Here Goes Cath Elliot Again, With Her Class Warrior Shtick…

I've been pulled up by Cif commenters a few times now for comments I've made both above and below the line in which I've employed the term "middle class" as an insult.

I could almost hear some of you groan "Here she goes again with her class warrior shtick" when I described the coming Labour leadership election (prior to Diane Abbott's last-minute nomination) as presenting a limited choice between a bunch of middle-class, Oxbridge-educated white men.

Yes, that was certainly one of the things people were saying…

The funny thing is, though, I'm never entirely sure now which class I'm even supposed to call myself any more. And I know I'm not alone in this.

You’re writing in the ‘Guardian’, sweetie. Doesn’t that give you a clue?

For the vast majority of people, well those who haven't read Marx anyway, class is increasingly defined by how much material wealth a person has, and by that definition I'm decidedly middle class.

I can feel a ‘But…’ coming…

And yet I still wouldn't describe either of us as comfortably middle class. That's mainly because I know where we both came from, and because I'm also aware of how quickly and easily all those things, those trappings of an illusory middle-class life, could be lost.

Is this a sign that the financial crisis is going to start biting at the ‘Guardian’ then?

Oh, I do hope so!

Unfortunately, it seems merely to mean that Cath Elliot hasn’t a clue what ‘middle class’ means:

We have no investments, no ISAs or bonds or any of that, and if we want or need something expensive we either have to save up for it or borrow. We've never inherited anything of any great value, and we've both had to work hard for what we've got.

And how is that somehow not ‘middle class’..?

But more importantly than all that, we both have what I suppose you could call a class consciousness, in that we're both aware of our roots, and we both know on which side of the class divide our loyalties lie.

Given that you’ve misidentified that class, I fail to see how you can claim this…

This is the key when it comes to talking about class. It's about knowing, when push comes to shove, which group or class of people has your interests at heart. And it's this that I'm referring to when I use "middle class" as an insult.

People who have never known anything but privilege and wealth, who went to private school, then Oxbridge, and who, thanks to mummy and daddy's connections, has had doors opened to them all their life, cannot possibly know what it is to be poor.

/facepalm

No, they are NOT ‘middle class’. Good grief!

They're the ones who get to make the big decisions that impact on our lives, and they're also the ones who we see every day working hard to ensure that their class is protected and cushioned when times get tough.

Yes, indeed. Their class. Not mine! Not yours!

It is these people I'm railing against when I talk about the privileged middle classes; people who have about as much in common with me and mine as I have with the little green men from Mars.

Errr, hold up here. Just how much do champagne socialists – of the sort who habitually write for the ‘Guardian’ – have in common with you and yours?

Case in point:

But who knows, maybe I'm being unfair. Maybe Polly Toynbee's right…

Polly Toynbee? This Polly Toynbee?

Let’s all remind ourselves of the credentials of Polly Toynbee to be pontificating on privilege, shall we?