What is a smeg fridge?

A fridge[/quote]

A smeg fridge is a device for refrigerating smeg. A Smeg fridge, is a refrigerator made by the German firm Smeg.

I own 2 or 3 of the items on the list – smart TV and BBQ, and some of my coasters match each other, but they don’t all match.

I also have a Masters degree and teach physics in a sixth form college. I’m pretty sure that makes me middle class?

right, let’s get the middle class list sorted properly then. Some or more of the following, perhaps?

– more than one property

– an item of furniture that’s older than your parents

– numerous Penguin classics books, or any volumes of poetry. Or a coffee-table book

– an old radio that doesn’t get used for anything other than Radio 4

– sandals

– an item of expensive outdoor gear that only gets used to walk the dog

– a watch that cost more than £100 <– value may need tweaking, watchists please advise

– any coffee related equipment (besides kettle) that needs plugging in

– uncarpeted wood floors

– various car options. German estate? Anything 4wd? Anything that costs more than a year’s average wage?

dragon – Member

P-Jay your analysis is too simplistic as there is a middle class who don’t necessarily have to work, but do and are still a long way from upper class. Think older doctors, lawyers, vets, accountants, also add in some engineers, scientists and professors. But it is also a mindset thing, that can rather simplistically be defined as learning on the tools, vs learning on via formal education.

IMO Simple is honest, the British class system isn’t complex, it’s simple bar the ‘middle’ bit where it’s vague, there aren’t any rules for ‘middle class’.

I think I covered your example in my million-word rant, they’re well paid working class, that’s it. I might accept ‘Professionals’ as they most sit in the old stated professions.

“if you’re lucky you might just reach the point when you don’t have to work anymore”

They’ve lived on their wits like the rest of us and played the game well, well done they’ve amassed enough wealth that they’re less likely to hit the bottom. I know former Brick layers and Train Drivers who’ve done the same.

Where I think we agree, is that “it is also a mindset”.

Really, in my opinion that’s ALL it is, a mindset, the middle class strive to prove they’re better than the rest of the working class and when they try to prove it, all they come up with are these laughable examples – the right brand of Vacuum, the TV with a bit of an OS built into it, the right funny little folding bike, it borders on fashion, like the Courtiers of Versailles I see some devout followers of the middle class way clamber to the latest cookware, technology, organic nonsense and wear it like ah oh no, nearly subtle, badge, until someone they think beneath them jumps on the bandwagon and they drop it like it’s hot.

If you want to be middle class, that’s up to you, there is no rules for entry, just say you’re middle class and you are – others may refuse to accept your position, comparing various unwritten point scoring systems unfavourably with their own score, but for me it’s a fool’s paradise. It might make you feel a little bit smug that you’re “lower middle class” when your old school friends are working class, but cringe when your kids drop their H’s when you’re putting on a silly posh voice to talk to your “upper middle class” friends, it’s not real though, it doesn’t mean anything – the Political Class has a little giggle about you behind closed doors, as you vote for policies that keep them where they are and wealthy because you’re so proud of your little slice of the cake that you think that the person who lives half a mile away from you in the “rough estate” is either lazy, trying to rob you, or both.

I refuse to play, I work, I work hard sometimes, I have a good job, a have a few nice things that I want, but I couldn’t give a flying monkey **** who approves of them, and who doesn’t. I live in a lovely house, a nice “middle class” area, I’m from a “very desirable upper middle class” village, but I know it’s not real, and I won’t buy into this middle class BS, I’ve had it all taken away from me once, there aren’t special nice queues in the job centre and I’ll never vote for anyone who openly despises the working class like so many of them do now, they call them ‘lazy’ they call them ‘scroungers’ because it makes the masses think their interests lay on the same side as the political class and their paymasters.

Nothing makes me more sad than someone who has to work for a living, voting for a politician who wants to take away workers rights, because they some-how think it doesn’t apply to them because they’re ‘middle class’, we don’t have special workers rights for middle management, we’re just told we do.

Does one talk posh or not. Simple innit?

It’s a state of mind.
Visit Peterlee. If you recoil at what you see, you are middle class.

– more than one property not yet

– an item of furniture that’s older than your parents yes

– numerous Penguin classics books, or any volumes of poetry. Or a coffee-table book yes…well at least the kids do

– an old radio that doesn’t get used for anything other than Radio 4

tuned to radio 1

– sandals 2 pairs

– an item of expensive outdoor gear that only gets used to walk the dog yes but i dont have a dog

– a watch that cost more than £100 <– value may need tweaking, watchists please advise i have several

– any coffee related equipment (besides kettle) that needs plugging in no

– uncarpeted wood floors at the old house yes

– various car options. German estate? Anything 4wd? Anything that costs more than a year’s average wage? had a large german 4wd saloon for a few years

oh ball bearings!! 😯

i’m still working class!!

