Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Another interpretation of the great East Dulwich debate


"A single adult living in the middle will have an annual income of between ?13,400 and about ?29,600. Being at the top of that band entails working for ?15 an hour for a 38-hour week. Live on your own and earn more than that, and you are not Normal - you are in the best-off quarter. Have two kids and a joint income of ?60,000-plus, and you are not Normal."


Middle class means over ?13,400 a year...? Upper class is over 30 grand a year?


Aspirational? Class mobility? Can CWALD regain her credentials by taking a pay cut? I think we should be told?


"You are in the Wealthy group if, should you and your spouse simultaneously drop dead today, your estate would be liable for inheritance tax (the single-person inheritance tax threshold is now ?312,000)."


Does this then mean that the act of being a homeowner in East Dulwich with the inherent househould equity precludes you from being working class? Exercise 'right-to-buy' and the game is up.

Link to comment
https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/topic/3863-cash-or-class/
Share on other sites

Lol! I know, only teasing ;-)


Did you read the article? I particularly like 'Most of the old markers of class fade as, for men, a ubiquitous "bloke" is created and women look "smart".'


More importantly, if wealth were the definer, then you end up with a very fluid 'class war' army consisting mainly of callow youths (who'll leave you behind as they age) and geriatrics.


Research I mentioned on another thread suggests that 70% of individuals born into one of these wealth 'quarters' or classes will leave it by the time they're 35. If you need long term resentment to build up sufficient grounds for revolution then you've only got 30% of 25% of the population to play with.


So if in the first generation you've only got 7.5% of the population in indentured long term 'working class', then by the second generation (20 years later) you've only got 2%. Not really enough for a working majority, let alone raising a battalion!


Perhaps the class war has already been won, and rabble rousing will have about as much as success as waving a cudgel to campaign against the vikings?

Link to comment
https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/topic/3863-cash-or-class/#findComment-121370
Share on other sites

Quite right ClareC, additionally the use of 'class' as a synonym for 'quality' as opposed to 'category' could well be a criteria as well!


Brendan, it's shocking isn't it :( . However we can argue that, as with cricket, the game's not in the rules but in the detail.


However...


"Tell me where you went to school, what your father's job was then, and your home postcode, and I'll quite happily put you in a pigeonhole."


It's a bit pooey to be be told you've got no 'class' as in quality because of what your Dad did. Presumably if you had real class you wouldn't draw conculsions on a person's calibre based on their postcode, but on their actions.


Which brings us into a Nietzschean dilemma - is working class a frame of mind or do you have to actually engage in working class pursuits like sitting on your arse doing nothing all day? ;-) I'm feeling very working class today!

Link to comment
https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/topic/3863-cash-or-class/#findComment-121386
Share on other sites

"Sitting on your arse all day doing nothing."


Isn't that a better description of the ruling class (or underclass) rather than the proles? Huguenot - your officially classed as posh or chavvy for today :-)


NB I'm on a very brief lunch break from the Work House (stale bread and water only).

Link to comment
https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/topic/3863-cash-or-class/#findComment-121488
Share on other sites

I was told by Mr buggie not that long ago that I am "absolutely, positively, definitively middle class" and I think he was probably right (although we don't quite fit the depressing suburban description from the article)

But it's not something I'm proud or ashamed of, or something I aspired to or wish to change, it just is.

I am who I am, was born to who I was born to and do what I do.

The fact that I fit neatly into a that catgory by practically any criteria is true, but doesn't define me.

Link to comment
https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/topic/3863-cash-or-class/#findComment-121641
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • I don’t think Reform will withstand the heat of any election.  Finding enough people to stand will be bad enough. Finding credible ones quite a bid tougher  I think yes this government is lacking in a long term plan and has not had a good first year. Today the least.   but the speed with which this was dealt with is a notable shift compared to last 14 years where months would drag by and we would constantly be told to draw a line under  if Labour called an election tomorrow, there is not a single party that could present a better alternative with any credibility. And that’s a low bar Reform are dangerous lunatics but more worrying is the descent of the Tories into the same swamp i also worry that England voters have contracted some melodrama virus after the Tories where we had 5 PMs in almost as many years  it’s ok for governments to be unpopular without needing to have an election every 1-2 years       Looks like Lucy Connolly will me one of those Reform candidates at next election tells you everything you need to know about that party and where the country would be headed 
    • Well, I made £50 out of it and Alice owes me another bullseye, so I had a good day Clearly the thread has moved on, but just a final few words on Rayner (from me, at least). If she hadn't gone like this (with a chance to revive her career at some point in the future) there's plenty of other stuff loaded up and ready to be fired at her about the motivation, finances and machinations of her move down South. It's not pretty reading. Tawdry doesn't come close. I was born in Ashton Hospital and grew up in Tameside, I've got a lot of friends and family who weren't as lucky as me and didn't make it out, some close to her constituency party, and there's been a lot of bad feeling around 'Our Ange' for a long time. My favourite quote was: 'She should fuck off back to Stockport.' And that was from a party member. The writing was on the wall for her. Moving from Ashton (majority c6.5k, large Pakistani minority, but predominantly white working class and targeted by both the Independent Alliance and Reform) to Hove (majority c20k, neither of these issues with the electorate) was a pretty cynical move, and she's fucked it royally. 'The Honourable Member for Hove and Portslade' will be sleeping a lot easier in their bed tonight. This thread was never supposed to about Labour bashing, and I'm not sure it is. It's definitely descended into 'Whataboutery', and that seems to be the problem, in my mind at least, with British politics. It's playground stuff, he said/she said, blame-game bollocks. Watch PMQs and ask yourself if you'd accept this sort of behaviour amongst toddlers, let alone in an elected parliament. One thing that does stand out is the opposition to Reform across the board, and yet we seem to be sleepwalking towards a likely scenario where Farage could head up a minority Reform government. I've 'followed' politics since the late Seventies - mainly because the BBC News came on right after 'Roobard and Custard' or 'The Magic Roundabout' - and I can't remember an era where both major parties are so bereft of leadership, direction or ideas. There's a certain irony that we'll all be getting a test text on Sunday to warn us of an impending 'National Emergency'. Seems quite prescient.
    • But not old enough to remember the highest unemployment rate, inflation and interest rates in history in the early eighties under the Tories? A rather selective memory you have. There has never been a four-day week: it was a three-day week imposed by the Conservative government under the Blasted Heath.
    • I see that there was a government consultation started in July 2024, a response, and then a revision to the National Planning Policy Framework, and then to the Green Belt guidance in February 2025, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/green-belt .  It includes the updates but doesn't give the nescient much clue of what was materially changed. There will probably be some good, and less good, summaries to be found. 
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...