This is the kind of article that really has me spitting feathers

[emkana]

how awful not to be able to afford school fees and foreign holidays

"Let's assume the middle class family has a combined income of £100000" - who are these people?

grrr

"School fees have risen by 45% since 1999. House prices: well, I needn?t go on. Art: just look at the splashy vulgarity that overtook Sotheby?s the other day. Family holidays: absurdly pricey and now guilt-making, too. Travel, council tax, healthcare, utility bills and services such as plumbers, cleaners and electricians are all subject to above-average inflation."

Oh you are all so mean - I absolutely sympathise with the poor woman. Art is so expensive these days...one simply despairs at how one is to cover one's walls.

I have a SIL like this who thinks that being poor means shopping at Asda ( the thought of it).
I shop at asda when I am feeling well off!

Oh, yes, the art - I'd blotted that bit of the article from my memory.

I want to go and press my face up to hers and go "Ikea, you twat!"

indeeed martha..i just give babylulu some felt pens, that sorts that little worry out..walls covered in interpretative modern art..for free! soooper !

And the poor lamb, with an expensive cleaner.

FFS. I work full time, as does DH and we don't have a cleaner. We do have a filthy house, but I am middle class, so it's bohemian grime.

Oh triff, lulumama - how alternative. And if one doesn't like it one can always get one's nanny or cleaner to scrub it off.

Oh boo frickin hoo.

Honestly, how do they get away with writing this utter tripe? She's paid to write this shit, yes? Oh my dear God.

paid, unbelievably, yes but not enough to send fabian and jacintha to Eton and Cheltenham ladies....oh my heart bleeds

is she a mumsnetter? says she writes for easy living too..am sure someone on here said they write for easy living..

agree with Colditz. she shd stop shopping at Waitrose straight away and start saving money by finding her local Asda.

It might as well be an article about life as a unicellular organism on the third moon of Jupiter.

Completely meaningless. Lunacy.

I'm with Aloha in that I see her point about how it's almost impossible to live in the way that my parents managed in the 70s mainly because of house prices. But I do think moaning about the price of art is a bit much!

Let's assume the avaerage family has an income of about £30,000. Is terified by risings costs of ...oh just about everything. Lets assume they shop where food is within date but cheaper than a shop which openly recognises it's not the cheapest.

Lets assume holidays are whatever they can afford using any deals they can get thier hands on.

Lets assume that both parents work bloody hard to pay for the life they have, meaning the children do go without the important things like food, shelter and warmth. And that as long as they all have each other and thier health they feel life is good.

And lets assume they stop buying the Times to line the pockets of such pretentious up thier own arse "poor me" journo's.

seriousley did she write this to provoke a reaction? Or is she blind to anyone not in her little world!

that should be "children don't go without"

Well she made me so angry!

I grew up with nothing really. Lived in a council flat, had no money at all, caravan holidays were a luxury, once went camping in my dad's transit van which he adapted with prison style wooden 'beds' which hung down from the side of the van on chains (!) (was very exciting actually) and sometimes ran out of money for food and rent etc, and even now I think of myself as middle class with my biggish house in London and an OK car and computers and central heating etc (though no school fees or luxurious holidays either) so it's not like I'm saying 'oooh, yes, Rachel Johnson, I feel just like you'. And I agree she has an annoying air of entitlement.

But I still think it is interesting that the lives of middle class people (gp, vicar, teacher, bank manager) in books from not so long ago is now only available to the very rich.

"an annoying air of entitlement" PMSL

I think that phrase pretty much sums up the zeitgeist in this country atm.

It's people with her attitude and outlook on life that leads some American tourists to come to Londan and wonder why we are'nt all walking dalmations and wearing bowler hats!

These people are only 'poor' because they 'need' a London home and a 'bolthole' in the country.

Sell those and they could live like kings instead of moaning that they don't.

I would love to walk in to her life and point out about a zillion things that would save her money!

LOL yes, who's that annoying American chap, Alvin something? The one who tells people how to spend their money? She should be shut in a lift with him for twelve hours. That would take the edge of her whining.

When I was growing up my mum could afford to stay at home despite my stepfather only being a civil engineer. I've no idea what he earned but it can't have been that much and we had a decent sized house, a large garden, holidays (not abroad though, Cornwall, camping, Ben Nevis, that kind of thing), 2 cars, no school fees but were in the catchment for v good state grammar etc and COULD afford a house nearby. So I think she has a point when comparing middle classes now and then.

I know this is going to be a deeply unpopular view but I don't think £100k is that much as an annual income, I agree with her there. And certainly not when a 3 bed house in London costs what it does.

Is she related to that Rosie Millard woman? Are they members of the same 'so far distanced from reality you couldn't poke it with a stick' club?

my heart is bleeding for her truly

but did those book reflect reality, aloha?

back in the 70s/early 80s, my mum was a teacher, I had a similar childhood to the one you describe.

GPs are still on rather a lot, aren't they ? like +£100k

And women have ALWAYS worked. Its fairly new for middle class women to work, but historically, a good eprcentage of working class women have always had to bring a wage in.