to be surprised Rhiannon Cosslett is old enough to be an authority on this?

[RobinsAreTerritorialFuckers]

Warning: trivial witterings.

I've read Cosslett's stuff in the Guardian a bit, and I had assumed she was somewhere in her 30s. Maybe early 40s.

I'm a bit surprised to find her coming over all Four Yorkshiremen about tower blocks in the 60s and 70s. Article here: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/17/brutal-way-to-live-truth-about-tower-blocks

Apparently: 'I always laugh when I hear middle-class people – and it so often is middle-class people – fervently defending brutalism. When they wax lyrical about the sparse beauty of, say, the Trellick Tower, you can’t help but think: “That’s all very well, but you didn’t have to live in it.”'

I don't disagree Tower Blocks seem (from my middle-class lack of knowledge) both fairly ugly and not as fun to live in as a nice detached house, but AIBU to be surprised by the tone of this piece?

Hi fives Shove back. Great minds and all that!
Glad I came back to find a sort of consensus.

I agree with both Shove that it does read oddly, but not mocking, and also with Robins last bit about the way things are designed to come across isn't necessarily the fault of the authour, and maybe down to trying to write it to appeal to certain demographics, ie baby boomers.

The issue is bigger than hulking 60s tower blocks, much bigger, but maybe the issue is easier digested in tiny pieces?
I shall read Lynsey Hanley when I get a sec, thanks for the heads up.

Guilty as charged, violet. I don't know when you become 'middle class' if you didn't grow up that way, but I think it is probably some time before you start writing for the Guardian. I know people disagree over this one, though. Get my dad tipsy, and he'll start claiming his working class roots, and by that he means that his dad's dad was.

I'll tell you something....as someone who truly IS working class, I don't give a shit what class she's from as long as she keeps on speaking the truth.

I won't argue that people from middle class backgrounds don't have the right to draw attention to social injustice. That would be stupid.

Oh, come on, that is not what I or anyone else said!