Social structure of Britain
Encyclopedia
The social structure of the United Kingdom has historically been highly influenced by the concept of social class
, with the concept still affecting British society in the early-21st century. Although definitions of social class in the United Kingdom vary and are highly controversial, most are influenced by factors of wealth, occupation and education. Until recently the Parliament of the United Kingdom
was organised on a class basis, with the House of Lords
representing the hereditary upper class and the House of Commons
representing everyone else, and the British monarch is often viewed as being at the top of the social class structure.
British society has experienced significant change since the Second World War, including an expansion of higher education and home-ownership, a shift towards a services dominated economy, mass immigration, a changing role for women and a more individualistic culture, and these changes have had a considerable impact on the social landscape. However, claims that the UK has become a classless society have frequently been met with scepticism.
The biggest current study of social class in the United Kingdom is the Great British Class Survey.
, such as affected much of Europe after the French Revolution
or in the early 20th century, and the nobility, in so far as it existed as a distinct social class, integrated itself with those with new wealth derived from commercial and industrial sources more comfortably than in most of Europe.
This can be seen to be a distinct feature of English society from the Middle Ages. The number of peerages
in the House of Lords
was very small - 45 in 1485 and still only 60 in 1660 - and titles of nobility as well as the bulk of landholdings passed only to the eldest son
, or another single heir, thus effectively preventing the growth of the nobility as a distinct and clearly-defined social class, as occurred in most of Europe. From early on, successful bourgeois families bought country estates and turned themselves into landowning gentry
, rather than remaining in the cities as a patrician
elite, something already noted by William Caxton
in the 1480s. Equally, the younger sons and grandsons of peers often turned to the law or business in a way that would have been considered a personal disgrace in most European countries. An economy that expanded rapidly for several centuries, and in the Early Modern period also offered opportunities in the growing British Empire
, enabled an unusually large proportion of opportunities to those from much poorer backgrounds (those men at least) who had managed to acquire some education to rise through the class system. In the Middle Ages, a large proportion of what we would call middle-class adminstative roles that required literacy were performed by clergy who, if they had children at all, were typically not able to provide them with a social status to match their fathers'. Thus the expanding medieval requirement for administrative personnel required constant recruitment. A recent study, largely based on analysis of the surnames in various historical sources, found that there was "complete long run social mobility
in medieval and early Modern England", although it was slow by modern standards, with artisan
names such as "Smith" gradually achieving roughly the same proportion of Oxbridge
students that they had in the general population.
The very heavy cull of the English noble warrior elite during the Wars of the Roses
was blamed by contemporaries for the rise of a class of "new men" in the 16th century, drawn from the gentry, merchant and lawyer classes, of which the Tudor dynasty
were themselves arguably examples, descending in the male line from Owen Tudor
, who married the widow of Henry V of England
, having entered her household as keeper of the Queen's wardrobe. The largely new wealthy English families by the end of the century then enjoyed a period of several centuries of stability in which many were able to retain and consolidate their position. The historian David Cannadine
sees the period around 1880 as the final peak of this success, after which the position of the old families declined rapidly, from a number of causes, reaching a nadir in the years after World War II, symbolized by the widespread destruction of country houses
. However their wealth, if not their political power, rebounded very strongly from the 1980s, benefiting from greatly increased values of the land and art which many still owned in quantity.
Meanwhile the complex British middle-classes had also been enjoying a long period of growth and increasing prosperity, and achieving political power at the national level to a degree unusual in Europe. They avoided the strict stratification of many Continental middle-classes, and formed a large and amorphous group closely connected at their edges with both the gentry and aristocracy and the labouring classes. In particular the great financial centre of the City of London
was open to outsiders to an unusual degree, and continually expanding and creating new employment.
The British working class, on the other hand, was not notable in Europe for prosperity, and Early Modern British travellers often remarked on the high standard of living of the farm-workers and artisans of the Netherlands
. Living standards certainly improved greatly over the period, more so in England than other parts of the United Kingdom, but the Industrial Revolution
was marked by extremely harsh working conditions and poor housing until about the middle of the 19th century.
and government reports and statistics.
These people would speak in local accents, although relatively mild. Typical Mosaic Geodemographic types for this group would include Sprawling Subtopia or for Successful British Asians Asian Enterprise. The comedy character Hyacinth Bucket
is a satirical stereotype for this social group. Votes in this area are split and minority parties will have a stronger proportion.
, to provincial as well as Estuary English
. They may have been educated in either state or private schools.
Typical jobs include accountants, architects, doctors, lawyers, teachers, social workers, managers, businessmen, engineers, or civil servants. For certain of these fields, notably law and medicine, there is a considerable overlap with the Upper Middle Class. Displays of conspicuous consumption
are considered vulgar by them; instead they prefer to channel excess income into investments, including and especially property.
They are highly politically and socially engaged and might be regular churchgoers, sit on local committees and governing boards or stand for political office. Education is greatly valued by the middle classes: they will make every effort to ensure their children get a university education; although they are sometimes unable to afford private schooling, they may go to great lengths to get their children into good state schools, such as moving house into the catchment area.
They also value culture and make up a significant proportion of the book-buying and theatre-going public. They prefer TV documentaries and dramas over reality shows, BBC radio 4
over pop stations and broadsheet newspapers over tabloids. Typical Mosaic geodemographic types would include Provincial Privilege. The comedy character Margo Leadbetter is a satirical stereotype for this group, as is Jilly Cooper
's Howard Weybridge.
dialect natively. The upper middle class in Britain traditionally consisted of professionals with tertiary education
.
The upper middle class are traditionally educated at more prestigious private schools, called "public schools" in the United Kingdom. Public schools were predominantly founded to serve the educational needs of the upper middle class, whose children have always constituted the majority of their customers. Recently, within the last ten years, parents have begun to prefer to send their children to good day schools, rather than away to boarding school.
A typical Mosaic geodemographic
type for this group would be cultural leadership. This is a very specific class in England and is, in many respects, peculiar to England as its characteristics do not fit easily within the social gradations of the other constituent nations of the United Kingdom. Frequently its members are members of professions (traditionally academia, the clergy, finance, law, medicine and officers in the military).
Many upper middle class families may have previous ancestry that often directly relates to the upper classes. Although not necessarily of the landowning classes - as a result, perhaps, of lack of a male heir - many families' titles/styles have not been inherited and therefore many families' past status became dissolved.
Although such categorisations are not precise, popular contemporary examples of upper middle class people might include Boris Johnson
, Nick Clegg
and David Cameron
(politicians), Helena Bonham Carter
(British actress), Matthew Pinsent
(British Olympian and TV personality) and Nigella Lawson
(British television personality).
Fictional character, Frank Gallagher
from the television programme, Shameless
would present a vivid example of life in this strata of British society. Typical Mosaic Geodemographic types for these people are Tower Block Living or Sharing a stair case.
