to wonder if mumsnet is a haven for very well off and slightly blinkered individuals.....?

[preparetobeflayed]

Obviously I have changed my name on this thread as I am prepared for the onslaught.....

Threads about Boden, how sad they are that their jumper from Boden has been pilling, 'oh woe is me my nanny has called in sick', 'I am hard up now the tax band has increased (although I am still earning £170,000....

Where are the rest of the population who reflect most of the parents I meet. I also wonder whether some people are able to look around and see what else is happening in the world....?

(Just having a bit of a rant about some of the other threads I guess......

Swedes as a working class woman I am damp at the mere thought of that.

"xenia - I have friends from Northumberland/Newcastle who have no accent. Did you go to private school? That's what tends to give the 'no accent' thing IME (I don't have one either - I didn't grow up in the UK so I have a very generic accent)"

Yes, that's true. My daughter's accents got posher at univesrity surprisingly or perhaps teenagers just tend to speak sloppily and then they grow out of it when they turn 20 and return to their original language.

What determines class in the UK and is education going to be less relevant? I know a lot of very successful people who are still working class but earn a lot. I know others that seem to have changed class and usually accent too over the years. It doesn't really matter except that in a job interview or if you're dating someone then it can matter depending on the other person's views. I saw in yesterday's press the government is going to make schools teach children to speak properly. My mother tried to do that when she taught 40 a class in poor Newcastle schools in the 40s and 50s. So at least they woudl know that you was is wrong and you don't say haitch, you say aitch etc

Xenia, that's an intersting point about schools and regional accents. I think it's more complicated than state v. private though.

My son attended a state primary school(in a North West London leafy suburb) where only 25% of the children are "White British" according to the latest Ofsted report, and a significant number of pupils spoke little or no English when they joined the infant's school.

What intrigues me is that by the start of junior school, without exception, they spoke fluent English with very RP accents. The only true London inflections were to be heard amongst the white native Londoners. The immigrant children all sounded more like Stephen Fry than Michael Caine.

Admittedly, the school is in an affluent area and gets well above average results. But I still don't really understand how they acquired this accent given the overall demographics of the school's intake.

Fascinating. My borough is 18% hindu and in my daughter's private school at age 11 only two girls had 4 English grandparents including her and most of those children from Indian and Pakistani mostly second generation families they have a very distinct indian type accent which has always puzzled me. If you go to Leeds - remembering the man who took 2 young wives in long swim suits into a swimming pool in Panama whom my daughters chatted to - they had very strong Leeds accents.