Be Excellent To Each Other

Oh my, this has sped up whilst I wasn't watching. I think I'll leave it at sayign I wish I hadn't said toffs. Because all that class nonsense just gets in the way of the real issues. And craster was right about them not all being.

And apparently the PM has tucked the 42 days bill in a draw to be pulled out and passed the moment something bad happens so people are too scared and jumpy to think things through.

Yep. More erosions of civil liberties. It's not enough that the people have made their opinion clear, and it's not enough that the purpose of our democratically elected government is to follow the will of the people, in the people's interest. Now they're doing "what's good for you, whether you like it or not".

@Mr Chris: cool beans, so long as you're amused 'with' me, sir...

I think now, class has a lot to do with housing. Whether you own your own house, or rent. Whether it's a council house, or whether it used to be. That, and your salary. Regardless of the actual type of work you do.

For example, third line IT support is no different from my Dad getting in his van and driving up to Northampton to repair a wall at the Barclays there. It's still someone receiving a job to go investigate and fix a part of infrastructure for a contracted client. It's just that when I've done that in the past, I've travelled through cyberspace, instead of up the motorway. And instead of being bogged down in traffic, listening to the radio to while away the lonely hours in his van, I've been bogged down by a lack of bandwidth, listening to my iPod to while away the lonely hours in my cubicle.

The fact that I was doing this whilst working for a huge UK solicitors firm for several months, and had to dress smartly and got to flirt with the secretaries doesn't make the actual job any different. Yet his work would be classed as 'lower' than mine.

Wolverhampton, meanwhile, has a company there called Favourite Chicken in the town center. It also has a KFC. Go to Favourite Chicken, it's just as good and tasty, but massively cheaper. Oh, and the Bilash there is a stupidly but justifiably expensive balti house. That is my Good Restaurants recomendation

Wasn't a criticism, chap - just that my mum's best schoolfriend, exactly the same upbringing as her, is now a Baroness and Dame.

Yeah, but your mum's The Countess of Gloucester and met her friend at Cheltenham Ladies College.

My Dad was flying back from Barbados in Virgin's Upper Class ( ), and was surprised one time that the cabin appeared to be almost empty (there are only about nine seats to begin with).

Then in troops some bloke, his wife and assorted children (five, I think).

'Oh shit', thinks my father. 'This flight is going to be horrible.'

Yet the flight begins, and the children are impeccably behaved.

So eventually my Dad goes up to speak to the father, to say how impressed he is with the behaviour of his children.

It turns out that the father is actually Roy Keane, and his children are as scared of him as the rest of the world!

Also they've changed it to Pasta Hut, I hear.

Not all of them though, just some of them, as a promotional thing, for a limited time only. And! I was being glib in saying that

You shouldn't eat there though, that ruins it. It's like with those "Limited Edition" kit-kats. When I see people eating them, instead of putting them away safely for the grandkids' college fund, it makes me sad.

I guess this thread is in a different place now, but do people want to hear my report on how it went?

Yes, tell us, leaving out no detail no matter how small.

@CUS: yes

I think every screamng kid should be forced to go to Pizza Express (Then I'll never see them!)

Just keep the screaming little fucks out of the pub.

I was on the verge of requesting a report. Bring me some Leedsy/lovey goodness.

So what is it?


I think it's more to do with money than housing. I am, grudgingly*, middle class now, and live in a very middle class block of flats, that used to be one of the worst council buildings in London.

*I don't see why I should be ashamed of being middle class, and I'm not, I guess, I think I'd just rather not have any label like that stuck to me, in my head I says I don't work as hard. It doesn't make much sense anyway. My mother is a vet, and a pretty good one as I understand it, so she's middle class. My dad is a mechanic (who also struggles with his writing and spelling due to leaving school at 14 and daring to be left-handed while he was there), so he's "only" lower class, but (even taking into account that he's my dad and all) he is the most amazing mechanic you ever saw. He diagnosed a problem with my Range Rover and Land Rover had to plug it into a computer before they believed him. He was able to diagnose said problem because I called him while I was driving it, and he could hear something was wrong. It's fucking vehicular voodoo, I tell you.

Your dad is my brother in law. And mine and Rich's mechanic

Is your sister called Mary?

It's Pasta Hut 'for a limited time only at participating restaurants', possibly as a prelude to a permanent shift.


What makes it middle-class now?

I politely disagree, although maybe I used the wrong word in 'housing'. Property would be better. And not necessarily housing. Land, like gold, is wanted by everyone and controlled by the few.

Many so-called toffs are from generations of farming stock. Who are still toiling on the land, doing the same serf work that their ancestors would have done at the bidding of their lord. But now, they get to keep/sell what they grow, to simplify it massively. That's the historic class divide, essentially.