The identification of an 'underclass', however, has not been without controversy, as some have attributed the term more to right-wing rhetoric than reality.
The stereotypical British "upper class" is now statistically very small and consists of the peerage
, gentry
, and hereditary landowners. These people were traditionally the wealthiest in the land having inherited money and position. The majority of aristocratic families originated in the merchant class, and were ennobled between the 14th and 19th century. Those in possession of a hereditary (as opposed, importantly, to a conferred) peerage – for example a Duke
dom, a Marquess
ate, an Earl
dom, a Viscount
y or a Baron
y (though any of these may be conferred) – will, almost invariably, be members of the upper class, though a Life Peerage is that of the rank of Baron, most Life Peers are not upper class.
Traditionally, upper class children were brought up at home by a Nanny for the first few years of life, and then schooled at home by private tutors. From the 19th century, it became increasingly popular for upper-class families to mimic the middle-classes, in sending their children to public schools, which had been predominantly founded to serve the educational needs of the upper-middle class. When children are old enough, they may attend a prep school or pre-preparatory school. Moving into secondary education, it is still commonplace for upper-class children to attend one of Britain's public schools, although it is not unheard of for certain families to send their children to grammar school
s. Insofar as continuing education goes, this can vary from family to family; it may, in part, be based on the educational history of the family. In the past, both the British Army
and clergy
have been the institutions of choice, but the same can equally apply to the Royal Navy
, or work in the Diplomatic Corps
. Otherwise, Oxford, Cambridge, and other "traditional" universities (such as Durham University
, the University of Edinburgh
, and St Andrews University) are the most popular sources of higher education for the upper class, although a high academic standard is required and social class does not as readily secure entry as it once did.
Sports — particularly those involving the outdoors — are often regarded as a popular pastime of the upper class. Traditionally, at school, rugby union
is much more popular than football
: indeed, the two sports are often taken to represent the two extremes of social classes 'at play', although paradoxically rugby is not played at Winchester. Other frequented sports include lawn tennis, croquet
, cricket
and golf
. Equestrian activities are popular with both sexes and there is a long-standing tradition of the upper class having close links to horses. Men who ride will more often participate in polo
. Hunting
and shooting
, too, are favoured pastimes. Some upper class families with large estates will run their own shoots (typically they would need 1000 acres (4 km²), or more, though some shoots do operate on about half that), but many will know someone who keeps pheasants
, or other game
, and may instead shoot with them. There is also a particular affinity for dogs (especially Labradors
and spaniels
) amongst the upper class — and, equally, sporting pursuits that involve them.
Money and material possessions are often thought of as a less important factor for the United Kingdom's upper class than for the upper classes of other countries; although this allows for an upper class family to be impoverished, wealth is often a practical necessity for an aristocratic lifestyle and an upper class family is likely to have had wealth at some point in its history. Vast financial prosperity (only slightly dependent on how it is earned) is sometimes the subject of derision and contempt.
, or self employed contractors. These people would speak in local accents and have craft apprenticeship
s rather than university education. Typical Mosaic types for this group include White Van Culture or Affluent Blue Collar.
Trade union membership and Labour Party
support is high, but some elements, particularly those located in the South East of England and the West Midlands are slightly more likely to vote Conservative than the unskilled working class. The lifestyle they aspire to is that of nouveau-riche celebrities rather than the traditional upper and middle classes. Fictional examples of working-class entrepreneurs include Phil
and Grant Mitchell
in Eastenders
, who are involved in a number of business enterprises, and Del Boy Trotter, for all that he is aspirational rather than successful. The Coogan's Run
character Ernest Moss represents the traditional skilled workman.
However, since the mid-1970s de-industrialisation has shattered many of these communities, resulting in a complete deterioration in quality of life
and a reversal in rising living standards for the industrial working class. Many, either dropped in status to the working poor
or fell into permanent reliance on welfare dependence. Some dropped out altogether and joined the black market economy, while a limited few did manage to climb up to the lower middle class
.
Some Examples of Mosaic geodemographic groups for these people would be Coronation Street or Rustbelt Resilience.
Fictional stereotypes include Andy Capp
and Albert Steptoe, who is not only unaspirational himself but crushes the aspirations of his son Harold. They are the mainstay of the trade unions and Labour Party vote, but there are also working class conservatives, particularly in the South East of England in the Medway
towns of Kent
and the east London
border areas of suburban Essex
, as exemplified by Alf Garnett
.
It has been argued that with the decline in manufacturing and increase in the service sector, lower-paid white collar jobs are effectively working class. Call centre
s in particular, have sprung up in former centres of industry.
, also known as R.P. or BBC English, was a term introduced as way of defining standard English, but accent has acquired a certain prestige from being associated with the middle (and above) classes in the South East, the wealthiest part of England. Use of RP in by people from the 'regions' outside the South East can be indicative of a certain educational background, such as public school or elocution lessons.
"The Queen's English" was once a synonym for RP. However, the Queen and some other older members of the aristocracy are now perceived as speaking in a way that is both more old fashioned and higher class than "general" R.P. Phoneticians call this accent "Conservative Received Pronounciation".
BBC English was also a synonym for R.P. At one time people seeking a career in acting on broadcasting would learn R.P. as a matter of course if they did not speak it already. However, the BBC and other broadcasters are now
much more willing to use regional accents.
Language and writing style have been, consistently, one of the most reliable indicators of class, although pronunciation did not become one until the later 19th century. The variations between the language employed by the upper classes and those not of the upper classes has, perhaps, been best documented by linguistic Professor Alan Ross's
1954 article on U and non-U English
usage, with "U" representing Upper and upper middle class vocabulary of the time, and ""Non-U representing lower middle class vocabulary. The discussion was furthered in Noblesse Oblige
- and featured contributions from, among others, Nancy Mitford
. The debate was revisited in the mid-1970s, in a publication by Debrett's called 'U and Non-U revisited'. Ross contributed to this volume too, and it is remarkable to notice how little the language (amongst other factors) changed in the passing of a quarter of a century.
'own' prestige accent, distinct from both RP and the working class accent of the region.
England has a wide variety of regional accents for a small country, mostly with working class or lower middle class connotations:-
, or a Scotsman in the Lyon Court, can be referred to as armiger
ous. Any British citizen can apply for arms from their respective authority but only those of sufficient social standing would be granted arms. Arms in and of themselves are imperfectly aligned with social status, in that many of high status will have no right to arms whilst, on the other hand, those entitled to arms by descent can include branches of families which have fallen far down the social scale.
Nevertheless, a right to bear arms under the Law of Arms
is, by definition, linked either to the personal acquisition of social status, inspiring application for a personal grant of arms, or to descent from a person who did so in the past. Rightly or wrongly, therefore, the use of a coat of arms is linked to social prestige.
