iviehoff: I think I said that women can SOMETIMES move class by marriage. Yes, I agree, Denis Thatcher was probably upper middle but I don't think Mrs T ever was regarded as such really. Who you mix with and how much money you have and even if you have a title doesn't count (that can depend also on what sort of title - for instance, the crop of labour peers recently made are not regarded in the same light as hereditary peers). Lots of us float about in social situations with other classes but that doesn't mean that we are accepted as a member of that class. I well recall working for an elderly knighted scientist who recalled Margaret Thatcher from Oxford days and hated her and regarded her as a very inferior person (and, he said, not a clever student though that may have been sour grapes as he had such a great down on her). Alan Sugar - loads of dosh and a title - still regarded as working class, I believe.
And, what school you go to is also irrelevant because money can get you into any school.
There will always be people who seek to belittle the objective achievements and behaviours of others by saying "look who their parents were".
The son of a footballer sent to Eton can indeed succeed in learning how to be upper middle class. Mrs Thatcher did indeed succeed in becoming a patrician aristocrat in her manner of life, her attitudes, and her social status. The fact that some people hated her and belittled her as "only a grocer's daughter" says more about them than about her.
I should clarify that Mrs T is no hero of mine.
Edited by: iviehoff
I recently came across "lower upper middle class" in George Orwell's book "The Road to Wigan Pier". Really makes me wonder how low, middle or up that class is.
Orangutan, we need your help in this thread, on the question of whether Malaysians and Indonesians when speaking or writing Malay or Indonesian ever refer to the language as simply "Bahasa". (Rahter than "Bahasa Malaysia", "Bahasa Melayu", or "Bahasa Indonesia".)
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