Are you working class ?
 

Just watched the brilliant Paul O'Grady show ' are you working class' on BBC1.

Did it bring back memories, yes it did. I am 61 years old and my god the memories of me being brought up in Hammersmith, and going to the nearest Woolworth's for shopping or going to the pub for my dad to get his beer.

I used to sit by the windows for hours watching the old steam trains going past my house.

When l was a kid l had to leave Christopher Wren school in Shepherds Bush and l left school on the Friday and went to work on the Monday.

You could go to the local Employment Exchange and have a choice of several Jobs (you can't do that today) We had a sixpence in the slot TV with only TWO CHANNELS, no like today.

I am extremely proud of my working class day's.
Trouble is today, there are words that were used to say in my young days, that you would get arrested today for. Health and Safety wasn't even heard of then, mobile's, you must be joking. You could into Mrs Jones house for a cup of tea as the door was always open, you had respect for your elders, OAP getting beat up, you never did that, that was the ultimate sin then. Cinerma, you had two films on at the local Cinemas, and there were three in Hammersmith and there is only two there now, the other one was closed and sold to a developer.

Working class - you damn right l am.

Re: Are you working class ?
 

I remember how many few cars were on the road compared to what there is today.
Sundays we're dead quiet wherever you went.

Re: Are you working class ?
 

I'm all for 24/7 shopping these days I hate it when the shops close at 5pm on a sunday

Re: Are you working class ?
 

Re: Are you working class ?
 

I'd be surprised if we have any truly middle or upper class members here on Cable Forum. Surely having a natter about your TV services is a working class pastime?

Re: Are you working class ?
 

i'm upper gutter class ;) not to be confused with lower gutter class

Re: Are you working class ?
 

Surely if you have to work, you're working class?

I'm in my forties Arthur and my childhood was no different to yours. We didn't have a car, our tele had four channels with a slot for 50p in the back. We had a phone that had a lock on the dial. Blah blah blah.

I don't look back with rosé tinted glasses. I much prefer today's society and technology.

I went to college, and university ( for which I received a full grant - thanks Mrs T)

I've never been out of work for 23 years, my wife also works full time.

We have a nice house, nice cars and a nice lifestyle. But we work for it. So we're still 'working class'.

Labour and unions would have you think that 'working class' are all on benefits and live on sink estates in deprived areas.

They're not working class, the clue is in the title.

Re: Are you working class ?
 

I guess I'm not.

Re: Are you working class ?
 

I strongly disagree with Pierre's statement.

[Labour and unions would have you think that 'working class' are all on benefits and live on sink estates in deprived areas.]

I put that down to the Tory's thinking not Labours or the Unions.

Yes the Unions in the 70's had to much power and caused strikes over some trivial matters... but were would we be now if we had no working rights.. back to the work house days I would suggest.

As for your University grant that was probably paid for by the majority of the working classes taxes. Which I may add is perfectly ok.

Mrs T are the bad decades for Britain she should have stayed working in her fathers grocery shop.

I have a nice house and old car (by choice) but I have worked for it... income taxes for the lower paid should be greatly reduced.

Re: Are you working class ?
 

guess you do not quite grasp what the class system means then seeing as a top business man still goes out to work and earns 6 figures a year does that make them working class as well?? course not

It is all about how much you have and where you live

There is the underclass which nowadays means the chronically unemployed

Re: Are you working class ?
 

Pretty sure I did my A level English lit there........:)

Re: Are you working class ?
 

of all the A levels to choose ... lol

Re: Are you working class ?
 

Yeah, no idea why I did that one :D
......and that school was a scary, scary place :disturbd:

Re: Are you working class ?
 

Well that shows you that you certainly don't grasp the class system

Re: Are you working class ?
 

I'm proud to be a worker ,yes,but as for "working class" not so much .why would anyone want to be proud of spending a life drudging through a dead end job and have no aspirations to better themselves.It's like when fat people say they are happy with their size when in reality they want to look like a super model.Arthur can be as proud as he wants to be working class but if he won the lottery I bet he wouldn't stay that way

Re: Are you working class ?
 