In the early twentieth century, it was argued by heraldic writers such as Arthur Charles Fox-Davies
that only those with a right to a coat of arms could correctly be described (if men) as gentlemen and of noble status; however, even at the time this argument was controversial, and it was rejected by other writers such as Oswald Barron
and Horace Round. In the Order of Malta, where proof of technical nobility is a requirement of certain grades of membership, British members must still base their proof upon an ancestral right to a coat of arms.
, the then Chancellor of West Germany
stated that:
“If one asks oneself what are the true reasons for the differentiated development of societies and economies between the British and most ones on the Continent, I think it has something to do with the fact that British society, much more than the Scandinavian, German, Austrian, and Dutch societies, is characterized by a class-struggle type of society. This is true for both sides of the upper class as well as for the working classes. I think that the way in which organized Labour on the one hand and industrial management on the other had dealt with their problems is outmoded.”
Later in the same interview, Schmidt noted that “You have to treat workers as equal members of society. You have to give them the self—esteem which they can only have if they acquire responsibility. Then you will be able to ask the trade unions to behave and to abstain from those idiotic policies. Then they will accept some guidance from outsiders – from the government or the party or whatever it is. But as long as you maintain the damned class-ridden society of yours you will never get out of your mess.”
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
, with the concept still affecting British society in the early-21st century. Although definitions of social class in the United Kingdom vary and are highly controversial, most are influenced by factors of wealth, occupation and education. Until recently the Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
was organised on a class basis, with the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
representing the hereditary upper class and the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
representing everyone else, and the British monarch is often viewed as being at the top of the social class structure.
British society has experienced significant change since the Second World War, including an expansion of higher education and home-ownership, a shift towards a services dominated economy, mass immigration, a changing role for women and a more individualistic culture, and these changes have had a considerable impact on the social landscape. However, claims that the UK has become a classless society have frequently been met with scepticism.
The biggest current study of social class in the United Kingdom is the Great British Class Survey.
History
The perceived conservatism of the modern British social structure in part reflects the unusual fluidity of social classes which is a feature of British history in the late Middle Ages and Early Modern period. The United Kingdom has never had a sudden dispossession of the estates of the nobilityNobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
, such as affected much of Europe after the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
or in the early 20th century, and the nobility, in so far as it existed as a distinct social class, integrated itself with those with new wealth derived from commercial and industrial sources more comfortably than in most of Europe.
This can be seen to be a distinct feature of English society from the Middle Ages. The number of peerages
Peerage of England
The Peerage of England comprises all peerages created in the Kingdom of England before the Act of Union in 1707. In that year, the Peerages of England and Scotland were replaced by one Peerage of Great Britain....
in the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
was very small - 45 in 1485 and still only 60 in 1660 - and titles of nobility as well as the bulk of landholdings passed only to the eldest son
Primogeniture
Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings . Historically, the term implied male primogeniture, to the exclusion of females...
, or another single heir, thus effectively preventing the growth of the nobility as a distinct and clearly-defined social class, as occurred in most of Europe. From early on, successful bourgeois families bought country estates and turned themselves into landowning gentry
Gentry
Gentry denotes "well-born and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past....
, rather than remaining in the cities as a patrician
Patrician
The term patrician originally referred to a group of elite families in ancient Rome, including both their natural and adopted members. In the late Roman Empire, the class was broadened to include high council officials, and after the fall of the Western Empire it remained a high honorary title in...
elite, something already noted by William Caxton
William Caxton
William Caxton was an English merchant, diplomat, writer and printer. As far as is known, he was the first English person to work as a printer and the first to introduce a printing press into England...
in the 1480s. Equally, the younger sons and grandsons of peers often turned to the law or business in a way that would have been considered a personal disgrace in most European countries. An economy that expanded rapidly for several centuries, and in the Early Modern period also offered opportunities in the growing British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, enabled an unusually large proportion of opportunities to those from much poorer backgrounds (those men at least) who had managed to acquire some education to rise through the class system. In the Middle Ages, a large proportion of what we would call middle-class adminstative roles that required literacy were performed by clergy who, if they had children at all, were typically not able to provide them with a social status to match their fathers'. Thus the expanding medieval requirement for administrative personnel required constant recruitment. A recent study, largely based on analysis of the surnames in various historical sources, found that there was "complete long run social mobility
Social mobility
Social mobility refers to the movement of people in a population from one social class or economic level to another. It typically refers to vertical mobility -- movement of individuals or groups up from one socio-economic level to another, often by changing jobs or marrying; but can also refer to...
in medieval and early Modern England", although it was slow by modern standards, with artisan
Artisan
An artisan is a skilled manual worker who makes items that may be functional or strictly decorative, including furniture, clothing, jewellery, household items, and tools...
names such as "Smith" gradually achieving roughly the same proportion of Oxbridge
Oxbridge
Oxbridge is a portmanteau of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in England, and the term is now used to refer to them collectively, often with implications of perceived superior social status...
students that they had in the general population.
The very heavy cull of the English noble warrior elite during the Wars of the Roses
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the houses of Lancaster and York...
was blamed by contemporaries for the rise of a class of "new men" in the 16th century, drawn from the gentry, merchant and lawyer classes, of which the Tudor dynasty
Tudor dynasty
The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised...
were themselves arguably examples, descending in the male line from Owen Tudor
Owen Tudor
Sir Owen Meredith Tudor was a Welsh soldier and courtier, descended from a daughter of the Welsh prince Rhys ap Gruffudd, "Lord Rhys". However, Owen Tudor is particularly remembered for his role in founding England's Tudor dynasty – including his relationship with, and probable secret marriage to,...
, who married the widow of Henry V of England
Henry V of England
Henry V was King of England from 1413 until his death at the age of 35 in 1422. He was the second monarch belonging to the House of Lancaster....
, having entered her household as keeper of the Queen's wardrobe. The largely new wealthy English families by the end of the century then enjoyed a period of several centuries of stability in which many were able to retain and consolidate their position. The historian David Cannadine
David Cannadine
Sir David Nicholas Cannadine, FBA is a British historian, known for a number of books, including The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy and Ornamentalism. He is also notable as a commentator and broadcaster on British public life, especially the monarchy. He serves as the generaleditor...
sees the period around 1880 as the final peak of this success, after which the position of the old families declined rapidly, from a number of causes, reaching a nadir in the years after World War II, symbolized by the widespread destruction of country houses
Destruction of country houses in 20th-century Britain
The destruction of country houses in 20th-century Britain was a phenomenon brought about by a change in social conditions during which a large number of country houses of varying architectural merit were demolished...
. However their wealth, if not their political power, rebounded very strongly from the 1980s, benefiting from greatly increased values of the land and art which many still owned in quantity.