😆

maybe we need a tie-breaker. I suggest:

Steven Fry: Discuss.

or perhaps, bit of a trickier one –

Kanye West: Discuss

😉

what level of education do you have and what job do you do? these are the things that dictate your class mainly. You may have working class roots but if you have a university eduction and / or a white collar job you have become middle class

uncarpeted wood floors

Surely that’s just the working class who can’t afford carpets? One wouldn’t dream of having bare floors, but then one also wouldn’t wish to be considered so lowly as middle class.

what level of education do you have and what job do you do? these are the things that dictate your class mainly. You may have working class roots but if you have a university eduction and / or a white collar job you have become middle class

i have both of those but i still class myself as working class….maybe i’m in denial

EDIT: i just did a recount of that original list and my score is 5 which makes me very middle class…its getting worse!!
i’m going home to throw the matching coasters away

Suggesting we’re either upper class or working class is simplistic and unhelpful.

As others have said there are people who are are not defined by these two types – what are you if you don’t work and survive on benefits? Underclass I say.

Then there are people who don’t need to work – maybe they do to support the life style they want but they could move to a less expensive location and not work perhaps. Perhaps we should talk about the professional class as being the middle class – or perhaps upper middle class? So fully qualified doctors, accountants and lawyers for sure, some IT types too. There is a fundamental difference between people in these 4 groups so useful to say they are in different classes as they behave in different ways and want different things.

Language is considered an easier way of deciding class as wealth is not the point at all. Maybe I’m more aware of this having been brought up to use words that aren’t used by many around me – so do you eat pudding or dessert? Use a loo or a toilet? Table manners is another – do you use a knife to cut your bread roll or break it with your hands?

Matching coasters are a bridge collection ( 😉 ) – is that a double whammy? Spent the whole weekend playing bridge too – weather too bad for riding, so thats even worse. I was the youngest by about 20 years!!

Surely that’s just the working class who can’t afford carpets? One wouldn’t dream of having bare floors, but then one also wouldn’t wish to be considered so lowly as middle class.

ah yes, well, that’s where the circle comes back around. I refer the honourable gentleman to Orwell’s Road To Wigan Pier, chapter 6:

https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/o/orwell/george/o79r/chapter6.html

The miner’s family spend only tenpence a week on green vegetables and tenpence half-penny on milk

…..

The basis of their diet, therefore, is white bread and margarine, corned beef, sugared tea, and potatoes — an appalling diet. Would it not be better if they spent more money on wholesome things like oranges and wholemeal bread or if they even, like the writer of the letter to the New Statesman, saved on fuel and ate their carrots raw?

Yes, it would, but the point is that no ordinary human being is ever going to do such a thing. The ordinary human being would sooner starve than live on brown bread and raw carrots. And the peculiar evil is this, that the less money you have, the less inclined you feel to spend it on wholesome food. A millionaire may enjoy breakfasting off orange juice and Ryvita biscuits; an unemployed man doesn’t.

See also: walking holidays, old VW campers that can’t go 5 miles without conking out, &c.

😉

Surprised to see “Hot tub” on that list. Isn’t that a bit chav?

And barbeque is something you do, not something you own.

what level of education do you have and what job do you do? these are the things that dictate your class mainly. You may have working class roots but if you have a university eduction and / or a white collar job you have become middle class

My thought too. My background is working class but I’ve never had to graft a mile underground like my dad did. I’m pretty sure I’m middle class, but we always put our own meanings on these things. For me, it just means I don’t have to graft hard for not much pay.

Surprised to see “Hot tub” on that list. Isn’t that a bit chav?

And barbeque is something you do, not something you own.

Very true, but the writer is obviously writing above his/her station!! Hence the list.

the middle class strive to prove they’re better than the rest of the working class

Ah!

Those guys are just bawbags. They’re not worth knowing anyway.

We’ve got a murial on the parlour dining room wall.

found 3 spiralizers in the kitchen drawer last night….3!!! 😯

These spiralizers then. Just looked them up on google and all the pictures show them being used for courgettes, which looks a bit boring. Can they be used for anything else? Like squash, or parsnips?

A smeg fridge is a device for refrigerating smeg. A Smeg fridge, is a refrigerator made by the German firm Smeg.

Lol 🙂

Does grammar pedantry get you a bye to the middle class?

These spiralizers then. Just looked them up on google and all the pictures show them being used for courgettes, which looks a bit boring. Can they be used for anything else? Like squash, or parsnips?

the ones we have are all the same. we got given them at some kitchen knife demo in a John Lewis store. theyre very basic…essentially a round clamp and pin that goes in the end of the fruit/vegetable and an angled blade with a hole at the end. you simply put your finger in the hole and turn the blade and it cuts into whatever its attached to in a spiral. i think we’ve only ever used it once.

Working class by culture, very middle class by current demographic definitions (not that list – only have 4 of those random things, and of those am not counting the vinyl as all bar the last 6 months they’re from pre-CD times).

A smeg fridge is a device for refrigerating smeg. A Smeg fridge, is a refrigerator made by the German firm Smeg.

When being a pedant, it is best to be accurate: Smeg are Italian.

You can use a julienne peeler as an alternative to a spiralizer. Works fine on carrots and courgettes

A smeg fridge is a device for refrigerating smeg. A Smeg fridge, is a refrigerator made by the German firm Smeg.

When being a pedant, it is best to be accurate: Smeg are Italian.[/quote]

I ain’t posh enuf ta know ’bout posh fridges, innit.

The comma was wrong too.