What do you consider posh?

[Fearlesssloth]

Is posh subjective/relative do you think or is there a universally agreed upon definition? I mean I guess everyone would say the royal family is posh right?! A work acquaintance called me posh today when I told her the street I live on and it made me think god if she thinks I’m posh where does she live?! Quite amusing as I’ve never been called posh before and the street I live on is mainly small 3-bed semis, mix of council and privately owned but not what I’d call posh, just not a council estate

Don’t know how you figured all that out about a stranger on the internet.

I don’t need to ask anyone. I live in a COUNTRY called SCOTLAND which is a constituent part of a UNION called the UK.

I seem to remember a TV prog. about a family in a big country house, called IIRC ‘The Fucking Fulfords’ - because it was just about every other word.

My DF had what most people considered a ‘posh’ voice and did swear rather a lot. My DM blamed it largely on his Royal Navy service in WW2. He was quite inventive with it, though, , so when he was e.g. unsuccessfully hunting for something in the cupboard under the stairs, you’d hear loud yells of ‘Crap and corruption! Shit and seduction! Mountains of bloody old crap everywhere!’

Re: countries.
I think the rules on Pointless are correct: "...and, by 'country', we mean a sovereign state that's a member of the United Nations in its own right".
You can argue that, in your opinion, Scotland or Wales, say, are countries (although they're not, according to the above definition) but I don't think it can be argued that the UK isn't a country.
And I say that as a proud Welsh woman

Eta Doubtless watching Pointless is very un-posh.

I was thinking of the post by you, @Playdoughy , yesterday when watching CDWM.
You said:

My biggest shock was probably Come dine with me show, where inevitably one participant would be labelled as posh by the rest simply because they had a clean house and arranged cutlery properly... Or an occasional young woman with an outdated blowout and blue eyeshadow that had a tacky statue in her modest home...

Yesterday's was a classic of that genre.
Someone said they'd "had that dish in many Michelin five star restaurants and never had it better".
"That dish" was a baked Camembert with bread to dip (fair enough, the contestant had made the bread but not really Michelin standard) and I didn't think the stars actually go up to five.
Another guest kept on about her rich husband and had a wrangle with 5-star lady about who had more horses.
The scene with rich-husband woman sauntering down the road in a pink coat, blindingly white riding breeches and riding boots just to pat a horse gingerly on the nose was a classic. She did pat her pigs too but backed off rapidly when she got a bit muddy.
We were also informed that Savoy cabbage is named after the Savoy Hotel where, naturally, two of the guests visit regularly.

My grandparents had a "parlour" - in their two up, two down terrace in Stoke-on-Trent. Not posh, just a word they used.

Mine had a "front room".
They also had a "living room" which was the only one ever used but the front room had better furniture and housed the china cabinet and all the sports trophies (football, darts and bowls rather than polo, cricket and show jumping).

Eta My in-laws, otoh, have a sitting room and a drawing room so I've become a bit bilingual over the years 😄

We have fitted carpets.

According to my sister that marks us out as sooooooooo not-posh. It also means we are "shoes-off", which along with brown wood and "the big light" (not lamps on tables) further drop our class status.

No one really cares.

One of my GMs (born probably 1890s) had a ‘front parlour’ - I never once saw it used. She had a big living/dining room off the kitchen - we invariably sat in there.

They’re both countries.

There are various definitions of the word ‘country’, which is why that’s possible.

Anyone who sits in ABC on the way to Magaluf. and DEF on the way home.

Just curious: most antiques are ‘brown wood’, are they not? Does your sister find owners of antiques downmarket? Has antique furniture become tacky?

What furniture earns her dubious seal of approval?

Thanks 😊

Yup, that's exactly what I had in mind :)

Not quite. As I explained, the UK was created (partly) by two unions. It's not two separate entities currently in a union. If you look at the text of e.g. the 1707 Union you'll see that.

Named after the Savoy Hotel 🤣🤣🤣

I know 🤦🏻‍♀️

Eta It's worth a watch for gems like that.

Ah that explains your reluctance to face up to the fact that the UK is a country - you’re Scottish and can’t stand the thought of not being independent. And before I get accused of discrimination, I’m Scottish too. I know many people like you in Scotland, who refuse to believe they are living in a country within a country and can’t stand any association with England. Yes Scotland is a country but it’s a smaller country within a larger country. That’s just the facts.

This is from the commonwealth.org website. You can’t get more accurate than that

“The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) is an island country that sits north-west of mainland Europe. It is made up of mainland Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) and the northern part of the island of Ireland (Northern Ireland).”

Yes they named the COUNTRIES.

What would you call Ireland?

Which Ireland, southern or northern? They’re both countries. One happens to be inside a larger country, one is not. I actually can’t believe you’re still arguing this when I’ve explained multiple times that Scotland, Wales, England & N. Ireland are countries within another COUNTRY, the UK, AND I’ve posted the actual words “The United Kingdom is a COUNTRY” copied & pasted from the official Commonwealth website. Do you have a Scottish passport that says you’re a Scottish citizen on it? No, you have a British passport that says you’re a British citizen on it. You cannot be a citizen of somewhere that is not a country. I am Scottish AND British. So are you, like it or not. I get that the UK/devolved nations thing can be confusing for foreigners but for a native UK citizen..really?! I actually think you must be winding me up now, so I’m gonna stop replying. If you got in trouble abroad which country’s embassy would you go to for help? Cos you wouldn’t be getting home to Scotland any time in the next century if you spent your days wandering around looking for the Scottish embassy 🤣

Thank god you’ve stopped “explaining” you’re poor grasp of the UK 👍

Well you’ve just outed yourself as a wind up merchant by replying “Thanks” to a PP upthread who explained to you the exact same thing that I did - that both Scotland & the UK are both countries because there’s varying definitions of what a country is. You just couldn’t admit you were wrong so had to keep arguing in the face of indisputable evidence lol

Thought you weren’t going to reply to me again?

your poor grasp....

Which Ireland, southern or northern? They’re both countries. One happens to be inside a larger country, one is not.

@Fearlesssloth
Actually there is NO country called southern Ireland and the number of times this has to be explained on MN is, quite frankly, staggering.

The island of Ireland contains Ireland (the state/country) and Northern Ireland. The former is sometimes referred to as the Republic of Ireland but the official name is simply Ireland. Please, please, please no southern in front!!! It’s just wrong!

Whether Northern Ireland is a country or not is debated. Its history is quite unlike that of England, Scotland and Wales and it has never been a sovereign country in the past. So though some say country now, others do not. Province is also used for example. Legally it doesn’t have an official designation afaik?