Class Conscience on British TV

[Hen]

A recent BBC documentary called "Who Gets The Best Jobs" pointed out that social inequality in Britain has not been as high as it is now since the 1920s.

The presenter illustrated a number of barriers that people from poorer backgrounds face when attempting to climb the social ladder. The most notable of which was the fact many young people are offering their work for free to the top companies in Britain, which centre around the South-East and in particular London. Many companies have come to depend on the work of unpaid interns to sustain their profits. However, offering to work for free in the most expensive part of the country is only a luxury afforded to some, and it crowds out pretty much everyone else.

The presenter then went on to discuss how the sheer gap between the rich and the poor has rendered working class children not without ability, but unaspirational and uninformed of various professions that are deemed "out of reach". Many find themselves talking of a "different world" or "the other half" when talking of the top jobs.

There have been a couple of BBC documentaries that raise such issues. Another one entitled "Posh and Posher: Why Public School Boys Run Britain" reflected on the fact that only 7% of young people are public school educated, but 1 in 2 politicians, 6 in 7 lawyers and so on are from a public school.

At the end of "Who Gets The Bet Jobs" a BBC announcer asked the viewer "What does class mean? Is it still relevant? To find out more go on the BBC discussion page".

Despite my agreement with much of the discussion in these documentaries, I do find myself frustrated at how the issues are portrayed as somewhat revelatory. I understand that the documentary makers want to produce a clear and accessible documentary, but through neither of these hour-long documentaries, did I hear an utterance of the word 'capitalism'.

[Rooster]

The BBC itself is mostly ran by public school boys. It's not really the interests of the people there to even bring up the topic of alternatives to capitalism. I met the old director of the BBC's news wing and he was telling me how he used to ask people in interviews "so why don't the tories do well in Scotland?" and the only answer he was looking for was "I don't know". But that's the same across nearly the whole media board.

w0DUsGSMwZY

[Manic Impressive]

Here's the BBC's survey that went with the programme. https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/class/

It's funny that programme was on the same day as I was reading one of the posts on here saying that class conciousness in the UK was almost non existent. Perhaps it's a generational thing because growing up I remember me and my friends knew what class we were from a very young age and in my experience it's something that is still talked about a lot. But not by younger people, at least that's my impression.

[Rooster]

Ha, this thread just reminded me why I dislike television: it never explains anything to do with banking or capitalism (or even politics of the country)! They expect you to know everything already. Is this a class thing? That only people brought up to know about these sort of things, of being able to go to the universities to study these sort bourgeois subjects, can understand what's being said on the news?

[ed miliband]

I certainly think class essentially meaningless in the UK; as I said in the other thread, Alan Sugar is spoken of as a working class boy who "done good", but he's the very opposite of working class, and the way he talks or where he was brought up does not change that. Looking through the BBC quiz about class there are a multitude of questions about the food you eat, what you watch on TV and what radio station you listen to, as if watching reality TV makes you instantaneously "working class" while listening to Radio 4 means you are "middle class". People understand that classes exist, they just don't understand what these classes are/how to define them.

It's quite good for the bourgeoisie that class is largely seen as a split between the very poor and the very rich, with millions and millions of "ordinary" people in between.

[Hen]

I certainly think class essentially meaningless in the UK; as I said in the other thread, Alan Sugar is spoken of as a working class boy who "done good", but he's the very opposite of working class, and the way he talks or where he was brought up does not change that. Looking through the BBC quiz about class there are a multitude of questions about the food you eat, what you watch on TV and what radio station you listen to, as if watching reality TV makes you instantaneously "working class" while listening to Radio 4 means you are "middle class". People understand that classes exist, they just don't understand what these classes are/how to define them.

It's quite good for the bourgeoisie that class is largely seen as a split between the very poor and the very rich, with millions and millions of "ordinary" people in between.

I agree to an extent. I think people like Alan Sugar are used as an example of the 'American Dream' type anyone-can-make-it philosophy that he and all his capitalist friends doubtless believe. In fact most rich people I see on TV have a rag-to-riches story behind them. It does re-enforce the fallacy that you can be whoever you want to be regardless of social and economic barrier. Alan Sugar etc are systemic anomalies, but they are held up as some kind of norm.

It is for this reason that I think people don't associate their own hardship with the higher classes or the system itself. People are aware of the success stories, and the opportunities that they are told exist, yet they remain poor. They believe it is their own fault. They are told to change themselves, rather than blame anyone else or the system itself. Blaming others for what are your own misgivings is a cowardly exercise.

Of course the missing link in this belief, and in the documentaries, is any relational aspect between the classes. Like you said, people's notions of class are in the things they like and the things they watch, and they look at class without causal inference. Things are simply the way they are. It is a deep shame that people think this way given that inequality in Britain is at its highest level in 90 years. I only see it getting worse under the market fundamentalism of the Conservative-led government.

[rednordman]

I certainly think class essentially meaningless in the UK; as I said in the other thread, Alan Sugar is spoken of as a working class boy who "done good", but he's the very opposite of working class, and the way he talks or where he was brought up does not change that. Looking through the BBC quiz about class there are a multitude of questions about the food you eat, what you watch on TV and what radio station you listen to, as if watching reality TV makes you instantaneously "working class" while listening to Radio 4 means you are "middle class". People understand that classes exist, they just don't understand what these classes are/how to define them.

It's quite good for the bourgeoisie that class is largely seen as a split between the very poor and the very rich, with millions and millions of "ordinary" people in between.I think this boils more down to the point that people in UK (England more specifically) just choose to believe that class doesn't exist. Just because they like to 'sweep it under the carpet' does not mean it non-existent however. I think its fair to say that it leaks from every nook and cranny and pretty much defines what it is to be British nowadays. After all, at school, we are all thought that speaking posh is a good thing, and having a regional dialect is bad.

[southernmissfan]

It's quite good for the bourgeoisie that class is largely seen as a split between the very poor and the very rich, with millions and millions of "ordinary" people in between.

That's certainly how it is in America. The common American narrative is that class doesn't exist. To the extent that class is acknowledged to exist, the vast majority of people are "middle class". Then you have a few people who are poor (typically portrayed as "lazy" minorities) and a few people who are rich (who are of course smart innovators).

[Hen]

William Hague used to be a Marxist according to one of the documentaries...
:confused:

[Manic Impressive]

William Hague used to be a Marxist according to one of the documentaries...
:confused:
Nah that can't be right, Hague was like the youngest ever speaker at a tory conference or something he was like 14. Well maybe not 14 but he was fecking young I think they actually modelled the charterer Tory boy on him.

Peter Mandelson did attend Marxist meetings when he was at Uni though.