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How the Middle Class Ruined Britain - BBC2 21:00h Tonight

Started by Blumf, July 23, 2019, 08:28:19 PM

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Blumf

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00071ly
QuoteWorking-class Tory and Leave-voting comedian Geoff Norcott is on a mission to expose the avocado-munching, middle-class hypocrisy that he believes is ruining Britain.

For Geoff, the Brexit vote showed how one group of people have had their way for far too long. The Middle Classes have been living in their bubble pretending to care about the wider society, while all the time working the system to make sure they stay a few rungs up the ladder.

I'm sure this won't be divisive.

Alberon

Don't worry. Thanks to BBC balance rules this will be followed by two further programmes

Why the Upper Class Should be Eaten Immediately

and

When Will the Lower Class Stop Being Thick (in Both Senses of the Word), 'Tipping Point' Watching, Gullible, Odious Twats With No Sense of Style or Culture.

Sebastian Cobb


a duncandisorderly

I'll watch it because I'm genuinely curious to see how these twats justify their peculiarly selfish take on things.

Blumf

Well, could have been interesting, criticism of gentrification, school placements, and the increasing lack of social mobility, but nah, lets end on a pointless look at his tired comedy routine.

First half was okay, I suppose. Really needed a smarter presenter.

a duncandisorderly

Quote from: Blumf on July 23, 2019, 10:46:24 PM
Really needed a smarter presenter.

wasn't he wearing a tie? >writes to 'points of view'<

BlodwynPig

Is this sort of propaganda bilge here to stay. Balanced viewing. Where the centre is way over there —->

gib

Most of the points he was making weren't right wing at all.

Fambo Number Mive

I haven't watched this but his party have been in power since 2010 and his side won the EU referendum, yet he still isn't happy and it's all the fault of the middle class?

I mean does he not think that maybe the party he votes for might have more of a role in all this?

holyzombiejesus

Can you imagine the audience at a Geoff Norcott show? It'd look just like that picture of the 9 gammon-men but with the 'smile' bit of Faceapp switched on. I've heard him a couple of times now and it's so transparently obvious that he's booked because he's 'right wing' rather than being funny.


Cuellar


Jerzy Bondov

Murder anyone who isn't lower-middle class. Seriously. Had enough of their rubbish. Bunch of bell ends.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: bgmnts on July 24, 2019, 04:22:19 PM
Working class Tory.

Does not compute.

Anyone who isn't an actual elite is getting mugged off by the tories, to them he's no different to the barrat home tory voters who think they're special because they're middle class.

Blumf


He seems very confused and inconsistent in his views.  More a set of prejudices really than a conservative outlook as such, although I suppose being a Tory more or less is the state of having a set of prejudices.  Although he styles himself a working class comedian, he seems to have a real chip on his shoulder about having to go and live on that council estate after his parents' divorce.

On the stuff about parents competing for school places, he ignored the fact that it was the Tories who consumerised the education sector, introducing school league tables and a consumerist ethos.

The people campaigning against gentrification and the loss of the open space were consistent with his own opinions, it was only the fact that they were leftie oddballs that prejudiced him against them.

Yet, when he was placed in a social situation amongst his fellow Tories, he was just as much a fish out of water.

Jockice

Saw this last night. As with others I thought he made some decent points but was inconsistent.

A couple who I've been friends with for years had a fake split up just to ensure their kid got into the school they wanted. The child had to tell the school before starting that apparently he was living in a tiny flat with his mum. Then as soon as he started at the place the couple were miraculously reconciled.

Now as someone who has never wanted to reproduce (and was educated entirely at Catholic schools) I realise I'm probably not entitled to have an opinion but that just seems really off to me. It's teaching the child to be dishonest for a start. I'm still friends with them though. We go back a long way.

Jockice

Also I'm sure most stand-up comedians would get a crap reception if performing in front of an audience of three people specifically selected because they were unlikely to like him. It wasn't particularly funny but I've seen much worse routines go down much better in front of bigger audiences.

gilbertharding

Quote from: Jockice on July 26, 2019, 07:15:32 AM
Saw this last night. As with others I thought he made some decent points but was inconsistent.

A couple who I've been friends with for years had a fake split up just to ensure their kid got into the school they wanted. The child had to tell the school before starting that apparently he was living in a tiny flat with his mum. Then as soon as he started at the place the couple were miraculously reconciled.

Now as someone who has never wanted to reproduce (and was educated entirely at Catholic schools) I realise I'm probably not entitled to have an opinion but that just seems really off to me. It's teaching the child to be dishonest for a start. I'm still friends with them though. We go back a long way.

Those people aren't 'The Middle Class' though. What they've done is seen a system that's failing, and worked out a way of gaming it. That might be wrong (I think it is), but if you have the means you'd be a fool not to try it. But it's the system that's broken.

I didn't watch the show, by the way.


Jockice

Quote from: gilbertharding on July 26, 2019, 09:37:06 AM
Those people aren't 'The Middle Class' though. What they've done is seen a system that's failing, and worked out a way of gaming it. That might be wrong (I think it is), but if you have the means you'd be a fool not to try it. But it's the system that's broken.

I didn't watch the show, by the way.

This couple are fairly middle class and live in a 'nice' area in a city which has its fair share of poverty. They could afford the rent on a flat they didn't live in in a slightly 'nicer' area over a period of several months to keep up the pretence and get their kid into a slightly better school. I was a bit shocked when I realised what they'd done (both seem pretty left wing) but I know from watching others that reproducing makes some otherwise decent people take leave of their senses. I'm just glad I'd never felt the need myself.

gilbertharding

I wasn't doubting that your friends were middle class. What I was questioning was based on the title of this TV programme that your friends, and the people like them who have done the same thing were The Middle Class, and furthermore, whether they were 'The Middle Class' that had 'Ruined Britain'.

