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| Beware the working class | Beware the working class |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| All together now...A classless society? The assumed characteristics of each social group still exert an exotic fascination, says Laurie Taylor in his weekly column for the Magazine. | All together now...A classless society? The assumed characteristics of each social group still exert an exotic fascination, says Laurie Taylor in his weekly column for the Magazine. |
| My mother always encouraged me to think of the working class as an alien species. | My mother always encouraged me to think of the working class as an alien species. |
| So when in the late 1950s I took a job as a librarian and was posted to a branch in the middle of one of Liverpool's most solidly working class areas, she used to wave me off in the morning with a nervousness that would have been more appropriate in someone dispatching an Amazonian explorer. | So when in the late 1950s I took a job as a librarian and was posted to a branch in the middle of one of Liverpool's most solidly working class areas, she used to wave me off in the morning with a nervousness that would have been more appropriate in someone dispatching an Amazonian explorer. |
| At the time I largely shared her concern. I had, after all, listened for years to her warnings about the dark and dangerously contagious aspects of working class life. | At the time I largely shared her concern. I had, after all, listened for years to her warnings about the dark and dangerously contagious aspects of working class life. |
| I knew that working-class people were "rough" and "tough" and sometimes "uncouth". I knew that they washed rather less frequently than people like ourselves and our neighbours. FIND OUT MORE Hear Laurie Taylor's Thinking Allowed on Radio 4 at 1600 on Wednesdays or 0030 on MondaysOr download the podcast here | I knew that working-class people were "rough" and "tough" and sometimes "uncouth". I knew that they washed rather less frequently than people like ourselves and our neighbours. FIND OUT MORE Hear Laurie Taylor's Thinking Allowed on Radio 4 at 1600 on Wednesdays or 0030 on MondaysOr download the podcast here |
| I knew that they were often addicted to gambling and drinking. I knew that they used bad language, made a great deal of noise in the street, spent a lot of time scrubbing their front door steps, had broad and often incomprehensible accents, and were inclined to beat their own children. | I knew that they were often addicted to gambling and drinking. I knew that they used bad language, made a great deal of noise in the street, spent a lot of time scrubbing their front door steps, had broad and often incomprehensible accents, and were inclined to beat their own children. |
| I can still remember the apprehension I felt on my first day at the library as I stood behind the waist-high counter and waited to attend to my first borrower. The working class constituted a proper subject for anthropological investigation, but my own middle-classness was so essentially normative that it required no such examination | I can still remember the apprehension I felt on my first day at the library as I stood behind the waist-high counter and waited to attend to my first borrower. The working class constituted a proper subject for anthropological investigation, but my own middle-classness was so essentially normative that it required no such examination |
| What would the natives make of their new colonial visitor? Would they make fun of my carefully pressed John Collier suit? Would they perhaps mock my accent or my patterns of speech? Would they laugh at my lankiness? Worse still, would they threaten to start a fight when I politely asked them to pay an outstanding fine? | What would the natives make of their new colonial visitor? Would they make fun of my carefully pressed John Collier suit? Would they perhaps mock my accent or my patterns of speech? Would they laugh at my lankiness? Worse still, would they threaten to start a fight when I politely asked them to pay an outstanding fine? |
| Some of my presentiments turned out to be well founded. A few of the borrowers, particularly the children, used to giggle when I spoke and I was asked more than once where I got my suit. | Some of my presentiments turned out to be well founded. A few of the borrowers, particularly the children, used to giggle when I spoke and I was asked more than once where I got my suit. |
| Nobody started a fight over a fine but one day an irate woman came in and threw two overdue books in my face and told me that if she had any more warning letters she'd come in again and "do me over". | Nobody started a fight over a fine but one day an irate woman came in and threw two overdue books in my face and told me that if she had any more warning letters she'd come in again and "do me over". |
| However, after a few months in the library I felt sufficiently attuned to my new environment to risk popping across the road to The Admiral pub for a lunch-time half-pint of Walker's Warrington Ale.The twain not meeting | However, after a few months in the library I felt sufficiently attuned to my new environment to risk popping across the road to The Admiral pub for a lunch-time half-pint of Walker's Warrington Ale.The twain not meeting |
| But there was never anything that amounted to real fraternisation between myself and my fellow drinkers. I was never bought a pint, or invited to anyone's house, or given any news or gossip about the area. | But there was never anything that amounted to real fraternisation between myself and my fellow drinkers. I was never bought a pint, or invited to anyone's house, or given any news or gossip about the area. |
| There was always a tacit recognition that we came from two sides of a great divide. I might only be the lanky boy from the library across the road, but I was still "one of them", one of the class that they usually only encountered when they were being assessed for possible housing allocation, or benefits, or employment. | There was always a tacit recognition that we came from two sides of a great divide. I might only be the lanky boy from the library across the road, but I was still "one of them", one of the class that they usually only encountered when they were being assessed for possible housing allocation, or benefits, or employment. |
| And the middle class | And the middle class |
| My memories of the distinctiveness of the working class at that point in history came flooding back as I read a new paper by Selina Todd on the research which sociologists carried out in the slums of Liverpool during the late 1950s. Careful of your shoes, Prime Minister | My memories of the distinctiveness of the working class at that point in history came flooding back as I read a new paper by Selina Todd on the research which sociologists carried out in the slums of Liverpool during the late 1950s. Careful of your shoes, Prime Minister |
| Research which rested on very much the same assumption with which I'd approached my working class library users - the assumption that they constituted a proper subject for anthropological investigation, while my own middle-classness was so essentially normative that it required no such academic examination. | Research which rested on very much the same assumption with which I'd approached my working class library users - the assumption that they constituted a proper subject for anthropological investigation, while my own middle-classness was so essentially normative that it required no such academic examination. |
| I did once ask a man in the Admiral what it was like to work on the docks. When he shrugged and muttered something about it being alright as long as you had the right cargo to work on, I asked, very tentatively, if there was any way I could come down and see some of the ships close up. | I did once ask a man in the Admiral what it was like to work on the docks. When he shrugged and muttered something about it being alright as long as you had the right cargo to work on, I asked, very tentatively, if there was any way I could come down and see some of the ships close up. |
| He looked at me for a second and said: "You'll have to get some ____ on your shoes first." I chose not to mention the matter to my mother. | He looked at me for a second and said: "You'll have to get some ____ on your shoes first." I chose not to mention the matter to my mother. |
| Add your comments on this story, using the form below. | Add your comments on this story, using the form below. |
| I always assume that the British class system is purely designed to confuse foreigners. The term "working class" is odd, most people work and even factory jobs are often clean and pleasant. Yet a lot of offices have casual wear too, again blurring the differences. And a lot of the "working class" are self-employed, so in theory their own boss. I think we are drifting to the US situation, where everyone thinks they are middle class, aside from the Royal family.John, London, UK | |
| "Normative"? Are you sure that's what you mean? After all, it doesn't sound like your middle classness differed from their working classness in that it meant you behaved in certain ways. If anything, working classness seems to have a greater normative component than middle classness, in that it informed this "don't speak to the posho over there" reaction. I wonder what you did mean...? Andy, Sheffield, UK | "Normative"? Are you sure that's what you mean? After all, it doesn't sound like your middle classness differed from their working classness in that it meant you behaved in certain ways. If anything, working classness seems to have a greater normative component than middle classness, in that it informed this "don't speak to the posho over there" reaction. I wonder what you did mean...? Andy, Sheffield, UK |