Meanwhile the complex British middle-classes had also been enjoying a long period of growth and increasing prosperity, and achieving political power at the national level to a degree unusual in Europe. They avoided the strict stratification of many Continental middle-classes, and formed a large and amorphous group closely connected at their edges with both the gentry and aristocracy and the labouring classes. In particular the great financial centre of the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
was open to outsiders to an unusual degree, and continually expanding and creating new employment.
The British working class, on the other hand, was not notable in Europe for prosperity, and Early Modern British travellers often remarked on the high standard of living of the farm-workers and artisans of the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. Living standards certainly improved greatly over the period, more so in England than other parts of the United Kingdom, but the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
was marked by extremely harsh working conditions and poor housing until about the middle of the 19th century.
Archaic
At the time of the formation of the United Kingdom in 1707, England and Scotland had similar class based social structures. Some basic categories covering most of the population of the UK around this time are as follows:| Class | Characteristics |
|---|---|
| Cottagers and labourers | Cottagers were a step below husbandmen, in that they had to work for others for wages. Lowest order of the working castes; perhaps vagabonds, drifters, criminals or other outcasts would be lower. |
| Husbandman Husbandman A Husbandman in England in the medieval and early modern period was a free tenant farmer. The social status of a husbandman was below that of a yeoman.... (or other tradesmen) |
A tradesman or farmer who either rented a home or owned very little land was a husbandman. In ancient feudal times, this person likely would have been a serf, and paid a large portion of his work or produce to the land-holding lord. |
| Yeoman Yeoman Yeoman refers chiefly to a free man owning his own farm, especially from the Elizabethan era to the 17th century. Work requiring a great deal of effort or labor, such as would be done by a yeoman farmer, came to be described as "yeoman's work"... |
The yeoman class generally included small farmers who held a reasonable amount of land and were able to protect themselves from neighbouring lords et cetera. They played a military role as longbowmen. Sometimes Merchant Merchant A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant... citizens are placed between Yeoman and Gentry in early modern social hierarchy. |
| Gentry Gentry Gentry denotes "well-born and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past.... /Gentleman Gentleman The term gentleman , in its original and strict signification, denoted a well-educated man of good family and distinction, analogous to the Latin generosus... |
The gentry by definition held enough assets to live on rents without working, and so could be well educated. If they worked it was in law, as priests, in politics, or in other educated pursuits without manual labour. The term Esquire was used for landowners who were not knighted. Many gentry families were armigerous and of ancient lineage possessing great wealth and large estates. |
| Knight Knight A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior.... |
The definition of a knight depends upon the century in which the term was applied. In very early medieval times a knight was a common soldier; later as cavalry became more important the knight's role became more associated with wealth. By the seventeenth century a knight was a senior member of the gentry, and the military role would be one of sheriff of a county, or organizing a larger body of military forces, or in civil service exercising judicial authority. He was a large land owner, and his younger sons would often be lawyers, priests, or officials of some sort. |
| Baronet Baronet A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown... (hereditary, non peer) |
A baronet held a hereditary style of knighthood, giving the highest rank below a peerage. |
| Peer Peerage The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system... (Noble Nobility Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be... /Archbishop Archbishop An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop... ) |
The peers were generally large land holders, living solely off assets, sat in the House of Lords and either held court or played a role in court depending upon the time frame referenced. |
| Royal Royal family A royal family is the extended family of a king or queen regnant. The term imperial family appropriately describes the extended family of an emperor or empress, while the terms "ducal family", "grand ducal family" or "princely family" are more appropriate to describe the relatives of a reigning... |
A member of the royal family, a prince, a close relative of the queen or king. |
20th century
The social grade classification created by the National Readership Survey over 50 years ago achieved widespread usage during the 20th Century in marketingMarketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
and government reports and statistics.
| Grade | Occupation |
|---|---|
| A | Higher managerial, administrative or professional |
| B | Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional |
| C1 | Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative or professional |
| C2 | Skilled manual workers |
| D | Semi and unskilled manual workers |
| E | Casual or lowest grade workers, pensioners and others who depend on the state for their income |
21st century
The UK Office of National Statistics (ONS) produced a new socio-economic classification in 2001. The reason was to provide a more comprehensive and detailed classification to take newer employment patterns into account.| Group | Description | NRS equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Higher Professional and Managerial workers | A |
| 2 | Lower Managerial and Professional workers | B |
| 3 | Intermediate occupations | C1 and C2 |
| 4 | Small Employers and non professional self-employed | C1 and C2 |
| 5 | Lower Supervisory and technical | C1 and C2 |
| 6 | Semi Routine Occupations | D |
| 7 | Routine Occupations | D |
| 8 | Long term unemployed | E |
Lower middle class
The lower middle class in Britain consists of people in white collar jobs living in less prosperous suburbs. Prior to 1970s expansion in higher education, members of this class often did not have a university education. They are employed in white-collar but relatively unskilled service industry jobs such as retail sales, rail ticket agents, railway guards, airline stewardesses and ticket agents, travel agents, hotel clerks, shipping clerks, and low level civil service jobs in local and regional government.These people would speak in local accents, although relatively mild. Typical Mosaic Geodemographic types for this group would include Sprawling Subtopia or for Successful British Asians Asian Enterprise. The comedy character Hyacinth Bucket
Hyacinth Bucket
Hyacinth Bucket, who insists her last name is pronounced "Bouquet" , is the main character in the BBC sitcom Keeping Up Appearances , played by Patricia Routledge.-Personality:...
is a satirical stereotype for this social group. Votes in this area are split and minority parties will have a stronger proportion.
Middle middle class
Middle middle class in Britain often consists of people with tertiary education. They speak in accents which could range from received pronunciationReceived Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation , also called the Queen's English, Oxford English or BBC English, is the accent of Standard English in England, with a relationship to regional accents similar to the relationship in other European languages between their standard varieties and their regional forms...
, to provincial as well as Estuary English
Estuary English
Estuary English is a dialect of English widely spoken in South East England, especially along the River Thames and its estuary. Phonetician John C. Wells defines Estuary English as "Standard English spoken with the accent of the southeast of England"...
. They may have been educated in either state or private schools.
Typical jobs include accountants, architects, doctors, lawyers, teachers, social workers, managers, businessmen, engineers, or civil servants. For certain of these fields, notably law and medicine, there is a considerable overlap with the Upper Middle Class. Displays of conspicuous consumption
Conspicuous consumption
Conspicuous consumption is spending on goods and services acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth. In the mind of a conspicuous consumer, such display serves as a means of attaining or maintaining social status....
are considered vulgar by them; instead they prefer to channel excess income into investments, including and especially property.
They are highly politically and socially engaged and might be regular churchgoers, sit on local committees and governing boards or stand for political office. Education is greatly valued by the middle classes: they will make every effort to ensure their children get a university education; although they are sometimes unable to afford private schooling, they may go to great lengths to get their children into good state schools, such as moving house into the catchment area.
