Is UK still obsessed with class?

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Doesn't class have privileges in the UK?

By the mid-19th century the British Empire was the foremost power in the world. London was the Empire's capital and the largest city on the planet, but the city was poverty-stricken. The living conditions in the slums were dreadful on a scale that most people living in Britain today could only imagine. To scratch a living many resorted to crime and prostitution. One way to make a living was as a "sewer-hunter," also known as a "tosher."

A tosher was someone who scavenged the sewers, especially in Victorian London. They entered the sewers with a hoe or fishing net, or something similar, and searched the foul-smelling sewerage for items they could sell or use, including metal, rope, cutlery, coins and other items that had been washed down the drains. Toshers would wait for low tide before walking the rat-infested sewers for miles searching for scraps, and they apparently made a decent wage. By the mid-19th century it was illegal to enter the sewers without permission and toshers were forced to work in secret, mostly at night. It was a very dangerous job, because a tosher risked catching diseases, becoming injured, or getting lost in the maze that is London's sewer system. There were also millions of rats. According to one man speaking about the rats, “They’ve pulled men down and worried ’em, and picked their bones as clean as a washed plate.” Henry Mayhew, who wrote "London Labour and the London Poor", interviewed a sewer hunter and this is what he was told:

“I’ve often seen as many as a hundred rats at once, and they’re woppers in the sewers … they’d think nothink of tackling a man … Do you recollect hearing on the man as was found in the sewers about twelve year ago? … the rats eat every bit of him, and left nothink but his bones.”

The word tosher was also used for people who scavenged the shoreline and dumps. Mayhew described the toshers' appearance:

"These toshers may be seen, especially on the Surrey side of the Thames, habited in long greasy velveteen coats, furnished with pockets of vast capacity, and their nether limbs encased in dirty canvas trousers, and any old slops of shoes… provide themselves, in addition, with a canvas apron, which they tie round them, and a dark lantern similar to a policeman’s; this they strap before them on the right breast, in such a manner that on removing the shade, the bull’s eye throws the light straight forward when they are in an erect position… but when they stoop, it throws the light directly under them so that they can distinctly see any object at their feet. They carry a bag on their back, and in their left hand a pole about seven or eight feet long, on one end of which there is a large iron hoe."

I doubt it but if our government thought there was a way of making tax out of it I'm sure they'd find a way of bringing it back

Do you still have toshers?

I'm sure it does with the right crowd if you're high up. After all, the age old saying goes - it's not what you know, it's who you know. I think a lot of opportunity is down to location, which has its links to class. .

Personally I find it kind of amusing because I've been called a toff (an insult to the upper-class, basically calling someone spoilt and out of touch / never had to work for anything) but I've also had people assume that I must be rough and uncivilised based on where I'm from. So, your mileage may vary depending on your audience.

Australia was founded by convicts and poor working class. But like the children in the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, we eventually reach an equilibrium and bow now have our own proxy class system.
Landed class - these were British aristocrats whose children were endowed large tracts of land for farming, forestry and mining. They kept their wealth in-house so their family names became the social elite in Australia.

Educated elite - made up of the professional class - university educated hold good jobs and have lots of money. Often pretend to have fake British accents.

Bogans - working class - reputation for being uncouth and unrefined - tattoos, fast loud cars and bar room brawls

New money - millionaires often drawn from the educated elite or bogans

Broadly speaking, I personally define different social classes in the UK as follows:

Upper class - People who were born into great wealth or people who are, or are related to royalty of some kind

Middle class - People who have a significant amount of wealth and/or education, who live in certain areas where house prices are of a certain value and where most people earn good incomes

Working class - The majority of workers, either paid average or worse wages. People who are less likely to complete education due to a lack of funding, usually from a lack of parental backing

The under-class - People on government benefits, sometimes poorly educated, living in low income neighbourhoods.

Obviously there are people who have bits and pieces of different class criteria, but again, ^ broadly speaking.

Middle class is a tricky one. Back in the day, a university education guaranteed a good salary but that's rarely the case now. There are a lot of electricians who make 70k a year and a lot of university graduates who threw up their caps on graduation day a decade ago only for a McDonalds cap to fall back down on their head.

I like McDonalds. The Philly Cheese stack was brilliant and that Steakhouse stack burger is also good. Perhaps the graduates are all out the back finding the exact proportions of cheese needed for a good burger?

I have read that the The Beatles despite their wealth and fame was still considered working class because that is what they were born into. Was that and is true?

I think social mobility has actually decreased a fair bit in the past several decades.

In the 1970's it was higher than it is now.

Father- lower middle class upbringing. Scholarship to King Edward's school Birmingham. Short time as army officer. Switched to Foreign office. Took early retirement as diplomatic equivalent of a major general rather than agree to becoming ambassador to the Gabon.

Me- prep and public school educated. First psych symptoms in early teens. First saw pdoc a few months before I was 17. SMI since I was 18. Asperger's dx when I was 62. No paid employment. Very little voluntary/unpaid work. Have lived in council or housing association properties in low income areas for over 30 years. Social drift.

Major general equivalent is lower middle class?