is Kate Middleton really "middle class"?

[hatwoman]

she seems lovely and I know, in theory, she's not gentry, but I strongly suspect that if I met her I'd think she was quite posh.

Because to be new money you have to have worked at some point. And working is so frightfully common.

like someone else said...it matters not one jot...but the whole class thing in the UK is interesting. imho. DH and I talk about it quite a lot - we argue over who's the least posh. and it's actually quite complex.

I also think "posh" is different from class. it certainly doesn;t mean the same as upper class. I suppose my op was meant to highlight (or question) that. Yes, in theory, she's a "commoner", but I think if I'd have known her at university it would have been a peripheral encounter. unless I'd been at St ANdrews where everyone is posh.

That's true, Hatwoman - to a royal (and no doubt according to Burt's(sp?) Peerage) she's a commoner, just as, apparently to some sections of the aristocracy, the royals are considered arrivistes but appreciated for carrying the can for the true aristos.

No doubt she wouldn't choose someone like me as a friend, but that's more likely to be because she's had those sorts of attitudes drilled into her than that she sees herself as 'superior' in some way by dint of birth.

Re. class: an old boyf of mine was a rabid member of Militant years ago, and their definition of whether someone was working class hinged on whether they were in control of their own destiny , ie could they lose their job or were they an employer? Rather than the muddied waters that came about when we were all encouraged to buy our own homes and anyone not doing manual work was led to believe they were of a different class from (striking) dockers, miners etc.

Maybe, now that they've started to marry outside of their family, the next generation won't be so God damn ugly? Got to water it down a bit, surely?

ok can someone tell me what class i am please.
I went to private primary school and then state grammar school.
i grew up in a four bed detached house in one of the most expensive parts of the home counties.
i have a degree from a russell group uni (although i possibly can't spell russell) and two postgraduate qualifications which i needed for my professional job. have recently given up to be a sahm.
my mum was a nurse as she was not allowed to go to uni (not necessary for women her mother thought). her brothers both have degrees and post grad qualifications. my dad has a degree from imperial college and went to public school. he worked in i.t.
my mum's mum came from a landowning irish family, farming roots. she owned and managed her own restaurant. her dad worked as a buyer.
my dad's father worked in sales for an engineering company travelling the globe in the 60s and his mother owned a shop selling uphostelry.
both my dad's siblings went to uni.

i say
pudding
tea not dinner (surely dinner is only if you eat a hot meal at lunchtime or if you are going out for a slap up meal, not a regular thing)
toilet
nice to meet you
would you like a cup of coffee
our total household income is about 1800 a month. we are home owners with a mortgage of 800 a month. we live in a 3 bed terrace in a nice surburb in a northern city.
when i do home visits to certain parts of town i 'feel' very middle class. i certainly sound as if i have a home counties accent.
i always thought i was middle class but clearly i'm not in the hm league?

sorry the km league, whatever class i am i am very bad at typing.

Concordia - Middle.

As far as I'm concerned, if you have a degree (or a professional job) you're middle class, unless you are aristocracy.

But i feel that my life, worries, etc is so radically different from the lives of Kate Middleton and David Cameron, for example, it renders the term 'middle class' totally useless if it refers to people like me and people like them in the same category, doesn't it?
i mean my aspirations include being able to take my kids on holiday abroad again in the next five years. for them a quick nip abroad is loose change.

Well she's definitely posh to me!

What do you call your evening meal? Tea
What do you call the thing you pee into? Toilet
What do you say when you are introduced to someone? Depends who it is. If it's just a friend of a friend then "hello" or "hi, y'alright?"
Do you say "Would you like a cup of coffee? or "Would you like a coffee?" "D'ya wanna brew?"
What do you call the course in a meal where you eat something sweet?" pudding or dessert.

Yup, as working class as they come!

Yep. Middle class is pretty wide. It covers me too, and I grew up in care with very little privilege, probably as much of a world away from your childhood as yours was from Callmedave's and Kate's. Pretty useless expression really.

"i mean my aspirations include being able to take my kids on holiday abroad again in the next five years. for them a quick nip abroad is loose change."

Ah, but where abroad do you want to take them?

The BEST class is whichever one I am in.

She's middle class. Middle class covers a huge spectrum and will include people on low as well as high incomes.

I'd put her in the category of upper middle class rather than lower middle class - but still middle class.

Concordia-we also have tea-which is supposedly Northern working class.

I´m not Northern-could be working class I guess.

I say tea because we have our cooked meal at midday, & I don´t think the salad/sandwiches that we eat in the evening constitute dinner.

We wee in the loo, eat pudding, I would say "how do you do?"

I offer a cup of tea/coffee.

When people meet you Concordia it would take a matter of seconds for people to work out which class you are! We all sum people up when we meet and generally first impressions are correct. From what you have written, I would say you were middle class.

A few questions - diddl - sandwiches in the evening? Really? Does anyone else do that?

And a lot of people seem to say "how do you do?". I'd feel really odd being that formal. "How are you?" is as formal as I get I think.

I went to St Andrews. Lots of 'well spoken' English and posh Scottish accents, also lots of international (especially US) and completely normal range of other accents. Plenty of very normal, non posh Scottish students too - not just the Edinburgh/Fettes types. I have a lots of Scottish friends from St A's who would be utterly pissed off with the assumption that it's all Royal toadie types. It's not a finishing school. Do I detect some inverse snobbery here?

Well, I cook at midday so we tend to have bread of some description in the evening.

Why is that so odd?

What do a lot of people who cook in the evening have at lunch?

But the question wa when introduced to someone-so what´s wrong with how do you do?

By the way - I am from working class east London background - fitted in perfectly well at St Andrew's. But then I am open minded about what people have to offer beyond their class and way they speak.

'How do you do' is ok isn't it?

I think it's 'pleased to meet you' - which is meant to be downmarket.

'how do you do' sounds sooo Victorian to me though. I'd feel an absolute tit if I said that.

What would you say then, Nancy?

"Nancy this is Diddl.'

me: 'Hello Diddl.'

It does of course depend on the "occasion".

When my sister & I meet up the screeches of "OMG it´s been blöödy ages" can be heard the length of the airport"!

No the downmarket thing is replying to 'how do you do' with 'fine thanks'.

I use 'Hello' or 'Hiya' or 'Alright?'