They also value culture and make up a significant proportion of the book-buying and theatre-going public. They prefer TV documentaries and dramas over reality shows, BBC radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
over pop stations and broadsheet newspapers over tabloids. Typical Mosaic geodemographic types would include Provincial Privilege. The comedy character Margo Leadbetter is a satirical stereotype for this group, as is Jilly Cooper
Jilly Cooper
Jilly Cooper OBE is an English author. She started her career as a journalist and wrote numerous works of non-fiction before writing several romance novels, the first of which appeared in 1975. She is most famous for writing the Rutshire Chronicles.-Early life:Jilly Sallitt was born in Hornchurch,...
's Howard Weybridge.
Upper middle class
The upper middle class in Britain consists of people who were born into families that traditionally possessed higher incomes, although this group is defined more by family background than by job or income. This stratum, in England, traditionally uses the Received PronunciationReceived Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation , also called the Queen's English, Oxford English or BBC English, is the accent of Standard English in England, with a relationship to regional accents similar to the relationship in other European languages between their standard varieties and their regional forms...
dialect natively. The upper middle class in Britain traditionally consisted of professionals with tertiary education
Tertiary education
Tertiary education, also referred to as third stage, third level, and post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education, such as a high school, secondary school, university-preparatory school...
.
The upper middle class are traditionally educated at more prestigious private schools, called "public schools" in the United Kingdom. Public schools were predominantly founded to serve the educational needs of the upper middle class, whose children have always constituted the majority of their customers. Recently, within the last ten years, parents have begun to prefer to send their children to good day schools, rather than away to boarding school.
A typical Mosaic geodemographic
Mosaic (geodemography)
Mosaic UK is Experian’s system for classification of UK households. It is one of a number of commercially available geodemographic segmentation systems, applying the principles of geodemography to consumer household and individual data collated from a number of governmental and commercial sources...
type for this group would be cultural leadership. This is a very specific class in England and is, in many respects, peculiar to England as its characteristics do not fit easily within the social gradations of the other constituent nations of the United Kingdom. Frequently its members are members of professions (traditionally academia, the clergy, finance, law, medicine and officers in the military).
Many upper middle class families may have previous ancestry that often directly relates to the upper classes. Although not necessarily of the landowning classes - as a result, perhaps, of lack of a male heir - many families' titles/styles have not been inherited and therefore many families' past status became dissolved.
Although such categorisations are not precise, popular contemporary examples of upper middle class people might include Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician, who has been the elected Mayor of London since 2008...
, Nick Clegg
Nick Clegg
Nicholas William Peter "Nick" Clegg is a British Liberal Democrat politician who is currently the Deputy Prime Minister, Lord President of the Council and Minister for Constitutional and Political Reform in the coalition government of which David Cameron is the Prime Minister...
and David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
(politicians), Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter is an English actress of film, stage, and television. She made her acting debut in a television adaptation of K. M. Peyton's A Pattern of Roses before winning her first film role as the titular character in Lady Jane...
(British actress), Matthew Pinsent
Matthew Pinsent
Sir Matthew Clive Pinsent CBE is an English rower and broadcaster. During his rowing career, he won 10 world championship gold medals and four consecutive Olympic gold medals, of which three were with Steve Redgrave...
(British Olympian and TV personality) and Nigella Lawson
Nigella Lawson
Nigella Lucy Lawson is an English food writer, journalist and broadcaster. Lawson is the daughter of Nigel Lawson, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Vanessa Salmon, whose family owned the J. Lyons and Co. empire...
(British television personality).
Underclass
The "underclass" was first identified in the 1990s, a group consisting of a sub-species known as Chavs, the long-term unemployed, elderly pensioners, economic immigrants and those dependent on state benefits, typically living in public housing or council estates.Fictional character, Frank Gallagher
Frank Gallagher (Shameless)
Vernon Francis "Frank" Gallagher , is a fictional character from the Channel 4 drama Shameless.-Storylines:Frank's hallmarks are drunken rants on a wide variety of literary, historical and philosophical subjects, usually returning to how decent, hard-working people, among whom he erroneously seems...
from the television programme, Shameless
Shameless
Shameless is a British television drama series set in Manchester on the fictional Chatsworth council estate. Produced by Company Pictures for Channel 4, the first seven-episode series aired weekly on Tuesday nights at 10pm from 13 January 2004...
would present a vivid example of life in this strata of British society. Typical Mosaic Geodemographic types for these people are Tower Block Living or Sharing a stair case.
The identification of an 'underclass', however, has not been without controversy, as some have attributed the term more to right-wing rhetoric than reality.
Upper class
Peerage
The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...
, gentry
Gentry
Gentry denotes "well-born and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past....
, and hereditary landowners. These people were traditionally the wealthiest in the land having inherited money and position. The majority of aristocratic families originated in the merchant class, and were ennobled between the 14th and 19th century. Those in possession of a hereditary (as opposed, importantly, to a conferred) peerage – for example a Duke
Duke
A duke or duchess is a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch, and historically controlling a duchy...
dom, a Marquess
Marquess
A marquess or marquis is a nobleman of hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The term is also used to translate equivalent oriental styles, as in imperial China, Japan, and Vietnam...
ate, an Earl
Earl
An earl is a member of the nobility. The title is Anglo-Saxon, akin to the Scandinavian form jarl, and meant "chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead. In Scandinavia, it became obsolete in the Middle Ages and was replaced with duke...
dom, a Viscount
Viscount
A viscount or viscountess is a member of the European nobility whose comital title ranks usually, as in the British peerage, above a baron, below an earl or a count .-Etymology:...
y or a Baron
Baron
Baron is a title of nobility. The word baron comes from Old French baron, itself from Old High German and Latin baro meaning " man, warrior"; it merged with cognate Old English beorn meaning "nobleman"...
y (though any of these may be conferred) – will, almost invariably, be members of the upper class, though a Life Peerage is that of the rank of Baron, most Life Peers are not upper class.
Traditionally, upper class children were brought up at home by a Nanny for the first few years of life, and then schooled at home by private tutors. From the 19th century, it became increasingly popular for upper-class families to mimic the middle-classes, in sending their children to public schools, which had been predominantly founded to serve the educational needs of the upper-middle class. When children are old enough, they may attend a prep school or pre-preparatory school. Moving into secondary education, it is still commonplace for upper-class children to attend one of Britain's public schools, although it is not unheard of for certain families to send their children to grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
s. Insofar as continuing education goes, this can vary from family to family; it may, in part, be based on the educational history of the family. In the past, both the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
and clergy
Clergy
Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....
have been the institutions of choice, but the same can equally apply to the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
, or work in the Diplomatic Corps
Diplomatic corps
The diplomatic corps or corps diplomatique is the collective body of foreign diplomats accredited to a particular country or body.The diplomatic corps may, in certain contexts, refer to the collection of accredited heads of mission who represent their countries in another state or country...
