From a scale of 7 to 10 how middle class is this forum?

[nickyboy]

I used to get whole guinea-fowl for a quid from Gateway in Aberystwyth. Do I get points?

You are the classic landed gentry having to live within ones means, let the servants go etc. But still maintaining certain standards

 

[byegad]

Middle-class?

You mean some contributors don't have servants and an estate to hunt, shoot and fish in?

One would rather spend time speaking to one's butler.

 

[smutchin]

I just took the quiz.

Based on the truthful answers I gave, apparently I'm part of the "Established Middle Class"

Trust me, that is utter nonsense.

Out of interest, which bits of the definition do you feel don't apply to you? Note that the definition includes terms like "most" or "many" so you don't need to exactly match all criteria to be a member of that class.

In which of the defined class groups would you place yourself instead?

 

[Tim Hall]

I've done my back in, so I'm laying down. I look up to you all.

 

[Dec66]

Out of interest, which bits of the definition do you feel don't apply to you? Note that the definition includes terms like "most" or "many" so you don't need to exactly match all criteria to be a member of that class.

In which of the defined class groups would you place yourself instead?

All of it. I simply don't resemble the description at all.

As for which group I'd place myself in; I don't know, frankly. My upbringing was on a Merseyside council estate during the Thatcher era. This shaped much of my tastes, beliefs and experience. However, I'm self educated, I've been around quite a lot for quite a long time, and that reading and those experiences shaped me just as much.

I live in an outer London suburb, in a nice 1920's semi, I have a middle-class income but I could have the rug pulled from under me at any time. My friends and acquaintances include venture capitalists, investment bankers, politicians, solicitors, doctors, vets, a couple of professional sportspeople, builders, cleaners, lorry drivers, labourers... the whole gamut.

So, I can't really place myself anywhere, if I'm being honest, except to say that I'm certainly not upper class, and never could be. The one thing I'd like to think I am, if you'll pardon me blowing my own trumpet, is a genuinely nice guy. That's why my circle of friends and acquaintances is what it is, really... people universally tend to gravitate toward niceness.

 

[smutchin]

All of it. I simply don't resemble the description at all.

Well, you must resemble it in at least some respects since the evaluation is based on the information you entered about yourself. "Diverse range of cultural activities" and "socialise with a broad range of people", perhaps? Or your nice 1920s semi in an outer London suburb?

And why do you object to the definition anyway? Do you feel it is some kind of value judgment on you as an individual? Do you see being "a genuinely nice guy" as somehow incompatible with being middle class?

My upbringing was on a Merseyside council estate during the Thatcher era. This shaped much of my tastes, beliefs and experience. However, I'm self educated, I've been around quite a lot for quite a long time, and that reading and those experiences shaped me just as much.

The questionnaire doesn't ask about your upbringing or education. Perhaps those are not key factors in determining your current social class.

I have a middle-class income but I could have the rug pulled from under me at any time.

Tell me about it. But that goes for many of us - we're what Ed Miliband described as "the squeezed middle". That's more a reflection of the current state of our economy than our social class. Economic circumstances also mean there's far less social mobility than there has been in the past, so people born into the "precariat" are far less likely to get the opportunity to elevate themselves. You should be grateful that you were born in different times rather than complain about being (accurately) labelled "middle class" based on your current circumstances.

 

[smutchin]

By the way, @Dec66, I don't mean to sound like I'm picking on you...

Anyone who thinks that BBC questionnaire has got them wrong should maybe stop to think about themselves and their circumstances a bit more carefully. Or just spend less time filling in pointless questionnaires on the internet.

 

[Ian H]

I wonder if there's a survey that tells you whether you're a decent human being.

 

[BoldonLad]

14 “pages” of posts about something we are supposedly “not bothered about”. We Brits are Class!

 

[Dec66]

Well, you must resemble it in at least some respects since the evaluation is based on the information you entered about yourself. "Diverse range of cultural activities" and "socialise with a broad range of people", perhaps? Or your nice 1920s semi in an outer London suburb?

And why do you object to the definition anyway? Do you feel it is some kind of value judgment on you as an individual? Do you see being "a genuinely nice guy" as somehow incompatible with being middle class?



The questionnaire doesn't ask about your upbringing or education. Perhaps those are not key factors in determining your current social class.



Tell me about it. But that goes for many of us - we're what Ed Miliband described as "the squeezed middle". That's more a reflection of the current state of our economy than our social class. Economic circumstances also mean there's far less social mobility than there has been in the past, so people born into the "precariat" are far less likely to get the opportunity to elevate themselves. You should be grateful that you were born in different times rather than complain about being (accurately) labelled "middle class" based on your current circumstances.

I don't object to it; I just don't recognize it in me.

I don't see being "nice" as being incompatible with being middle class, or any class. Niceness is a universally recognized quality. The point I'm making is that the social circle I have formed as it did because of that, and not because of what school I went to, or my profession, or where I live, or the multitude of other things which determine the class of a person. The survey asked what sort of people are in your circle, and I put pretty much all of them as it's true. My contention is that's less to do with class than with personal qualities and happenstance.

