The British Class System

Introduction
How can we tell what class someone in the UK belongs to? Well, there are a variety of things for example, occupation, background, father’s job, education, accent, etc.

Upper Class
The Upper Class consists of royal family, aristocrats, and politicians, etc. They usually have plenty of money, belong to high class clubs. According to Abercrombie & Warde (2000:190), they make up only 1% and yet they own one-third of the nation's wealth. So although their number are small, they are important in terms of power, etc. There is a Rich List published every year in the UK, It ranks the top 1,000 riches people in the UK. All the figures should be multiplied by 1,000. For example the richest person is Lakshmi Mittal and family worth 10,800,000,000 pounds (ten billion, eight hundred million pounds), and so on. At the bottom of the list, the 1,771st richest person is worth 30,000,000 pounds. For the amount in Japanese Yen, you should multiply these figures by 150!

They have probably been well educated and gone to public schools such as Harrow, Eton, etc. They have probably attended elite universities such as Oxbridge (Cambridge or Oxford). This is where they have learned to speak Queen’s English (also known as RP or BBC English). It is at places such as these that they have made friends with other upper class people. This is called ‘networking’ and is also called the Old Boys/Girls network. Such people get top high paying jobs like lawyers, doctors, etc. They send their children to expensive schools. And they enjoy expensive hobbies such as polo, fox hunting, shooting, etc.

Upper Middle Class

References
Abercrombie, N. & Warde A. (2000) Contermporary British Society (3rd Ed).