. Otherwise, Oxford, Cambridge, and other "traditional" universities (such as Durham University
Durham University
The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...
, the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
, and St Andrews University) are the most popular sources of higher education for the upper class, although a high academic standard is required and social class does not as readily secure entry as it once did.
Sports — particularly those involving the outdoors — are often regarded as a popular pastime of the upper class. Traditionally, at school, rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
is much more popular than football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
: indeed, the two sports are often taken to represent the two extremes of social classes 'at play', although paradoxically rugby is not played at Winchester. Other frequented sports include lawn tennis, croquet
Croquet
Croquet is a lawn game, played both as a recreational pastime and as a competitive sport. It involves hitting plastic or wooden balls with a mallet through hoops embedded into the grass playing court.-History:...
, cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
and golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
. Equestrian activities are popular with both sexes and there is a long-standing tradition of the upper class having close links to horses. Men who ride will more often participate in polo
Polo
Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, "The Sport of Kings", it was highly popularized by the British. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a...
. Hunting
Fox hunting
Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase, and sometimes killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds, and a group of followers led by a master of foxhounds, who follow the hounds on foot or on horseback.Fox hunting originated in its current...
and shooting
Shooting
Shooting is the act or process of firing rifles, shotguns or other projectile weapons such as bows or crossbows. Even the firing of artillery, rockets and missiles can be called shooting. A person who specializes in shooting is a marksman...
, too, are favoured pastimes. Some upper class families with large estates will run their own shoots (typically they would need 1000 acres (4 km²), or more, though some shoots do operate on about half that), but many will know someone who keeps pheasants
Common Pheasant
The Common Pheasant , is a bird in the pheasant family . It is native to Georgia and has been widely introduced elsewhere as a game bird. In parts of its range, namely in places where none of its relatives occur such as in Europe , it is simply known as the "pheasant"...
, or other game
Game (food)
Game is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated. Game animals are also hunted for sport.The type and range of animals hunted for food varies in different parts of the world. This will be influenced by climate, animal diversity, local taste and locally accepted view about what can or...
, and may instead shoot with them. There is also a particular affinity for dogs (especially Labradors
Labrador Retriever
The Labrador Retriever is one of several kinds of retriever, a type of gun dog. A breed characteristic is webbed paws for swimming, useful for the breed's original purpose of retrieving fishing nets. The Labrador is the most popular breed of dog by registered ownership in Canada, the United...
and spaniels
English Springer Spaniel
The English Springer Spaniel is a breed of gun dog traditionally used for flushing and retrieving game. It is an affectionate, excitable breed with an average lifespan of twelve to fourteen years. Descended from the Norfolk or Shropshire Spaniels of the mid-19th century, the breed has diverged into...
) amongst the upper class — and, equally, sporting pursuits that involve them.
Money and material possessions are often thought of as a less important factor for the United Kingdom's upper class than for the upper classes of other countries; although this allows for an upper class family to be impoverished, wealth is often a practical necessity for an aristocratic lifestyle and an upper class family is likely to have had wealth at some point in its history. Vast financial prosperity (only slightly dependent on how it is earned) is sometimes the subject of derision and contempt.
Working class
Skilled working class
This class of people would be in skilled blue collar jobs, traditionally in the construction and manufacturing industry, but in recent decades showing entrepreneurial development as the stereotypical white van manWhite van man
"White van man" is a term popularised in the United Kingdom by the journalist Jonathan Leake, then transport editor at The Sunday Times, to describe drivers of light commercial vehicles such as the Ford Transit....
, or self employed contractors. These people would speak in local accents and have craft apprenticeship
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
s rather than university education. Typical Mosaic types for this group include White Van Culture or Affluent Blue Collar.
Trade union membership and Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
support is high, but some elements, particularly those located in the South East of England and the West Midlands are slightly more likely to vote Conservative than the unskilled working class. The lifestyle they aspire to is that of nouveau-riche celebrities rather than the traditional upper and middle classes. Fictional examples of working-class entrepreneurs include Phil
Phil Mitchell
Philip James "Phil" Mitchell is a long-running fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Steve McFadden.Phil first arrived in Albert Square on 20 February 1990, and was soon joined by his brother, Grant, sister Sam and mother Peggy...
and Grant Mitchell
Grant Mitchell (EastEnders)
Grant Anthony Mitchell is a fictional character from the British soap opera EastEnders, played by Ross Kemp. Grant first appeared in 1990, introduced by producer Michael Ferguson to revamp the show. Kemp remained until 1999 when he opted to leave...
in Eastenders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
, who are involved in a number of business enterprises, and Del Boy Trotter, for all that he is aspirational rather than successful. The Coogan's Run
Coogan's Run
Coogan's Run was a 1995 UK TV series featuring Steve Coogan as a series of odd characters living in the fictional town of Ottle. It was written by various people including Coogan, Patrick Marber, David Tyler, Graham Linehan, Arthur Mathews, Geoffrey Perkins and Henry Normal...
character Ernest Moss represents the traditional skilled workman.
Unskilled and semi-skilled working class
Traditionally, these people would work in blue collar jobs. They would typically have left school as soon as legally permissible and not have been able to take part in higher education. Many would go on to work semi-skilled and unskilled jobs on the assembly lines and machine shops of Britain's major car factories, steel mills, foundries and textile mills in the highly industrialised cities in the West Midlands and North of England.However, since the mid-1970s de-industrialisation has shattered many of these communities, resulting in a complete deterioration in quality of life
Quality of life
The term quality of life is used to evaluate the general well-being of individuals and societies. The term is used in a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, and politics. Quality of life should not be confused with the concept of standard of...
and a reversal in rising living standards for the industrial working class. Many, either dropped in status to the working poor
Working poor
- Definition in the United States :There are several popular definitions of "working poor" in the United States. According to the US Department of Labor, the working poor "are persons who spent at least 27 weeks [in the past year] in the labor force , but whose incomes fell below the official...
or fell into permanent reliance on welfare dependence. Some dropped out altogether and joined the black market economy, while a limited few did manage to climb up to the lower middle class
Lower middle class
In developed nations across the world, the lower middle class is a sub-division of the greater middle class. Universally the term refers to the group of middle class households or individuals who have not attained the status of the upper middle class associated with the higher realms of the middle...
.
Some Examples of Mosaic geodemographic groups for these people would be Coronation Street or Rustbelt Resilience.
