the list of entrance from private schools something like 36% according to the Sunday Times a few weeks ago.

Laughing at anyone never seems kind to me, either end of the spectrum.

I know a lot like this too! Definitely a kind of farming/estate thing.

There has been talk about making classist comments hate speech along with racism etc.
If this ever becomes law, will it apply to both ends of the spectrum? I mean, presumably will be illegal to call some a chav, but will sneering at people for being posh also be banned?
If so, mumsnet will have a quarter of the threads it has now! 😂

@OrlandointheWilderness Oh give over. Like they care. They actively aspire to the stereotype.
Poking fun is very British, hence all the Jilly Cooper references. As long as you can laugh at yourself too it’s not being in the slightest unkind.

Really? Never heard of talk of that. How is “class” a protected characteristic. How do you even define it? I know it’s a favourite pastime to talk about it, but there’s not much consensus. If I call someone a “gammon” it’s plain that I want to insult them, but there’s a bit of a stretch to make that hate speech. Would “snowflake” be on the list?

Did no one own The Sloane Rangers Handbook back in the day!! Told you all you needed to know about being a Sloane!

The British Psychological Council said this year that it can cause psychological damaged and suggested it becomes a protected characteristic!

Crazy!

@NKFell a bit speechless here. The sheer difficulty in categorising class would make this impossible to enforce IMO. I’m sure there’ll be lawyers eager to get their teeth into it. The greedy bastards. I’m joking, obviously, a cheap shot 😂

www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/social-class-matters#:~:text=If%20we%20are%20serious%20about,tackling%20class%2Dbased%20inequality'.

I’ve read this article and it makes a good argument which can be summarised in: social class is used as a marker for societal worth. That’s where the problem lies.

I used to be in their circle with ex dh.

Looked down their noses at me, obvs and used to constantly “forget” I was ex h wife and not the nanny. Gosh, what super fun that was for them! Especially when they would visit and think it was funny to ‘mistake’ me for the cleaner when I opened the door (I didn’t have a cleaner).

I only really hated them because I was jealous of such care free, worry free lives from birth. Ex h left me for one, my ex MIL was thrilled that he ditched me for someone more fitting to their family his new wife looks like the horses she owns.

The British Psychological Council said this year that it can cause psychological damaged and suggested it becomes a protected characteristic!

Well there you go. No one is going to be psychologically damaged being called a Sloane Ranger. And if their main characteristics are being rich and wanting to marry well you’re on dangerous ground with a fair chunk of women globally.

Poking fun is very British, hence all the Jilly Cooper references. As long as you can laugh at yourself too it’s not being in the slightest unkind.

My step daughter went to a state school for a couple of terms and she was ‘teased’ endlessly for being posh. Of course it wasn’t teasing it was bullying, but since the bullies claimed they were teasing, maybe you think that’s acceptable?