So the difference between the US and the UK boils down to this. American workers think of themselves as middle class; and the English middle class think of themselves as workers. The latest social values poll in the UK shows a ridiculous 68% of people defining themselves as "working class and proud of it". The model: Madonna, a working-class New York girl busy learning a posh English accent; and her husband, Guy Ritchie, who's actually quite posh, but puts on a Mockney accent. Mockney? That's mock Cockney -- the version of working-class colloquial which was essential to social survival in the young North London bourgeoisie.Most Britons are working class and proud of it [Guardian]
So the difference between the US and the UK boils down to this. American workers think of themselves as middle class; and the English middle class think of themselves as workers. The latest social values poll in the UK shows a ridiculous 68% of people defining themselves as "working class and proud of it". The model: Madonna, a working-class New York girl busy learning a posh English accent; and her husband, Guy Ritchie, who's actually quite posh, but puts on a Mockney accent. Mockney? That's mock Cockney -- the version of working-class colloquial which was essential to social survival in the young North London bourgeoisie.
