What does middle class mean to you?

Loved that Frost Report sketch .. watched it sitting in our middle class house (detached & in the sth London suburbs) with my working class mum (her dad a 'journeyman painter decorator, she left school at 14) and my 'foreign' dad (lawyer in Civil Service ). I was at a comprehensive school but had been at a private boarding school when parents worked overseas. I was going out with a lad who lived in a council flat and went to a grammar school. Our car was a Ford of some sort and we holidayed in Spain in our touring trailer tent that dad made from a kit. My mum did all her own cleaning and only went to work again ( as a bookkeeper) when youngest child at secondary school. Dad dis the gardening , read The Times and voted Labour.

It's not easy sorting out class!

So what do Edward, Susan and Elizabeth make me then

When you loose your Child Benefit

It's all to do with what you call your children/kids/sprogs

Wayne, Dwuane, Chardonnay or Kylie?

Aurelian, Rupert, Felicity or India?

I didn't notice it, I am afraid. I had already thought of it.

Very well observed sketch.

Thank you Ana!

Oh! Sorry Jingle I missed the blue words.

Has nobody else noticed JO5's link at 18.45.20?
(Apart from Elegran )

I remember the impact that sketch had at the time. Very funny

Cleese: (In bowler hat, black jacket and pinstriped trousers) I look down on him (Indicates Barker) because I am upper-class.

Barker: (Pork-pie hat and raincoat) I look up to him (Cleese) because he is upper-class; but I look down on him (Corbett) because he is lower-class. I am middle-class.

Corbett: (Cloth cap and muffler) I know my place. I look up to them both. But I don't look up to him (Barker) as much as I look up to him (Cleese), because he has got innate breeding.

Cleese: I have got innate breeding, but I have not got any money. So sometimes I look up (bends knees, does so) to him (Barker).

Barker: I still look up to him (Cleese) because although I have money, I am vulgar. But I am not as vulgar as him (Corbett) so I still look down on him (Corbett).

Corbett: I know my place. I look up to them both; but while I am poor, I am honest, industrious and trustworthy. Had I the inclination, I could look down on them. But I don't.

Barker: We all know our place, but what do we get out of it?

Cleese: I get a feeling of superiority over them.

Barker: I get a feeling of inferiority from him, (Cleese), but a feeling of superiority over him (Corbett).

Corbett: I get a pain in the back of my neck.

From The Frost Report

I wasn't aware of the term 'middle class' as a child but I knew who they were. Those families who had a car, whose daughters went to piano and ballet lessons and who seemed to disappear during the summer holiday at the end of primary school. I eventually discovered that they had gone to private schools

It's a bit of fun absent

I know my place. In the wrong.

Yeah, that's the one Elegran.

It always makes me think of that sketch with the "I look down on him because..... " Was it John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett?

And your point when?

absent I think the thread has lost its way a bit. It's an invitation to have a light-hearted look at middle class

the one in the middle

I'm sorry – I really don't understand the question. Are you asking about lower middle class, middle middle class or upper middle class?

Yes, loved Grayson Perry. There's a thread about his programmes.

Granny23

A house much bigger than needed with at least a couple of studies because they are both writers/journalists/dreamers. A range cooker which could cater for 100 or an Aga which they can't quite get to grips with but it is so lovely and warm and 'the kitchen is the heart of the house'. Rooms cold because they can't afford the fuel bills or the Aga again - keeps going out when it is supposed to be supplying the central heating.

Anyone see the programmes about Grayson Perry's tapestries depicting the lives of the classes. Very funny and I was sorry I missed the exhibition.

Hunter wellies, Barbour jackets that smell strongly of wax because they never get dirty. Posh Eglu plastic chicken coops, subscriptions to Country Life, National Trust and RHS. The largest 4X4 on the school run, fridge magnets from exotic holidays to anchor homework timetables, and orthodontist appointments (middle class families don't go to a common old dentist) in a prominent position on the fridge.

I may have said this on Gransnet before. If so I apologise for the repetition.
I recognise 3 classes of people:

SCRUFF = Parasites who will neither work nor want, tax dodgers, thieves, wasters, etc.

ORDINARY PUNTERS = The vast majority of the population, who work when they can, pay their way and try to improve things for the next generation.

POSH = Parasites with more money at their disposal than Scruff (QV)

I think it may well apply to him now he has a seat in the House of Lords, he's possibly already come out with "we're all upper class now!"