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There is much kerfuffle over Kate Winslet's outburst this week.
She came over all upset that people label her middle-class (because she speaks "nice") when her parents had toiled against all odds. Ergo: she is forever a working-class lass. No she isn't.
Kate is lovely and undeniably talented, and apparently still a good egg. But she is not the woman she was. Just as she is no longer peachy and plump, she has moved on, left behind the old family struggles. Yet instead of joy, there is embarrassment.
I cannot understand this. Or maybe I can. The middle classes are unremittingly scorned, misrepresented and stereotyped. They are supposedly mean, trite, gossipy and uptight. Middle-class Londoners are even more maligned: all power and no heart. Stuff that.
Although some are greedy and others display horrid prejudices against the poor and racially distinct folk, most middle-class Londoners pay their dues, try to raise decent, educated children, do voluntary work, don't leave chewing gum on seats, recycle and fundraise for worthy projects.
When countries grow a substantial middle class good changes begin to happen. All around the world, the poor want the chance to climb the social and economic ladder however daunting and hard. Here the working and workless classes have been made to feel it is a betrayal to strive for a better life. So pervasive is this guilt that even Winslet is falling victim to it.
Britain is one of the most class-divided nations in the developed world. Admittedly our middle classes should do more about that. Most have not fulfilled this responsibility. And when some do, as Harriet Harman is with her Equalities Bill, the rest accuse her of being a "middle-class do-gooder" - as if the insult is self-evident.
You cannot shed your race and gender and sexual orientation but you can shed class, which is what Barack Obama has done with consummate skill. So Kate is in great company but seems ill at ease and apologetic, ashamed even. She cannot take pride in her good fortune and refuses to acknowledge her new class, which is more open and flexible than those above or below. And that is the real shame.
Reader views (6)
My grandmother lifted herself up from the working class and back in the 30's, she would have been congratulated for doing so. Though she is no longer alive, what she has taught us is self respect, self reliance, appreciation of culture etc - the list goes on. As a result, I grew up in a middle class background and I have no hang ups unlike poor deluded Kate as a result. What I see these days is self reliant, conscientous middle class people supporting the morally fickle and overtly fertile indigenous chav and also refusnik immigrant parents raising their either feckless or terrorist minded brats. I bet this won't be published!
What used to be a good thing seems to be no longer applauded. From my experience, the law abiding, self sufficient middle class are seen as a cash cow by Nu-Labour.
- Neil, London, 30/04/2009 23:38
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I just can't help laughing thinking of Katy Brand's impression of Kate 'I'm Normal' Winslet
- Real, London, 30/04/2009 17:44
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Kate Winslet's claim to be working class is as ludicrous as if Michael Carroll (lotto lout) had claimed to be middle class or even upper class as if there were a direct correlation between money and class. Kate is an unreconstructed lovey and assures that the spotlight is on her relentlessly by her insistence on her ordinariness. Good egg she may be under all that posturing but I know a number of people who hide their faces with embarrassment whenever she holds forth.
- Penny Subbotin, Twickenham, 30/04/2009 16:01
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Class has absolutely nothing to do with money. It is to do with education, attitudes and to a certain extent,
(and this last one is very non pc but true) breeding.
You can give a chav a million pounds and they still wouldn't have class.
This is what annoys the left so much and is one of the reasons they hate excellence and success in education.
- Margy, London, 30/04/2009 15:22
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Kate Winslet is always moaning on about her weight and now about her class how dull and boring she is. Shut up girl and enjoy your fame wealth and beauty. She is a very lucky and priveleged woman.
- Patricia, London, 30/04/2009 14:46
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I agree that you can change class through effort and attitude, but you can not legislate it as Harriet Harman is trying. Aspiration is something people need to find for themselves you can not make it a legal right or requirement. All these misguided Government policies do is penalise those that are already striving to improve their own and their family's lot.
- Mark, London, 30/04/2009 10:31
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