And, again, it's the legacy of 40 years of Thatcherism which means that this kind of thing is possible and/or necessary (from the point of view of people doing it). Middle class people are as guilty of voting for this stuff as anyone else, including working class people, who took their own bribes.

Funny it's a self-described Working Class Tory (and self-described comedian, if it comes to that) who is on telly pointing it out, even if he's missed out the most interesting half of the question.

imitationleather

On the street of the school I went to the house prices have absolutely fucking skyrocketed and they're almost exclusively owned by Asian and Arab families who don't live in them. They just use the houses as an address to get into the school's catchment area and send their kids there. There was a Panorama about how my school had started to employ a team to track down whether people genuinely lived at the addresses they said they were at.

I dunno why they don't just send them to a private school if they're stinking rich enough to do that kind of thing but what do I care? I'm not going to have children and I'm never going to want to live in that shithole Essex town so none of this is really going to be much of an issue for me.

sevendaughters

'ruined Britain' is such a lazy, baiting, tabloidy, "culture wars" type title and I refuse to watch it, doubly so knowing that fuck is fronting it. stupid shit "balance" telly for festering cunts, not even a hatewatch.

greenman

Quote from: Blumf on July 23, 2019, 10:46:24 PM
Well, could have been interesting, criticism of gentrification, school placements, and the increasing lack of social mobility, but nah, lets end on a pointless look at his tired comedy routine.

First half was okay, I suppose. Really needed a smarter presenter.

I'd imagine exactly why it was commissioned, looking to equate criticism along those lines with the right wing to try and discredit it.

Zetetic

Quote from: imitationleather on July 26, 2019, 11:20:24 AM
I dunno why they don't just send them to a private school if they're stinking rich enough to do that kind of thing but what do I care?

£10,000 per term x 3 terms x 5 years = £150,000 cost

While you can sell the house and likely see a better return than if you'd put the money in a savings account.

But it's interesting to speculate if there are ethno-cultural preferences and prejudices at work here, with British private schools still predominantly white British, ethnic 'Chinese' of various nationalities (Spore, HK, PRC), and a smattering of new rich Eastern Europeans as far as I know. (I might be out of date mind you.)

imitationleather

Quote from: Zetetic on July 26, 2019, 09:52:22 PM
£10,000 per term x 3 terms x 5 years = £150,000 cost

While you can sell the house and likely see a better return than if you'd put the money in a savings account.

Good point. Well made. Hadn't thought of that.

QuoteBut it's interesting to speculate if there are ethno-cultural preferences and prejudices at work here, with British private schools still predominantly white British, ethnic 'Chinese' of various nationalities (Spore, HK, PRC), and a smattering of new rich Eastern Europeans as far as I know. (I might be out of date mind you.)

When I went to my school it was the late '90s and it had entrance exams and interviews and all that kind of thing they can't do anymore, hence it being so heavily based on catchment area now. The interview stage was mainly to do profiling of kids to check that they weren't just smartarses, but also the "right sort of person". I am not kidding when I say that I can only recall two non-white kids in my entire year, which even for Essex wasn't representative by any means.

If you start by criticising middle-class people for moving to wealthy ghettos near good schools where the poor are priced out of the area,
then go on to criticise them for moving to poor areas where they cause gentrification and again cause the working-class to be priced out of the area,
it would be reasonable for the middle-class person to say "What do you want, then? Where should I live? There doesn't seem, on your account, to be anywhere for a person with a bit of money to live that doesn't cause harm"
A left-wing pundit could reasonably reply "You have correctly described the situation, there is no harmless solution to this problem. This is why very progressive taxation is necessary, these problems inevitably follow from inequalities of wealth, and all this posturing about avocadoes and lattes  and other aspects of middle-class culture is obfuscation which obscures this basic and simple point"
No idea what a right-wingers answer might be

Shoulders?-Stomach!

#27
Yes and progressive taxation and targeted (ie. Progressive) investment to level off the standards of various schools to reduce the push pull factor.

gilbertharding

There was what I presume to have been a kind of antidote to this programme on TV last night - where Amal 'Is It On TV? I'll Do It!' Rajan investigated why and how the elite professions are dominated by a tiny element of the country's population.

It was quite interesting - although it concentrated on specifics (a couple of BAME kids attempting to get into merchant banking, an 'ordinary' white couple trying to get into The Media, and a public school boy's attempt to do the same), it drew the conclusion that class rather than race was the big barrier - although, of course, if you're black as well, you're at a double disadvantage.

It ended with Matthew Wright issuing a literal call to arms to redress the situation.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: gilbertharding on July 30, 2019, 11:16:16 AM
There was what I presume to have been a kind of antidote to this programme on TV last night - where Amal 'Is It On TV? I'll Do It!' Rajan investigated why and how the elite professions are dominated by a tiny element of the country's population.

It was quite interesting - although it concentrated on specifics (a couple of BAME kids attempting to get into merchant banking, an 'ordinary' white couple trying to get into The Media, and a public school boy's attempt to do the same), it drew the conclusion that class rather than race was the big barrier - although, of course, if you're black as well, you're at a double disadvantage.

It ended with Matthew Wright issuing a literal call to arms to redress the situation.

The BBC - SEE! WE ARE FOR THE PEOPLE TOO!