Status Symbols of the British Upper Middle Class

For women:

Bugaboo cameleon (sic) pushchair, Classic Mulberry handbag, Jo Malone candles, Molton Brown room spray, Paula Pryke flowers, Landrover Discovery 4, crystalised sugar on a stick (instead of lumps or granulated), Cowshed soap, Miller Harris Tea and perfume, afternoon tea at the Palm Court at the Langham.

For men:

Depends what matters to them. Some will get cars, some will go shooting, some will go on holiday, some will get Savile Row jackets and Emma Willis shirts, some will have trophy wives that buy the things above.

Yes, I'm well aware of that. However, many sociologists are leaning to the idea that Britain's middle class are dividing, and it is not necessarily along the lines of occupational prestige and educational background. In other words, the British class system is becoming more 'American'.

For instance, let's take the role of a lecturer of history at a Russell Group university. Very impressive, very prestigious. Now, until about 20-30 years ago, the vast amount of people who held such a position, while not earning high salaries themselves, came from moneyed backgrounds that would easily let them enjoy the prestige and lifestyle of any other middle-class profession or even upper class gentleman or lady. The same could be said of vicars and military officers. There salaries were and are today stil relatively low, but their status in society is high.

However, such professions have since become more democratised, and the middle and upper classes no longer dominate them. Working class kids who were educated at grammar schools often joined their ranks, and they stand out from the old guard.

Now, along with this came a super escalation in salaries, bonuses and compensation amongst people who work in the financial sector in the City. Their salaries put them way above most surgeons, lawyers, judges, academics, top level civil servants, etc. Because of their wealth, their lifestyles were clearly not middle class anymore, yet they still eschewed middle class values. This was a different phenomenon than the old rags to riches new money type of thing. It made the old British class system seem irrelevant, particularly when you see the working-class eroding into a working poor and a few lucky ones climbing up to the lower middle-class.

Thus, the term middle-class has become just as meaningless as working-class. Income now has to play a larger role than it did before when determining class. And the concept of what we once called middle class also had to be reconstructed to signify those with money--a lot of money--but not titled or aristocratic, and those with postgraduate degrees in the professions.