The people's flag is eau de nil

My whole house(inside) is Eau de nil. Nowhere near the Cotswolds ,nearer Sunderland.

In my dining room I have a DADO RAIL , the top half is magnolia , lower half eau de nil , rather smart it looks too !

I still think the only way to think of households is by income, or possibly education level because within every income or education level you will find all kinds of spending patterns and life style choices.

I am fortunate to live in a village. In villages housing and people from all levels of income, all types of job and a wide range of lifestyles all live in a happy jumble, with small 19th century terrace houses next to large period properties. We mix, we make friends and at times employ our neighbours. We all shop at the village Co-op and go to the supermarkets in the nearest town. None of us go round inspecting each others lifestyle to decide what class we are.

When meritocracy came in, class went out. As far as I am concerned anyone who talks seriously about class in the 21st century is a loser.

I have to live on JSA
It works out to £10 a day,
No money left to pay the bills
No free prescriptions for my ills (bit in brackets not included in song, but I get the wrong sort of JSA)
(middle eight, slightly higher key)

So tell me please,
Why should it be
That others get it all for free
When I have paid all through the past,
And now just get kicked up the arse.

Isn't eau de nil the colour Alan Bennett refers to as "coalhouse door"??
We have a dado rail in our hall and up the stairs too, Nonu only it is always referred to as the dildo rail

it would be ,

Well put, Phoenix.

Where you hang your dildos is none of our business, Soutra...

We ripped out every dado rail when we moved in here - mind you, there was truly horrific wallpaper (in clashing patterns) above and below. That went too.

I agree woth Flickety - wealthy, middling income, poor. Sub classified, perhaps, as she also suggests later, with education level. Haven't thought that one out yet.

Our whole house, indoors, was painted eau de nil when I was a child, with a dingy cream woodwork - apparently these were the paint colours you could get after the war. I have, unconsciously I think, avoided it in my own homes.

We'll (try to) keep the red flag flying here. Might get a bit wet, though.

Thank you, merlot I could go on, but I wont.

Soutra maybe the coalhouse doors in the Cotswolds are eau de nil too!As Alan Bennet comes from a poor part of Leeds [Armley, near the prison]I would be amazed if coalhouse doors were that colour but one never knows.
Phoenix good verse, I can just imagine Ed Milliband and Ed balls singing that version around the Christmas tree [not]
FlicketyB I was just going to talk seriously about class....... think somehow that I won't now.

I think the 'tasteful green' Alan Bennett refers to as coalhouse door colour is rather brighter and denser than eau de nil - more like old privet.

Around the area of Chatsworth all woodwork etc in the villages is the same shade of "bluey green".Very feudal I have always thought.

The takeoff I knew was quite an old one:

"The people's flag is palest pink
since Gaitskell washed it in the sink
But just to prove that we’re sincere
We’ll sing the Red Flag once a year...."

I think 'eau-de-nil' just rhymes!

There's a lot of Oxford Blue around there!

As I understand it Alie was was implyiong that it was the colour of old faded paint - a bit like you get on French shops in the depths of the country! I initially misread your post Ana and thought you had wtitten old privy - which may be closer than you think!

Sorry - "HE was implying" etc

Our coalhouse door in the 40s was green - sort of dark leaf green. So was all the other external paintwork. I think it must have been the only paint available during the war!

I think you may be right, anno - my grandparents' external house paintwork was just that colour (including the coal hole!).

I like that one AlieOxon

My back garden fencing and gates are eau de nil.

I've come over all Cotswoldy now.

All through my childhood, in fact until I was well into my forties, ALL outdoor paintwork in the neighbourhood - sheds, gates, fences, kennels, benches - was painted a glossy dark green, referred to as DCL green. It was only after the local distilleries changed hands that a variety of colours started to appear and I realised where all the paint had come from.

Of course it can't be just any old common or garden eau de nil. It has to be Farrow and Ball. Our exterior gates here in France are painted in F and B Green Smoke, lightly faded to the correct colour. They actually have shops here, though the prices are eye-watering.

We had our paint colour specially mixed but it's not F and B.