You are common
The truth is, if you are prepared to discuss what is and what isn't common, it means you are a bit.

As explained excellently in the book "Watching the English", the fear of being common is an exclusively middle class, aspirational thing.

The aristocracy absolutely couldn't give a hoot about any of this stuff - their children run around caked in dirt and eating jaffa cakes with Tiswas on in the background - because they can.

Same with the underclass.

So by correcting people when they call a napkin a serviette, or saying "for goodness sake Jack, take those elbows off the table!" you are merely confirming the fact that you are common, and nothing you earn, or education you receive, is ever going to change that.

Having said that, if you are off home to flop on the settee, watch Sky and have your tea - you are uber, Heat magazine, Posh'n'Becks common.
( browser still relating boring anecdotes into a void on, Thu 16 Oct 2008, 17:05, 7 replies)

I was rooting for you,
right up to the last sentence.

I swear this QOTW is bringing out the worst in b3tans, and the impotent rage in me.
( chenobble rocking his explorer beard on, Thu 16 Oct 2008, 17:08, closed)

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Let it all out, Chennoble! A rant from the heart is worth a dozen puns from the book imo.
( browser still relating boring anecdotes into a void on, Thu 16 Oct 2008, 17:17, closed)

I've made that mistake before
instead I shall bottle it all up until it is unleashed in an all-encompassing violent maelstrom of planet-crushing proportions.

Then they'll see. They all see. Oh yes.
*twitches*
( chenobble rocking his explorer beard on, Thu 16 Oct 2008, 17:31, closed)

Tiswas???
wrong century....

reading Heat doesn't make you common

it makes you a twat
(Ol' Ginger Bastard a role model for the children, Thu 16 Oct 2008, 17:16, closed)

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Really? Tiswas isn't on any more?
( browser still relating boring anecdotes into a void on, Fri 17 Oct 2008, 9:05, closed)

The aristocracy
have their own rules about this sort of thing.
They are just a little more obscure.

Only red wine with red meat = common.

Talking about money = common. (Do goldfish talk about water?)

Minimalism (in interior decorating) = common.

The exact status of various public and boarding schools is incredibly complex. Being in the wrong house from a good school can make you common.

Caring about being common = common.

Old money beats new money.

Overt wealth = common, although treating expensive items carelessly will redeem you.

Ignorance of the ways of the lower classes is fine. Reveling in that ignorance is terribly gauche.

Unnecessary rudeness to people below your station = common.

I'm sure there are many more, but it's much more subtle than the aspirational comparisons of the middle class.
(RIS, Thu 16 Oct 2008, 18:08, closed)

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Billy Connolly talks about this. The fact that the working class and the aristocracy get on well (or used to when the class divide was more distinct) and understand one another, but that it was the "ones in the middle" who don't get it.
( browser still relating boring anecdotes into a void on, Fri 17 Oct 2008, 9:08, closed)