A friend of mine is ill and so is on benefit at the moment,
This morning she had to be examined by a doctor from the Department of Work and Pensions. I went with her for moral support. After 2 hours having to sit in the waiting room with all those working class people, I got so desperate that I actually read a two year old edition of Women's Own from cover to cover.

There was a good interview with Dawn French about how she never let being big hold her back in life. Rivetting.

EDIT FOR CLARIFICATION : To be working class, one only has to be from a working class background - one does not have to actually be working. In exactly the same way that attack submarines are still attack submarines when they are not attacking.
(Seance Trumpet has got no beef with a man enjoying a croissant, Fri 16 Nov 2007, 12:39, 6 replies)

Without trying to be too perdantic...
... if they were sat there during the day pressumably for the same thing as your mate, wouldn't that exclude them from being working class by definition?
( @><|= w0nu!) or cunt to my friends, Fri 16 Nov 2007, 12:49, closed)

No
to be working class, one only has to be from a working class background - one does not have to actually be working. In exactly the same way that attack submarines are still attack submarines when they are not attacking.

Just like the attack submarine is defined by it's purpose, so too are working class people defined by theirs - which is to do menial work until they die of exhaustion, so that those of us who were properly brought up can concentrate on going to the theatre and reading books. The mere fact that some of them fail at their purpose does not mean that they should not be defined by it.
(Seance Trumpet has got no beef with a man enjoying a croissant, Fri 16 Nov 2007, 12:51, closed)

Just because they're working class
doesn't mean they actually work!
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Fri 16 Nov 2007, 12:55, closed)

working class?
But if an "attack submarine" is instead solely used for transporting fluffeh kittens and delivering free ice cream to yachtsmen, is it really still an attack submarine?

And if someone born of "working class" parents then goes on to become a bank manager? Are they still working class? And their children?

Because if they remain "working class", it has clearly become some kind of hereditary title, and is of minimal use as a useful description.
(haberman is singing in the changes, Fri 16 Nov 2007, 13:05, closed)

I always prefferred the JICNARS scale anyway...
... but nice response!
( @><|= w0nu!) or cunt to my friends, Fri 16 Nov 2007, 13:37, closed)

haberman
In todays society, educational background is probably the best indicator of social class. The working class man who works hard and becomes a bank manager is still working class - but his children will be middle class if he chooses to send them to a good school.
(Seance Trumpet has got no beef with a man enjoying a croissant, Fri 16 Nov 2007, 17:56, closed)