Is life easier in some ways for people who speak RP?

[user1466795981]

I have an older (retired) male friend/acquaintance who lives in a provincial town.

He is convinced he is called 'sir' in shops etc and addressed more courteously as he speaks in this way and not in the local/regional accent.

The merits of being attractive have recently been discussed. Is speaking 'RP' an advantage?

Neutral BBC news reader is the modern equivalent to RP. Old time RP sounds incredibly affected now.

Several of my children have attended SLT and were initially assessed by the same fairly posh speech therapist who when giving me a summary of issues commented "how lovely that they don't have a accent That's bloody appalling. I was a SALT and we are trained not to make value judgements like this

I thought it was right posh !

RP is NOT standard southern.
This is RP: m.youtube.com/watch?v=hubyFqSUaGA

www.bbc.co.uk/voices/yourvoice/accent2.shtml
This is a good explanation of the shift in the RP accent.

Rp/Fiona Bruce is fairly standard to me...doesn't sound posh, just neutral.

Depends where you live. I visit Hull regularly and any kind of southern accent marks you out as 'Not from round 'ere'. Had the same problem when DM lived in County Durham.

FullTimeYummy DP doesn't let me talk to builders on account of the fact that we never get such a good rate when I do. He's a Brummie. I can never decide if it's sexism or classism/"accentism" in force with that one!!