scotsboyuk

The upper class and the working class are perfectly fine; it's the pretentious nonsense in the middle that buggers it up.

__________________
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC

PubFather

Depend on your definition of "middle" class.. Many people who - in socio-economic terms would be "middle class" - think of themselves as working class. It is a very British class distinction thing, where middle class has always been something of a dirty word, and linked to a materialistic, aspirational "keeping up the Jones`s" outlook. Or the woolly liberal, sweater wearing, Guardian reading stereotype beloved of some sections of the media.

In terms of the upper class... I think they can keep their self-satisfied arrogance and disconnect from the realities of the modern world... (thinking in terms of the true aristocracy).

__________________
Nemo Me Impune Lacessit - Scottish Motto

"They that approve a private opinion, call it opinion; but they that dislike it, heresy; and yet heresy signifies no more than private opinion” Thomas Hobbes - Leviathan

scotsboyuk

@PubFather

I'm not talking about people who are economically middle class, rather those people who seem to think that they are somehow better than other people. The true aristocracy have real class.

One aristocrat I know of shops at Makro for some of her clothes; not because she can't afford designer brands or is stingy, but because she says the clothes she buys there are perfectly fine. She isn't of the mindset that she's too good for such things. The real upper class don't need to be poseurs.

I once heard a story (a true story) about an English Lord and Lady. They had fallen on hard times and were living in one room of their anscestral home. The Lord was marching around the house, dressed in a deerstalker and plus flours and carrying a shotgun, chasing an imaginary fox whilst the Lady had invited a group of homeless drunks into the house to get sozzled with her. Huzzah I say!

PubFather

Interesting story - and I agree with much of the content of your thread. I do still consider much of the old "true" aristocracy to be very very insular and out of touch with modern Britain. Thats not to say that the stoicism of the aristocracy doesnt have it merits.

scotsboyuk

@PubFather

I would agree with you to a certain extent, but I would also ask; what is modern Britain and who is in touch with it? There are probably people from all classes of British society who can be described as being 'out of touch'. I think one has to be careful about about making generalisations and taking a view that perhaps relies upon stereotypes.

I'm not saying you are stereotyping people, but how many aristocrats do you know? I am sure there probably are some of them who are complete snobs and look down upon people, but then there are people like that throughout society.

PubFather

I agree totally, and I was making sweeping generalisations, something I hate in others. People are just people, not matter their class. And you get good and and bad ones in all sections of society. Most people are certainly not bad - and many are good.

scotsboyuk

@PubFather

The people who have the most class are the ones who don't feel the need to mention their social position, wealth, etc.

gilgamesh

You forget the biggest farts of them all. The Oxbride intellectuals who thumb their noses at rest of the population. Bloody queers, all of 'em.

scotsboyuk

@gilgamesh

... and communist spies.

Dreadnought

And the type that leaves unfinished pints on the bar

PubFather

... who left an unfinished pint....? I kill them...

Dreadnought

Twasn't I

PubFather

Glad to hear it... it carries the death sentence in glasgow

Dreadnought

Being of Irish and Nordes decent tis a capital crime.

scotsboyuk

@Dreadnought

Who is descended from the Irish and Norse?