Social Climbing and Kates family

[GabbyLoggon]

Kate Middletons family must be top of the league in respect of Social Climbing...

Lets make it more personal than royal

My Family? A big one, there are just 2 of us who were bone fide Social Climbers.

How are your tribe doing?

I assume the first step towards moving into a different class is by getting your kids in private prep school

How about social descenders? well, the author who wrote 1984, went to Eton and down the mines.

I hate the phrase "social climbing", and particularly loathe the people who sneer at KM's mother because God forbid someone who grew up on a council estate should be the grandmother of a future monarch (as she will be if K & W have children). I say well done in working very hard to better yourself and your family.

Both my parents are from poor immigrant stock, my fathers parents were Italians who worked as waiters well in to their 70s but through their hard work were able to send my dad to a private boarding school, which allowed him to get a great job. My grandparents made huge sacrifices for him and I have nothing but admiration for what they and he achieved.

My mother came to this country aged 18 not speaking a word of English but didn't have such proactive parents. However she has pushed herself all her life. She got her first job (once my sister and I had started school) as a secretary and through sheer hard work 20 years later she owned the company that first employed her as a secretary.

I really couldn't agree with you more Litchick.

I've never got this "she worked it to go to the same University as the royals".

Surely people go where they get a place?

FWIW - I got a place at St Andrews.......and I'm as common as muck (turned it down for Edinburgh and then never went anyhow )

damn - if I'd not gone for a gap year, and had gone to St Andrews he could have been MINE as we'd have been there at the same time

I think they must be social climbers.

If I had a business and made millions I would send my kids to the local grammar school, a day school with fees etc to get a good education.
I wouldn't chooses a school like Marlborough which is an up itself public school for rich toffs. The types that choose to send their kids to boarding public schools have got to e social climbers or aristocracy already.

Anyway, Kate Middleton's parents were shooting at Balmoral with the royal family last week so they're obviously wannabe toffs. I mean 'shooting' ffs!

yup, agree with Litchick. And those in all walks of life use these phrases disparagingly, not just those at the top, which I just don't get..

Me too, you've hit the nail on the head litchick.

I'd go shooting at Balmoral if I got asked...

Class is so amorphous anyway. I'm like Kate (not literally - didn't get to marry the Prince): speak quite posh, parents have big Oxfordshire house, went to boarding school but come from sound lower middle class stock made good.

and.....I have a good friend who has a Duke, a Marquess and a Baronet (father) in her near family tree. She lives in a little cottage with her DH also of aristo stock. There are her wedding photos topped by glittering diamond tiara and out the window is a half done wall because they ran out of money when landscaping the garden (three years ago). So is she still posh???

but framey, what's so wrong with being a social climber?

Framey - not everyone that goes to boarding public schools are "social climbers" or aristocracy -

I applied for Music Scholarships at a few "toffs" schools.

My parents were NOT wannabe social climbers (whaver they are) - my dad still thinks I'm a snob for being embarrassed about our bright red Skoda we had in the early 90's........

Ah well, I've had it from all sides.

Council estate girl made good innit.

Apparently 'old money' is much preferable to nouveau riche ie better to be given money than earn it.

Then there's those who want to drag you back to hwere you came from. They insist you never forget your roots and stay 'down to earth' ie never ever admit that you like your new life better or that you have moved on in any way.

maybemore, she's very posh! I went out with a really really posh boy who went to Stowe and he was pennyless. He wore his fathers 30 year old cords, they lived in a massive crumbling house in Sussex which was never ever heated and was always scrounging tenners because he didn't have a pot to piss in (all gone on death duties you see)

Rather like Alan Clark who looked down on Michael Heseltine because his family 'bought all their own furniture.'

Hahaha.

We didn't buy all our own furniture.

We "inherited" a brown Dralon three piece suite (that was so hard-wearing it never wore out) and a rather lovely formica-topped kitchen table with chemistry experiment burn on it.

Nice.

Why is it that when all these commoners get involved with the Royals (Sophie Rees Jones, Mike Whatever, Kate Middleton and parents) they without exception start chasing poor wild animals and murdering them. They are so pathetic!

vive la revolution!

I don't care if people are 'posh' or not.
In my mind people are equal whether their Dad is a Baronet or a Bin Man.

and shooting birds and animals for fun should be illegal.

I actually think it's incredibly bad form to sneer at people because of their possessions and suchlike... people who do so are only one generation from being nouv themselves hence their sensitivity. Take that Alan Clark with your inherited furniture, frightful snob and obviously very commone :o

I don't think really posh people are snobs. My great grandfather was a great friend of one of the Princes from days gone by (he comes from Sandringham). They remained close until he died.

maybemore - I think you're right. It's the middle classes that have all the angst and issues.

working and upper classes don't seem bothered either way.

"working and upper classes don't seem bothered either way"

don't necessarily agree, know a few working class who are reverse snobs.

Luckily enough, I don't think there are any royal princes of around my DD's age, so DH and I won't have to make the difficult decision as to whether or not to allow her to marry one.

Upper classes aren't bothered because they just know they are superior to everyone else.

Re: the "benefit scroungers" thing that is levelled at the Royal Family. They OWN a hell of a lot of the UK . . . it actually belongs to them as a family. This brings in a hell of a lot of revenue.

I thought the "Civil List" payments that they get were in return for their work for the State, ie Opening Hospitals, Parliament and other Young Mr Grace sort of stuff.

I mean presumably if the Queen stopped being paid for making public appearances (and she is still doing all this in her 80s) she could, for a theoretical example, sell Windsor Great Park to a property developer and live off that money quite nicely.

Framey - that's like saying the working class aren't bothered because they're lazy, thick scum.

If the Middletons are multi millionaires
that is not middle class.

People usually marry within there own class and the Middleton family would know there were other multis at Kates uni.

The classes mix with their own and feel comfortable thus. Breakaways in a family cause interesting and often embarrassing situations.
The geezer who wrote that country house series on ITV recently is upper. and honest

He said when they have people to dinner h
They spot the class from the use of knives and forks. Its a game to them Not many
toffs are that honest

Do you play that game?

I frankly think she might the saving of the Royals.

Her family have money that they've earned. If she's inherited anything of their drive, ability and (hopefully) appreciation for the real value of a pound coin then in another generation we'll have a monarch with some solid, smart, working genes in their blood.

What's wrong with that?

She's a pretty lass with a good head on her shoulders who might, just might be able to take the pressure she'll be under now and leep her kids from becoming A.N. Other royal.

I say good luck to her. I wouldn't swap with her even for the Crown Jewels!