Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive... (or similarly, attempt to explain the 'class' system in Britain). If everyone belongs to it, you would naturally favour the views of your own class. Not always, say I, not always.

Very roughly - there are three classes - the upper, middle and working classes. In reality these days - the upper class is small, wields enormous financial clout, but has no relevance or popular influence over the masses. They're seen as anachronistic curiosities, by the majority of Brits. I'm sure in their own universe, they're rather significant and pretty, bloody, seriously, important, yah? - 'idle' rich is the popular street argot. You probably won't meet any if you visit London, they'll be at the country seat during peak tourist season.

The middle classes are enormous and most people in Britain belong to this group. They work for a living, have a few cars and generally own their own home. Holiday abroad, have several kids and throw out dinner party invitations. Many are aspirational and cheekily refer to themselves as 'upper-middle' if they earn 6 figures or more, name their kids something parochial like Penelope or Gulliver, and own a car costing over £30k. The middle-classes are the current backbone of the country since most people work in financial services, or similar office based roles. Which segues neatly on to the third group.

The working classes. This used to be the majority group in Britain. You traditionally earned a wage and lived in rented accommodation, used public transport and worked all your life to perhaps purchase an annuity for old age, if the appalling conditions in your factory, didn't see you off before then. The manufacturing industry died in post-war Britain and ever since that period, the working classes began to dwindle in size. However.

The above are ways of demarcating according to earnings, ownership and perhaps education, but for many, being working class is a state of mind, and to a certain extent, regional too. It's not uncommon for someone to strike it rich from a humble, working class sink-estate. Even though they have an 8-figure bank balance, don't know how much a pint of milk is and keep a yacht moored in St. Bart's. They will never relinquish their working class spurs. Being working class is cool. John Lennon sang about its heroic qualities, and there's sense attached to what he's saying. Undoubtedly a likeable honesty develops when you have little in the way of material possessions. You tend to share more and showboat less. The working classes have a tendency to be less underhand, and would value community over status, in general.

The trouble is that once you start to earn more, buy a car, flat, then a house, holiday abroad, you inevitably start to acquire middle class traits, and lose working class ones. Not always, but you tend to, and this is where the waters get muddier.

Also, and this is worth trumpeting - the class system is out in the open in Britain. It exists all over the world, settlements are demarcated by bid-rent analysis, so an area with boutiques, theatres, private schools and detached houses will attract wealthy residents, wealthy businesses and therefore become 'more expensive' in a self-reinforcing manner. Similarly poor land will be inexpensive and attract heavy industry looking for cheap and local labour. Where there is a Capitalist system, you will get an accompanying class structure of blue and white-collar workers.

Britain has never shied away from the inequalities of this kind of system and was the first to instigate them through the ideology of Adam Smith, the social change introduced during the Industrial Revolution and the resulting Keynsian and Monetarist Economic models. Acknowledging that a class system exists - is more important, than arguing which side you belong to.

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