Tuesday 26 May 2009

The Great Middle Class/ Working Class dilemma

THE working class/ middle class divide is alive and well in many of us.
But tell GM how you simultaneously feel a Trotskyite traitor and a perennial lumpenprole?
Embrace both and reply with your own entries below.


I’m working class because no matter how gourmet a sandwich I have eaten, I’ve always thought it would be better with a layer of Tayto cheese and onion crisps.
I’m middle class because I have often made my own crisps for dinner parties.

I'm working class because I would never cross a picket line.
I'm middle class because I have only ever had to address this dilemma twice, once going into a museum coffee shop. (I am middle class because I use the words 'coffee shop' and 'Habermas' regularly.)

I’m middle class because I know Ute Lemper is well fit and she can sing a bit too.

I'm working class because I see Saturday night talent show TV with the bairn.
I'm middle class because watching ITV feels a bit like voting for Sinn Fein.

I’m working class because sometimes the only thing that’s going to quench my thirst is a pint of brown mix.
I’m middle class because I love the idea of micro breweries.

I’m working class because I have recently drunk Buckfast in my parents’ house.
I’m middle class because I know Shiraz and Syrah are the same grape.

I’m middle class because I absolutely, positively have to have a piano no-one plays in my house but is a great, if cumbersome, display space for some of the Celtic art pieces we got for wedding presents.

I’m working class because I can often feel like a class traitor playing jazz or world music.
I’m middle class because I have seen both Seu Jorge and the Buena Vista Social Club.

I’m working class because I hate people using foreign words in conversation.
I’m middle class because I have recently used the words ‘lingua franca’ to my mates.

I’m working class because I hate twats walking around with (literally) buckets of coffee with plastic lids over the top while out shopping.
I’m middle class because, at home, I grind my own beans (preferably Fair Trade Arabica).

I’m working class because I hate the word ‘movie’.
I’m middle class because I love the working class struggle of Ken Loach movies.

I’m working class because I am insanely proud my granda was an engine driver.
I’m middle class because my parents were teachers and I am a university lecturer.

I’m working class because I love a custard cream/ garibaldi/ Nice biscuit
I’m middle class because I have recently, in a supermarket, used the words: “Those are the same beautiful biscuits we got in that market in Noirmoutier in the Vendee.”

I’m working class because I hate the idea of selective/ private education.
I’m middle class because as soon as we could afford it, we moved into the catchment area of good Catholic schools.

I’m working class because I hate the Tories with every vestige of my being.
I’m middle class because all three councillors in my ward are Tories.

Ultimately, I’m working class because I worry about class.

1 comment:

  1. I am working class because I grew up in a trailer in upstate New York and was raised by a single mother struggling to fend for two kids on minimum wage.

    I am middle class because I have discussed these experiences with friends at university while completing two Masters degrees and attempting to complete a Ph.D.

    I am working class because I dropped out of said Ph.D. program and returned to the aforementioned trailer to live with the parents...or does this just make me a loser?

    Always a fan!

    ReplyDelete