Are you middle class or not, the Allegra McEverdy test

[Teatime55]

In the frankly bizarre Guardian article today, Jack Monroe says she didn’t realise she was working class until she met Allegra. (I think shes trying to defend her WC credentials).

So Allegra went to St Paul’s, her dad went to Harrow and Oxford, and was a psychiatrist etc. Dhe built a business that sold for millions.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegra_McEvedy

Anyway compared to Allegra I am definitely working class, are you?

So what is the Allegra test then?

Are you working class compared to Allegra?

What is this obsession with class?

Is it to compare with others to see how far up the heap you are so you can feel smug? Because that is how it comes across.

I have no idea what class we are. We have to work but don't worry about money.

If Jack Monroe had any damned sense, she'd step back from the media and get her head in order.

My issue is JM has made a career out of being a working class hero, representing people whose voices aren’t heard.
in fact her background is incredibly similar to 2 friends of mine who are both past Guardian writers.

Im annoyed as so many genuine working class people have been sidelined by someone who thinks not being Allegra makes you working class.

I’ve no idea what I am, my dad was very very WC who got himself to university in the 1950s. Who knows these days.

I just think if that’s working class it’s a pretty high bar!

MN is utterly obsessed with class. I never think about it and no one ever discusses it in real life but on here there are daily / weekly threads about it and wondering if eating brioche makes you middle class.

Who the fuck is Allegra and why would anyone give a shit what she thinks? What am I missing?

I am working class. People who go on about “obsession” with class are a bit dull. Class in this country is what it is. You can’t deny it. The whole of our country is fundamentally based upon a class system whether you like it or not. To deny, dismiss, or ignore is living in the clouds.

I dunno, maybe because I AM working class and was born into poverty I feel the inequality more. I don’t strive to be middle class because I’m not but I have noticed people who pretend not to be bothered about class or deny or dismiss do tend to be middle class or higher themselves. Most likely because they’ve never had to trouble themselves with too much thought about the whole thing.

I think there are a huge amount of reasons to criticize Jack Monroe. The grift. The lies. The pity party. The narcissism. the shit recipes. The insistence she is still poor whilst flashing wealth in every photo.

But on the class thing I have some sympathy. The "middle class " spans such a large spectrum, from the Allegra's right across to those barely breaking even. And class identity can also shift with time or fluctuate depending which part of our family we re with. So she was a silly girl to make bold and shifting claims about her class, but equally it isn't unusual to have conflicting ideas what our class identity is. And certainly for that to shift once we are mixing with the "public school and vast houses" section of the middle class. I was often teased for being posh at state school (barrister's daughter, lived in biggest house in the village, no strong accent) then went to law school and was surrounded by people who had had a public school education and trust funds and found myself being seen in a totally different light.

1. how would you know
2. why would you give a shit?

Where's the test 👀

So why not just agree if you have to work you are working class? By definition.

We all have heard plumbers earn more than teachers blah blah.

But it's not about class is it? It's all about money really.

So people earn basic but go home and listen to classical music and read heavy tomes. Some people earn a fortune go home watch Love Island and follow influencers online. Who is "more" middle class? It's nonsense.

Don't know much about Jack Monroe, never heard of Allegra, and not sure what the "test" is?

But having looked at Allegra's wiki I'd say she's very upper middle class, verging on upper class?

But very much agree with @frozendaisy

It has not so much to do with money as the things she mentioned - interests, hobbies, skills, lifestyle.

I was walking through one of the stations in London with a piano recently, young guy in in high-vis and splattered trousers (paint, cement, not sure) was playing the most beautiful music on the piano. At first glance he looked stereotypically working class (manual job) but had clearly been classically trained in piano.

I guess where money comes into it is that you generally need money to have the time and means to pursue hobbies such as this - instruments and tuition are expensive, ditto for painting, skiing etc.

But in general, meh, I don't know.

I read the article so get what you mean, but why start another Jack Monroe bashing thread? She is obviously a complicated person, but there are far worse people/ things to direct your ire against. Seems petty.

I’m not sure what this test is exactly but does it really matter?
I do most of my food shopping at Marks and Spencer and the butcher but I also like a doner kebab. I often watch foreign language films but equally don’t like missing an episode of Corrie! I enjoy reading classic literature but I also love a good gossip magazine. According to a “test” I saw circulating on here a few weeks ago I tock
several boxes in every class. 🤣

Class is who you are as a person. There are loads of narcs in CEO positions for example. That may be middle class but being a twat is below class. I would be more preoccupied as being the best person that I can possibly be. Who cares about the rest?

think the test is if your parent(s) had high income & sent you to private school.

Why did JM not believe she was WC?
Why should we care what JM thinks about anything?

If you work, you are working class. If you toil in any way, if you are waged, salaried, if you rely on going to work to pay your bills, you are working class.

The aristocracy are upper class.

Between the two, there are those who hate the fact they ar working class and strive to prove they are somehow 'better' than others who are also working class and so they created what they refer to as the middle class.

But within that, there are those who like to distinguish further and so created subsets of lower middle class and upper middle class.

They like to look at where each other holiday or where they buy their groceries from or the food they keep in their fridge. They look at the activities they send their children to. They look at where they buy their clothes from and how they dress. They look at where they went to school, which university they went to, what degree they did, how much money they earn and where they live. They make decisions on all of the choices they make through a lens of "What does this say about me?" and constantly try to find ways in which they are superior to others who also define themselves as middle class whilst they go to work every day and spend their lives working.

It's utterly irrelevant and meaningless.

People would be so much happier if they concentrated on doing the things they enjoy and surrounding themselves with the things they like and spent less time worrying about what 'class' that makes them!

How you conduct yourself is separate to socio-economic class.

There are plenty of working class people who behave with more dignity, integrity, compassion and respect for others than members of the upper class.

Being a decent person doesn't make you middle class. Swearing doesn't denote your class; having a clean and tidy home or a well manicured garden doesn't denote your class; what you like to eat when you're in the house on your own doesn't denote your class and the only people who care are those desperate to prove themselves middle class.

Exactly.

It's only the common folk who worry so much about class. 🧐🎩

theres always been celebs who claim to be working class to appeal more to the public. Claiming to understand what it’s like to be ‘poor’ and using it to sell books. Fair enough lots of people cultivate a persona and ‘unique’ selling point. At the end of the day if you had choice and the option of returning to your family who had a house and enough to provide basics when times were hard you really won’t understand what it means to be living in poverty.

JM is a poverty cosplaying fantasist.

I've read some shite on Mumsnet but this...

Who the actual fuck cares about your class compared to someone you've never heard of.

I think Pulps song Common People sums it up quite well to be honest.

“Watching roaches climb the wall, if you called your Dad he could stop it all…”

(Not necessarily in relation to JM, just in people generally claiming poverty / lower working class when in fact they have family support who could step in and help etc, not that that’s a bad thing, but many people do not have that safety net at all).