Fictional stereotypes include Andy Capp
Andy Capp
Andy Capp is a British comic strip created by cartoonist Reg Smythe , seen in The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Mirror newspapers since 5 August 1957. Originally a single-panel cartoon, Smyth later expanded it to four panels....
and Albert Steptoe, who is not only unaspirational himself but crushes the aspirations of his son Harold. They are the mainstay of the trade unions and Labour Party vote, but there are also working class conservatives, particularly in the South East of England in the Medway
Medway
Medway is a conurbation and unitary authority in South East England. The Unitary Authority was formed in 1998 when the City of Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with Gillingham Borough Council and part of Kent County Council to form Medway Council, a unitary authority independent of Kent County...
towns of Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
and the east London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
border areas of suburban Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, as exemplified by Alf Garnett
Alf Garnett
Alf Garnett is a fictional character in the British sitcoms Till Death Us Do Part, Till Death... and In Sickness and in Health, and chat show The Thoughts of Chairman Alf. He was created by Johnny Speight and played by Warren Mitchell....
.
It has been argued that with the decline in manufacturing and increase in the service sector, lower-paid white collar jobs are effectively working class. Call centre
Call centre
A call centre or call center is a centralised office used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. A call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers. Outgoing calls for telemarketing,...
s in particular, have sprung up in former centres of industry.
Received pronounciation
Received PronunciationReceived Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation , also called the Queen's English, Oxford English or BBC English, is the accent of Standard English in England, with a relationship to regional accents similar to the relationship in other European languages between their standard varieties and their regional forms...
, also known as R.P. or BBC English, was a term introduced as way of defining standard English, but accent has acquired a certain prestige from being associated with the middle (and above) classes in the South East, the wealthiest part of England. Use of RP in by people from the 'regions' outside the South East can be indicative of a certain educational background, such as public school or elocution lessons.
"The Queen's English" was once a synonym for RP. However, the Queen and some other older members of the aristocracy are now perceived as speaking in a way that is both more old fashioned and higher class than "general" R.P. Phoneticians call this accent "Conservative Received Pronounciation".
BBC English was also a synonym for R.P. At one time people seeking a career in acting on broadcasting would learn R.P. as a matter of course if they did not speak it already. However, the BBC and other broadcasters are now
much more willing to use regional accents.
U and non-U
| U | Non-U |
|---|---|
| Vegetables | Greens |
| Scent | Perfume |
| Graveyard | Cemetery |
| Spectacles | Glasses |
| False Teeth | Dentures |
| Napkin | Serviette |
| Sofa | Settee or Couch |
| Lavatory or Loo | Toilet |
| Lunch | Dinner (for midday meal) |
| Pudding | Sweet |
Language and writing style have been, consistently, one of the most reliable indicators of class, although pronunciation did not become one until the later 19th century. The variations between the language employed by the upper classes and those not of the upper classes has, perhaps, been best documented by linguistic Professor Alan Ross's
Alan S C Ross
Alan Strode Campbell Ross was a British academic specialising in linguistics. He is best remembered as the ultimate source and inspiration for Nancy Mitford's 'U and non-U' forms of behaviour and language usage....
1954 article on U and non-U English
U and non-U English
U and non-U English usage, with U standing for upper class, and non-U representing the aspiring middle classes, were part of the terminology of popular discourse of social dialects in 1950s Britain and New England. The debate did not concern itself with the speech of the working classes, which in...
usage, with "U" representing Upper and upper middle class vocabulary of the time, and ""Non-U representing lower middle class vocabulary. The discussion was furthered in Noblesse Oblige
Noblesse oblige
Noblesse oblige is a French phrase literally meaning "nobility obliges".The Dictionnaire de l’Académie française defines it thus:# Whoever claims to be noble must conduct himself nobly....
- and featured contributions from, among others, Nancy Mitford
Nancy Mitford
Nancy Freeman-Mitford, CBE , styled The Hon. Nancy Mitford before her marriage and The Hon. Mrs Peter Rodd thereafter, was an English novelist and biographer, one of the Bright Young People on the London social scene in the inter-war years...
. The debate was revisited in the mid-1970s, in a publication by Debrett's called 'U and Non-U revisited'. Ross contributed to this volume too, and it is remarkable to notice how little the language (amongst other factors) changed in the passing of a quarter of a century.
English regional accents
In England, the upper class or prestige accent is almost always a form of RP: however, some areas have their'own' prestige accent, distinct from both RP and the working class accent of the region.
England has a wide variety of regional accents for a small country, mostly with working class or lower middle class connotations:-
- ScouseScouseScouse is an accent and dialect of English found primarily in the Metropolitan county of Merseyside, and closely associated with the city of Liverpool and the adjoining urban areas such as the boroughs of south Sefton, Knowsley and the Wirral...
- The dialect of Liverpool, especially strong in Merseyside's working-class population. Sounds similar to an IrishIrish peopleThe Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
accent. This reflects the strong effect the Irish diasporaIrish diasporathumb|Night Train with Reaper by London Irish artist [[Brian Whelan]] from the book Myth of Return, 2007The Irish diaspora consists of Irish emigrants and their descendants in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa,...
played in Liverpool's history. - BrummieBrummieBrummie is a colloquial term for the inhabitants, accent and dialect of Birmingham, England, as well as being a general adjective used to denote a connection with the city, locally called Brum...
- Accent and dialect of Birmingham and surrounding areas. - CockneyCockneyThe term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...
is traditionally the working class accent of East London. It also has distinct variations in grammar and vocabulary. - The London accent is a more broadly defined working and lower middle class accent than Cockney.
- Estuary EnglishEstuary EnglishEstuary English is a dialect of English widely spoken in South East England, especially along the River Thames and its estuary. Phonetician John C. Wells defines Estuary English as "Standard English spoken with the accent of the southeast of England"...
-A working class and lower middle class accent from Southeast England, basically a milder closer to R.P.) form of the London accent, showing a tendency to supplant received pronunciation. - MockneyMockneyMockney is an affected accent and form of speech in imitation of Cockney or working class London speech, or a person with such an accent...
is a term used in popular media for a deliberate affectation of the working-class London (Cockney) accent by Middle class people to gain "street credibility". However, phoneticians regard the infusion of Estuary features into received pronunciation among younger speakers to be a natural process. They term the resulting sub-variety of R.P. "advanced received pronunciation". - Multicultural London English (abbreviated MLE), colloquially called JafaicanJafaicanMulticultural London English , colloquially called Jafaican, is a dialect of English that emerged in the late 20th century. It is spoken mainly in inner London, with the exception of areas such as Brent, Newham, Haringey and Enfield...
, is a dialectDialectThe term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
(and/or sociolectSociolectIn sociolinguistics, a sociolect or social dialect is a variety of language associated with a social group such as a socioeconomic class, an ethnic group, an age group, etc....
) of EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
that emerged in the late 20th century, and is used mainly by young, inner-city, working-class people in inner London. It is said to contain many elements from the languages of the CaribbeanCaribbeanThe Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
(JamaicaJamaicaJamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
and Trinidad & Tobago), South AsiaSouth AsiaSouth Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
(Indian subcontinentIndian subcontinentThe Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
), and West AfricaWest AfricaWest Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
, as well as remnants of traditional Cockney. Although the street name, "Jafaican", implies that it is "fake" JamaicanJamaican EnglishJamaican English or Jamaican Standard English is a dialect of English spoken in Jamaica. It melds parts of both American English and British English dialects, along with many aspects of Irish intonation...
