Don't really know what "working class" is so much now unless it refers to those in non-skilled , non-management positions? Maybe it's also more about attitude than money these days as well?
As I went to uni and spent most of my working life as a retail manager I guess that makes me "middle class" though go back just a couple of generations and it's Black Country chain-makers on one side and Norfolk agricultural labourers on the other.
I guess the old working classes were both poorly educated and spent far too much time working and worrying about feeding and clothing their families or putting a roof over their heads to worry about "bettering" or "educating" themselves. Their communities may have been commendably tight-knit but their world view was very limited. You need time, money and opportunity to escape that.
Even today there is this hangover about the working classes being kind of "salt of the earth" while the Middle classes "don't live in the real world" or are "up themselves". I may not be myself, but my roots are "working class" and I personally wouldn't look down on anyone. IMHO, however, reverse snobbery is every bit as bad as snobbery. There are plenty of ignorant and bigoted working class people just as there are thoughtful and broad minded ones and it's the same with all "classes" in my experience.
As for animal's observation about poorer working class areas bearing the brunt of immigration, I think this has always been the case. From the Asian lascars of the 1700s through the Russian Jews fleeing the Pogroms of the 1880s, the Irish escaping famine, the Europeans escaping Nazism in the 1930s to the Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese and West Indians after WW2 and the later wave of Eastern Europeans who came as EU workers, the majority have all traditionally settled in the poorer areas of either Britain's port cities or industrial towns.
The reason for this was simple-thats where the jobs were plus the combination of lack of money and racism. They could only afford the rent or mortgage in the poorer areas and if they were mostly not welcomed there, they certainly wouldn't have been in better off areas. In the face of this, integration was never going to be easy, hence the establishment of immigrant communities in traditionally white working class areas which tended to keep themselves to themselves.
When times are good, things aren't so bad but every time there is an economic downturn the immigrants will always be blamed for "taking people's jobs" even if they've lived and worked here for years. Racism or narcissism of small differences it never seems to change. (That said, the present levels of immigration are simply not sustainable and I agree that far more needs to be done -and not just about the illegal boat people either).
The class system today is far less defined than it once was and the political parties have changed too and are now far more centrist. Is it really any more surprising then that members of the middle class should vote Labour than it is that members of the working class vote Conservative? All the parties will try and get support from where they can breaking down the red or blue walls.
Thinking about it, Thatcher and Blair were probably the ones who changed things. The green-grocers daughter did a lot of damage to some working class areas but she crushed the (often misused) power of the unions and through Right to Buy and Enterprise Zones she encouraged aspirations and garnered support from those previous paid up members of the working class who benefited. The old "heavy" industries like car manufacturing, ship building, steel and mining were increasingly unproductive and in decline and being replaced by higher tech. industries and, above all, consumerism. The traditional jobs for the working classes were changing and so were the working classes themselves. Blair recognized this and his New Labour reflected the shift. A kind of continuation of Thatcherism but with more of a social conscience (though we're still living with the consequences of some of his policies today). The far left didn't like it then and they don't like it now.
Sorry, waffled on far too long🤐
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Originally Posted by baggiematt