The survey, as you point out, doesn't ask about education or upbringing, but perhaps it would be more accurate if it did, as in my opinion that shapes a person as much as anything (it certainly did with me).

And when I mentioned having the rug pulled from under me, I should have perhaps couched that in some context; there's no family money to bail me out, there's none of that support network which I associate with middle class people (that's my perception, I may well be wrong), and I don't have a professional qualification which would be easily transferrable.

So, in summary; no, I don't agree with the pigeonhole it put me in. I'm just malleable old me.

 

[Dec66]

By the way, @Dec66, I don't mean to sound like I'm picking on you...

Anyone who thinks that BBC questionnaire has got them wrong should maybe stop to think about themselves and their circumstances a bit more carefully. Or just spend less time filling in pointless questionnaires on the internet.

You are, though. You rotter

No offence taken. And you're right, I can think of better ways of spending my time than noddy quizzes on the BBC site.

Apart from the 7 Days one, of course...

 

[Julia9054]

By the way, @Dec66, I don't mean to sound like I'm picking on you...

Anyone who thinks that BBC questionnaire has got them wrong should maybe stop to think about themselves and their circumstances a bit more carefully. Or just spend less time filling in pointless questionnaires on the internet.

The survey goes mostly on income and property value. It doesn't even ask about educational level. The "successful working class made good" that many people on here would see themselves as, does not exist according to this survey.

 

[PK99]

I don't object to it; I just don't recognize it in me.

I don't see being "nice" as being incompatible with being middle class, or any class. Niceness is a universally recognized quality. The point I'm making is that the social circle I have formed as it did because of that, and not because of what school I went to, or my profession, or where I live, or the multitude of other things which determine the class of a person. The survey asked what sort of people are in your circle, and I put pretty much all of them as it's true. My contention is that's less to do with class than with personal qualities and happenstance.

The survey, as you point out, doesn't ask about education or upbringing, but perhaps it would be more accurate if it did, as in my opinion that shapes a person as much as anything (it certainly did with me).

And when I mentioned having the rug pulled from under me, I should have perhaps couched that in some context; there's no family money to bail me out, there's none of that support network which I associate with middle class people (that's my perception, I may well be wrong), and I don't have a professional qualification which would be easily transferrable.

So, in summary; no, I don't agree with the pigeonhole it put me in. I'm just malleable old me.

also from bbc:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34766169

From your self description you are at the very least Technical middle class.

Your middle-class salary, high property value (outer London suburb vs national values) and no doubt your pension/isa savings and diverse group of friends encompassing some pretty high status groups bump you up to Established Middle class.

Technical middle class
Percentage of population 6%
Average age 52
This is a small, distinctive and prosperous new class group:

• People in this group tend to mix socially with people similar to themselves
• They prefer emerging culture, such as using social media, to highbrow culture such as listening to classical music
• Many people in this group work in research, science and technical occupations
• They tend to live in suburban locations, often in the south east of England
• They come from largely middle class backgrounds

Established middle class
Percentage of population 25%
Average age 46
This is the most gregarious and the second wealthiest of all the class groups:

• People in this group enjoy a diverse range of cultural activities
• They socialise with a broad range of people
• Many work in management or the traditional professions
• Most come from middle class backgrounds
• They often live outside urban areas

 

[AndyRM]

[QUOTE 5197161, member: 9609"]I think one of the great joys of living in the borders is, there is no (or very little) class divide between people. Once you get down south into mid Northumberland some people start to go on oddly, some even put on strange plummy voice accents and talk down to others, seriously odd. The whole class thing seems to be a very english thing. (may be it is up in scotland too, but thankfully we get virtually non of that crap round here)[/QUOTE]

That's not my experience of Scotland at all. It is one of the most polarised countries I've lived in - the cities are particularly bad for it.

 

[Dec66]

also from bbc:




View attachment 402011

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34766169

From your self description you are at the very least Technical middle class.

Your middle-class salary, high property value (outer London suburb vs national values) and no doubt your pension/isa savings and diverse group of friends encompassing some pretty high status groups bump you up to Established Middle class.

Technical middle class
Percentage of population 6%
Average age 52
This is a small, distinctive and prosperous new class group:

• People in this group tend to mix socially with people similar to themselves
• They prefer emerging culture, such as using social media, to highbrow culture such as listening to classical music
• Many people in this group work in research, science and technical occupations
• They tend to live in suburban locations, often in the south east of England
• They come from largely middle class backgrounds

Established middle class
Percentage of population 25%
Average age 46
This is the most gregarious and the second wealthiest of all the class groups:

• People in this group enjoy a diverse range of cultural activities
• They socialise with a broad range of people
• Many work in management or the traditional professions
• Most come from middle class backgrounds
• They often live outside urban areas

I do socialise with a broad range of people, yes. And I have a broad range of cultural interests.

However, that is a lot less to do with my class than it is to do with me as a person, and it would still be true if I lived in a two up two down terrace in Liverpool 4 (indeed, it was, when I did)