To ask what really posh folk are like?

[hahahayoumustbejoking]

Someone on MN recently said that posh people were very friendly and polite but actually wouldn't tend to get close to people outside their close circle and were quite guarded.

Just wondering if anyone has any other insights or stories of the posh, good or bad.

@Letsallscreamatthesistene

I meet a lot of 'posh' people in my line of work. Some are bellends. Some are lovely. One of my longest standing friendships is with someone with a title and very wealthy. Im not 'posh' at all.

If someone wrote a post asking if all working class people are sweary and crass but honest hard workers there would be outcry. Please reconsider your generalisation.

Yes because these stereotypes affect the working class when it comes to getting work and being able to 'move up' in society. Stereotypes towards the rich don't affect them at all

@MereDintofPandiculation

I knew a Countess. She was a cow. Never a good idea to generalise.

eating anything put in front of you is a golden rule I went to a school with aspirations. After a dinner so vile that over half of it was returned uneaten to the kitchens, we were treated to a lecture in assembly form the headmistress end with the phrase "how would you cope if you were dining out and your hostess served something you didn't like". It was then I realised that the purpose of school meals was to train you to eat disgusting food without a murmur.

It blows my mind that the former gives me some sort of credibility and respect that the latter apparently does not.

Yeah I don't understand it.

I tried to marry posh but alas the family pile was sold about 300 years ago!

Grandfathers, fathers and husbands in the really posh set are the only people who will decode the message, "Do you speak Iripoo?" If they are really posh, they will laugh and reply in Iripoo. But it is absolutely a filter for the wannabees.

They wear Chanel suits but wouldn't be caught dead in Chanel sunglasses.

Thinking about this having read that list of markers of poshness I'd much rather marry into new money. I can't imagine enjoying myself in a battered Volvo and a decrepit country pile as opposed to a Ferrari and staying in a 5* hotel in Santorini.

Ah, Vladimir, anyone even slightly posh here will have worked you out. I do not mean to be rude, but everything you write says you are a beautiful arriviste! And welcome! Every hierarchy needs refreshing with clever ambitious people.

All the posh people I know swear A LOT

[quote XingMing]@Hoppinggreen, do you speak Iripoo?[/quote]
No idea what you are on about but I am pretty common

XingMing I read your posts in Robert Californias voice for some reason.

Middle class aspiring posh - spans a wide range of incomes this one. Let's go for wealthy but not enough for private school wealthy:

• Knows to not say Ascot but As*cut. Will correct you. Likes to correct you.
• On Mumsnet will correct your're grammar
• Listens to Radio 4 (secretly reads Hello at the hairdresser)
• Knows 'posh' rules and a copy of Debretts
• Bleaches everything in the home
• Is horrified at the idea of a ready meal (Cook is ok though)
• Likes rules, knowing rules and advising others of rules
• Has a pension, possible second home and is financially secure. Can't afford private school but big house and holidays compensate.
• Is proud that they live within their 'budget'. Quietly believes that if they fell on hard times, they would feed everyone on ingenious and delicious low cost recipes and take in some ironing (which would accidentally become a multi-million global franchise).
• Obsequious 'up' and judgey 'down'
• Other keywords, cycling, Center parcs, Waitrose, Boden

Oh Lord - huge mistake, MC would never say posh. It's Smart says Debretts

Is horrified at the idea of a ready meal (Cook is ok though)

Add Charlie Bingham's and you've described my inlaws!

@Hoppinggreen

The ones I know are charming and friendly but you aren’t really one of them. I don’t think they deliberately exclude others but they seem to speak a language of their own. The overwhelming confidence is quite amazing too

Yes, this. The confidence and charm. It's this that enables them to network and do well in their careers too

Oh yes to Charlie Bingham's, in fact I'm pretty sure that brand has a similar list of attributes on a pen profile of their customer.

Acceptable ready meal to the MC (nestling side by side in a Slough factory with the bog standard super market lasagnas!)

Posh ready meal: plucked pheasant in freezer

That chimes with my experience - usually extremely polite, courteous, generous and warm, but don’t talk openly about their private lives, or let their guard down.

Of course, that applies to many people, but I do think they tend to be a bit more buttoned up.

@MistressoftheDarkSide

Don't know many but one titled couple I sort of know are very chilled and hold small festivals in their grounds which they participate in and enjoy..... in fact didn't even realise they were titled until after we got handfasted there. Great experience and quite surreal, I think they fall into the English eccentric mood quite well.

As a sixth former I went on an open day to Oxford as it was thought I might finally pass my maths O level and stand a chance on my English skills - ha bloody ha - anyway, we had tea with an undergraduate in their study and when I said that Lapsang Souchong (?) tasted like Dettol to my uneducated palate he asked me if I'd like to leave via the second floor window....as a sensitive 17 year old in the 80s this confirmed my lowly status and probably subconsciously put me off applying notwithstanding my academic failings.

So it really does depend on the individuals I guess.....

Your remark about the tea and his remark about defenestration were both crass, so I would call that a draw!

My mum worked for such a person. Apparently he wiped bogies all over his desk. So not very suave 🤢

@DemBonesDemBones

All the posh people I know swear A LOT

I recall an older pupil dropping the f-bomb in a lesson and when I told him off he said it was OK in Four Weddings and a Funeral. As I pointed out in a thick Manchester accent it didn't sound as good a Hugh Grant!

It was OK in Four Weddings and a Funeral. Amazing. :o

What a response,

We live in rural shropshire and the posh set are all shooting/hunting and seem to be like clones of each other, and often with inherited money/estates. They all drive some form of range rover, have at least 2 black labradors, live in a country pile and marry between themselves so the money stays within their 'set'. The often men wear red or mustard cords and the wives tend to be mostly blonde and tweedy.

My son had a scholarship to a Shropshire private school and we felt very out of it as weren't seen as part of the 'set', and was a very closed shop. Was very glad when he left!

They have a very calm sense of ease, and absolutely no concern that something cannot be achieved. When you move in those circles, it's generally a lot easier for something to be able to be achieved.