Breaking the class ceiling

Mudball

Mudball

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Watching a BBC2 show called ‘breaking the class barrier’.. interesting subject around (the lack of) social mobility. Why people from working class background folks not able to break into roles in the city.
After watching for about 20 mins.. my teenager asked ‘are we working class or middle class’.

Where are the class boundaries ? Can’t be how much people earn ?
 
Doesn't need to be political at all.

I think firstly you need to be able to define what working class is.

My mum was a nurse, dad worked in automotive industry, one brother been a postie his whole life, one brother cuts glass lenses.... To me that's a working class family.

Yet I'm middle management in a finance firm in the city. I play golf and my son goes to private school... So in some eyes, that makes me middle class. Whereas I class myself as working class because I do a standard 9-5 job.

Maybe I don't understand what working class really means.
 
adam6177 said:
Doesn't need to be political at all.

I think firstly you need to be able to define what working class is.

My mum was a nurse, dad worked in automotive industry, one brother been a postie his whole life, one brother cuts glass lenses.... To me that's a working class family.

Yet I'm middle management in a finance firm in the city. I play golf and my son goes to private school... So in some eyes, that makes me middle class. Whereas I class myself as working class because I do a standard 9-5 job.

Maybe I don't understand what working class really means.
Click to expand...

Of course it doesn’t need to be political, but it’s a discussion about the British class system. It will inevitably turn political, people on here won’t be able to help themselves.
 
Mudball said:
Watching a BBC2 show called ‘breaking the class barrier’.. interesting subject around (the lack of) social mobility. Why people from working class background folks not able to break into roles in the city.
After watching for about 20 mins.. my teenager asked ‘are we working class or middle class’.

Where are the class boundaries ? Can’t be how much people earn ?
Click to expand...

It’s pretty easy to understand, if you have to get up in the morning to go to work to pay your bills then you are working class. (To think of yourself as anything else is surely pretentious?)
 
I honestly didn't think most people knew or cared anymore.
In the cluster of villages where I grew up, mine was the only one without a pit. Most of the houses were privately owned with mortgages. Most of the pit villages' were pit housing.
Because my parents were teachers and had a mortgage, we were considered posh, yet they earned less than a miner.
It's all just more nonsense us Brits have created to pointlessly divide and limit ourselves.
 
adam6177 said:
Doesn't need to be political at all.

I think firstly you need to be able to define what working class is.

My mum was a nurse, dad worked in automotive industry, one brother been a postie his whole life, one brother cuts glass lenses.... To me that's a working class family.

Yet I'm middle management in a finance firm in the city. I play golf and my son goes to private school... So in some eyes, that makes me middle class. Whereas I class myself as working class because I do a standard 9-5 job.

Maybe I don't understand what working class really means.
Click to expand...
Private education and working class, I'm not so sure.

But then, I don't think these terms should exist anymore.
 
My empirical studies tells me that those who feel the urge to proclaim themselves to be working class, no matter what the discussion is about (kind of like vegans really), have some of the biggest chips on their shoulders.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Lilyhawk said:
My empirical studies tells me that those who feel urge to proclaim themselves to be working class, no matter what the discussion is about (kind of like vegans really), have some of the biggest chips on their shoulders.
Click to expand...
It's like a badge of honour, isn't it?

I think in the past the lines were quite clear, manual labour, lower salaries, council or terraced house etc = working class. Now the boundaries are way too blurred and definitions are dated and inaccurate.

@Mudball tell your son it doesn't matter, it's terminology from the past that doesn't fit now.
 
Lord Tyrion said:
It's like a badge of honour, isn't it?

I think in the past the lines were quite clear, manual labour, lower salaries, council or terraced house etc = working class. Now the boundaries are way too blurred and definitions are dated and inaccurate.

@Mudball tell your son it doesn't matter, it's terminology from the past that doesn't fit now.
Click to expand...
From the past but we have a royal family and endless lords etc at the top of the tree.
Class system is very much alive and well for many.
 
Also, the only people who claim to have come from the lowest of the low of classes are those 'celebs', when writing their autobiographies or self help books, who claim to have had a really rough upbringing and we should feel sorry for them and not begrudge their 5 minutes of fame which they endlessly flaunt over social media
 
KenL said:
Private education and working class, I'm not so sure.

But then, I don't think these terms should exist anymore.
Click to expand...

Just to be clear... No one in my family (apart from my 9 year old) has had a private education before.

But I agree with you, and the other posters on this thread, that these days everyone likes a label as you have to be something. Maybe being working class is something people feel the need to shout about these days.
 
In the documentary, they spoke to the HR fellow at KPMG who hvae declared they want to hire x% from working class. Acc to him, the best indicator of you being from any class is 'what does your higher earning parent do/earn, when you were 14'. Apparently that is the best indicator in terms of social mobility. And they had 3 classes (and I paraphrase)... first was professionls >> Accountant, Doctor, Dentist, In the middle was > Nurses, train drivers? etc; in the bottom layer was > manual labour, van drivers etc. Thats how it is seen.
As a teachers son, I felt i was in the middle of that sandwich. Maybe according to that definition, my son is the upper end of that sandwich.

The bit I did not agree with the documentary was bringing a law in to stop discrimination against your socio-economic background. Unlike the law to protect against other discriminations e.g. age, gender, colour etc; the whole socio-economic discrimination is so open ended and up for debate.

Not wanting to make this political, there is a clip where the Nadhim Zahawi is asked the question. His facial expression is worth the comedy gold. I have no idea of his response, because i was ROFL-ing
 
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