To think that going comprehensive is an exit from the middle class?

[VolvoMo]

There may be a few minor exceptions (due to wealth or ideology) but doesn't going comp take away your middle class badge and worse, give your kids the chance to carry a big chip on their shoulder for their adult life.

No. Owning a 'chunk' of a county is actually very Common. Like chips really :)
Posh people such as myself own 'chunks' of several counties and Scotland.

This thread is really rather silly.

:)

It was bound to turn out silly when it had a silly OP.

"the class system in the UK is on its way out!"

Clearly on MN it isn't.

You can see it on here everyday in different posts SoupDragon.

MN is obsessed with class.

Particularly bashing the middle classes in a way that bashing any "lower" ones would be jumped upon.

Depends on which Comp, some are in air naive areas.

Vair naice, frigging iPhone.

If you'd used proper English words that wouldn't have been a problem...

LeQueen

You can play innocent, but talk of McMansions and "dripping" in designer labels is not neutral.

wow! OP that is all I got to say to you, you must be bored.

It's small town stuff, really isn't it.

The families at our local prep school have tonnes of money...they drive round in Bentleys and Range Rovers, live in 1.5 million McMansions, are dripping in Gucci and D&G

But, very few of the parents are educated, they F and blind, their spoken grammar isn't great, and they're not remotely...well, cultured I suppose you could call it?"

Sounds like Chigwell - loadsamoney and fuck all culture :o

I think there's an awful lot of talking at crossed purposes in this thread, largely because, in reality, the umbrella term 'middle class' actually encompasses about 6 or 8 smaller demographic groups.

LeQueen

Fine, but how come your description prompts Whatmeworry say something as clearly derogatory as "sounds like Chigwell"?

You could have written:

There are wealthy families at our local prep school, who drive expensive cars and have expensive tastes" but that just wouldn't put across how déclassé you find them, would it?

Because, like Whatmeworry many people love to have a pop, sometimes subtly, sometimes not, at those they consider beneath them.

The point of MN, by the way, Whatmeworry is not to sneer at people in Chigwell. Despite the OP's best intentions.

Well, yes, joyous is right.

I find it baffling that people think nouveau riche set would even aspire to the life the vicar's wife leads. Why on earth would they?

Actually déclassé really means to have toppled from a higher social standing to a lower one, whereas the people referred to have presumably performed the reverse trajectory?

cornflowers

It can mean both: to be in reduced circumstances or just of inferior circumstances.

(dãklăsā´, dãkläsā´)
adj. 1. reduced or fallen in status, social position, class or rank; fallen from a high status or rank to a lower one.
2. of inferior grade, rank, status, or prestige.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by C. & G. Merriam Co.