, researchers indicate that it is not the language of white kids trying to "play cool" but rather that "[it is] more likely that young people have been growing up in London exposed to a mixture of second-language English and local London English and that this new variety has emerged from that mix".
Heraldry and social class
An English citizen with arms registered in the College of ArmsCollege of Arms
The College of Arms, or Heralds’ College, is an office regulating heraldry and granting new armorial bearings for England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
, or a Scotsman in the Lyon Court, can be referred to as armiger
Armiger
In heraldry, an armiger is a person entitled to use a coat of arms. Such a person is said to be armigerous.-Etymology:The Latin word armiger literally means "armour-bearer". In high and late medieval England, the word referred to an esquire attendant upon a knight, but bearing his own unique...
ous. Any British citizen can apply for arms from their respective authority but only those of sufficient social standing would be granted arms. Arms in and of themselves are imperfectly aligned with social status, in that many of high status will have no right to arms whilst, on the other hand, those entitled to arms by descent can include branches of families which have fallen far down the social scale.
Nevertheless, a right to bear arms under the Law of Arms
Law of Arms
The law of heraldic arms governs the "bearing of arms", that is, the possession, use or display of arms, also called coats of arms, coat armour or armorial bearings. Although it is believed that the original function of coats of arms was to enable knights to identify each other on the battlefield,...
is, by definition, linked either to the personal acquisition of social status, inspiring application for a personal grant of arms, or to descent from a person who did so in the past. Rightly or wrongly, therefore, the use of a coat of arms is linked to social prestige.
In the early twentieth century, it was argued by heraldic writers such as Arthur Charles Fox-Davies
Arthur Charles Fox-Davies
Arthur Charles Fox-Davies was a British author on heraldry. By profession, he was a barrister but he also worked as a journalist and novelist.Born in Bristol, he was the second son of T...
that only those with a right to a coat of arms could correctly be described (if men) as gentlemen and of noble status; however, even at the time this argument was controversial, and it was rejected by other writers such as Oswald Barron
Oswald Barron
Arthur Oswald Barron , always known as Oswald Barron, was a journalist and scholar on heraldic and genealogical subjects....
and Horace Round. In the Order of Malta, where proof of technical nobility is a requirement of certain grades of membership, British members must still base their proof upon an ancestral right to a coat of arms.
Criticisms of the British social structure
In an interview in 1975 Helmut SchmidtHelmut Schmidt
Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt is a German Social Democratic politician who served as Chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982. Prior to becoming chancellor, he had served as Minister of Defence and Minister of Finance. He had also served briefly as Minister of Economics and as acting...
, the then Chancellor of West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
stated that:
“If one asks oneself what are the true reasons for the differentiated development of societies and economies between the British and most ones on the Continent, I think it has something to do with the fact that British society, much more than the Scandinavian, German, Austrian, and Dutch societies, is characterized by a class-struggle type of society. This is true for both sides of the upper class as well as for the working classes. I think that the way in which organized Labour on the one hand and industrial management on the other had dealt with their problems is outmoded.”
Later in the same interview, Schmidt noted that “You have to treat workers as equal members of society. You have to give them the self—esteem which they can only have if they acquire responsibility. Then you will be able to ask the trade unions to behave and to abstain from those idiotic policies. Then they will accept some guidance from outsiders – from the government or the party or whatever it is. But as long as you maintain the damned class-ridden society of yours you will never get out of your mess.”
See also
- Income in the United KingdomIncome in the United KingdomIn terms of global poverty criteria, the United Kingdom is a wealthy country, with virtually no people living on less than £4 a day. There is both significant income redistribution and income inequality. Thus in 2008/09 income in the top and bottom fifth of households was £73,800 and £5,000...
- Poverty in the United KingdomPoverty in the United KingdomThe United Kingdom is a developed country with comparatively large income differences. As such, those at the lower end of the income distribution have a relatively low standard of living. However, the severe privations of those in the developing world are scarcely to be seen due to the more...
- Mosaic (geodemography)Mosaic (geodemography)Mosaic UK is Experian’s system for classification of UK households. It is one of a number of commercially available geodemographic segmentation systems, applying the principles of geodemography to consumer household and individual data collated from a number of governmental and commercial sources...
- System designed to classify Britain by Postcode, into 11 main groups and 61 types.
UK social stereotypes
- ToffToffIn British English slang, a toff is a mildly derogatory term for someone with an aristocratic background or belonging to the landed gentry, particularly someone who exudes an air of superiority...
- RahRah (slang)Rah is a pejorative term referring to a stereotypical affluent young upper class or upper-middle class person in the United Kingdom...
- Sloane RangerSloane RangerThe term Sloane Ranger refers to a stereotype in the UK of young, upper class or upper-middle-class women, or men who share distinctive and common lifestyle traits...
- Worcester womanWorcester woman"Worcester woman" is a political term used by polling companies in the United Kingdom. It profiles or describes a type of median voter, a white collar professional who worries about quality of life issues....
- Essex ManEssex manEssex man and Mondeo man are stereotypical figures which were popularised in 1990s England. "Essex man" as a political figure is an example of a type of median voter and was used to help explain the electoral successes of Margaret Thatcher in the previous decade...
- White van manWhite van man"White van man" is a term popularised in the United Kingdom by the journalist Jonathan Leake, then transport editor at The Sunday Times, to describe drivers of light commercial vehicles such as the Ford Transit....
- ChavChavA chav is a term that is used in the United Kingdom to describe a stereotype of teenagers and young adults from an underclass background.-Etymology:...
, charver (North-East England and Yorkshire), scallie (North West England), NedNed (Scottish)Ned is a derogatory term applied in Scotland to hooligans, louts or petty criminals, latterly with the stereotypical implication that they wear casual sports clothes. Such usage in Glasgow dates back to the 1960s or earlier.-Early use of term:...
(Scotland) or SpideSpideA spide , is a pejorative stereotype, in Northern Ireland, especially in Belfast, of a person who has a particular dress code and attitude. Spides are often young, unemployed, male adults...
(Northern Ireland)
External links
- David CannadineDavid CannadineSir David Nicholas Cannadine, FBA is a British historian, known for a number of books, including The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy and Ornamentalism. He is also notable as a commentator and broadcaster on British public life, especially the monarchy. He serves as the generaleditor...
, The Rise and Fall of Class in Britain - JP Somerville, University of Wisconsin page on early modern social class in Britain
- Mosaic Geodemographics Summary
- Article from The Times on Taste and class
- Article from The Times - are we all Middle class now
- Article from the Times - Can you buy your way into the Upper Class
- Article from the Times
- article from Daily Telegraph on social mobility