I'm working class, I could make a hell of a lot in a single year but at the same time I can make less than £12,000

That's the risk of these Zero hour contracts.

Re: Are you working class ?
 

oh but I do it is you out of touch

Re: Are you working class ?
 

I dare say some inadequate lazy folk rather like wearing the 'I'm working class' badge since it allows them to blame all sorts of oppression and class prejudice for their perceived failings. They should spend more of their time emulating the millions of ordinary hardworking people who aren't content to languish where they are but work very hard to improve themselves and their lot. Wealth, power etc. clearly aren't within the reach of us all but that's not a reason for blindly accepting a label and having no aspirations to do better in life.

Re: Are you working class ?
 

You are one of the most judgemental people I have ever seen post on this forum

Re: Are you working class ?
 

The size of your bank balance does not dictate what class you are.

Re: Are you working class ?
 

I think it's the need to actually work rather than the work that makes you working class, I read some where that (I can't remember the figure so I'll make it up) over 50% of the population have less than one months salary in savings, that's working class to me.

Re: Are you working class ?
 

Is there such a thing as working class these days?

There are the "Haves" and the "Have Nots" but the vast majority of us languish somewhere between.

Re: Are you working class ?
 

A good old song the working class can kiss my ...

I wonder if this was devised by the upper classes... probably not.

You still have first class on trains, planes, boats which costs more money to sit away from the underlings.

Re: Are you working class ?
 

did I say it was just that? no

---------- Post added at 16:42 ---------- Previous post was at 16:41 ----------

there are manual workers and none manual workers

Re: Are you working class ?
 

My father told me many years ago that a man with a trade or skill was working class, a man who sat behind a desk and pretended he controlled the working class was middle class, and the upper class were all twits who didn't have to work as all their money was inherited but enjoyed taking on roles overseeing all of us down below.

So I suppose we also now have an unworking class with no trade or skills.

Re: Are you working class ?
 

I guess that means you can tell which class someone considers themselves to be by which classes they slag off ...

Re: Are you working class ?
 

No you said it was 50% that


And 50% location, which is equally as daft.

Re: Are you working class ?
 

I wonder what the equivalent of the nostalgia expressed in the OP will be in another 50 years time?

In my case I am quite happy to live now & not in my grandmothers house in the early 1960s. She still had an outside toilet, no hot water other than that heated in the 'copper', no bathroom, electricity only for lights upstairs & only a few 'sockets' downstairs. She was considered quite 'posh' because she had a television (9" screen) & a fur coat that she got after a win on the horses. She was a widow as my grandfather died from a chest infection exacerbated by his working life as a coal miner & cement lorry driver.

My other grandmother's house was a bit better - still an outside loo, but it had a bathroom & an immersion heater for hot water. My grandfather on this side of the family had been a docker since the days when they went every day to see if there was work & were sent home if there was none.

Neither set of grandparents owned a car, or had a telephone.

So what will be the equivalent, today? - only having a 32" telly & a DVD player, not being able to afford Sky sports. Having to make do with a 'text only' mobile, not a touch screen?

Personally I think we have it easy, these days & while I agree there was something in the camaraderie of earlier times, I wouldn't want the freezing bedroom, the dentist with a drill driven by rubber belts round a pulley or having to have a bath in a tin tub next to the fire to come back again...

Re: Are you working class ?
 

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.....

Re: Are you working class ?
 

^^
this

:clap::clap:

Re: Are you working class ?
 

LMAO!!!

Re: Are you working class ?
 

Class is a state of mind. Little else.

You just have to look at how the so called classes cross each other in a variety of ways from self made millionaires from humble starts to those with Royal upbringing who fall by the wayside.

e.g. Drink and drug dependancy crosses ALL boundaries of so called class. Poverty and badtimes do not discrimintate. Class independant.