The creation of low-income housing for factory work changed that on a huge scale. It wasn't even that long ago, the results are still being tested and considered, I think.

The middle-class, essentially, are those who aren't bothered about owning their own land and passing it down to their kids. They also will certainly not be found working on a fucking farm, what, covered in pig shit? Fuck that. Civil servants most of them, they have historically had the contempt of the other classes for not 'playing the game' and using the 'correct' means to create power or wealth for themselves. The middle-class is far from the traditions of monarchy, and more of an imperialist concept. But the modern EU is more of a socialist concept...


You shouldn't, sir. Oh, oh, no - I'm not meaning to suggest for a minute that being middle class is a terrible thing, not at all.

The middle classes have become those which increasingly 'drive' the country. That's where the power lies now. That's where 'popular opinion' lies, as well as the brunt of Britain's intra-county business. It's also a cultural thing. The interesting thing about the term 'chav', is that much of it can be applied to the so-called working classes as much as it can to the toffs.

The problem is that the middle class are the most nervous of all. And I do think that 'chav' is a reaction to the slightly snide term 'middle class' as applied to civil servants. It's an inversion. It proves also where the power currently lies. But, weirdly, there's this this element of denial it all. Generations of people who, whilst aware that they are typical of most folk in the country in terms of pay-scale and job-type (and field of work), refuse to admit any responsibility or culpability for anything within the nation itself. It's been reflected in the polls (and not just through voter fatigue) most obviously of all.

It's a kind of weirdly cynical ambivalence to everything that happens. I realise that this might sound like I'm saying "I hate you! You're ruining Britain by not really being that bothered by anything that's going on here!", but I'm not. I'm saying that, as a self-confessed member of the middle-class, you ought to just maybe consider that. I'm grinning and winking as I say that, mind!


That's correct, yeah. Go back three hundred years and she might have been responsible for tending the local baron's prize falcons, or something. That's a lofty position.


Cool He would be lower-class I think. Tending the equipment used for labouring the fields, and the like. But in as high a position within that strata as you could go, really.

My own Dad is a builder, and my Mum is a care nurse. One builds walls, the other spends her time with the diseased. Me, I'm not sure. I think I should be middle-class, except I have absolutely no property or decent assets, and my work is just the IT equivalent of my Dad's building work. I've also spent most of my adult life unemployed; but then, I was born in the Black Country at the end of the 70s; but then equally, I've been to university. So fuck knows really.

Can your Dad do that with any vehicle?

The market it's aimed at / priced for, I guess. "Young Professionals". Sam is the only baby in the (126-flat) building.


That, and I guess because you have to be university-educated to do it.


Well, he does now look after a very rich man's personal collection of racing cars.


Pretty much. Any that still runs on flammable liquids and doesn't require 2GB of RAM to start up, I guess.

Unlike being a carer for the sick and elderly, where you don't. Because tending for diseased people isn't as important as ensuring prize animals are kept well. I don't say that with any vehemence, it's just historically true that ensuring the Prize Herd are healthy was of more importance than making sure the guy who milks them isn't dying. Worst comes to the worst, the guy who owns the cow milks it himself.


How much do you pay him to do that?

Kudos to your folks anyway.

I don't do this class thing. Prefer to see it as a function of attitude. There's me, and there's the chav cunts that I despise and wish to set on fire. I don't care what job they do. If you've got a job then you're OK by me. I don't care if you shoval shit for a living as long as you're a nice polite person who doesn't act like a twat and thus be deserving of immediate and swift death.

I would like to know 2 things:

1) Did you fuck her?

2) Was it an ex of mine?

Is MaliA mentally unstable or does he just play one on TV?

Hmm.

1) That's private
2) Yes


Shortish version.

So, I met this girl at Leeds festival, we got on amazingly well, and have kept in touch over facebook/txt. It was her birthday this weekend just gone, and she invited me to visit her for the weekend. Saturday night was her party, where she introduced me to a bunch of her friends/housemates, she went to visit her family on Sunday, so I crashed at a mates. We spent Monday together, then I took her out for this meal, and then I asked her if she was my girlfriend. She basically said yes (it's a bit complicated, she has just gotten out of a long term relationship, and she doesn't want her ex (who I also sort of know) to know just yet).

Lewie you're so cute. Come here so I can ruffle your hair. Also, congrats, you smooth dawg, you.

Good work Lewie. Glad it's going well.

Well, you're saying that you'll never like someone without a job there. Is that the case?

No, but what I'm saying is that the job isn't important as long as you have one. i.e. you're not just a scuzzy layabout that does nothing but pilfer free monies from the state. It's not a trait that makes me want to be friends.

It does certainly make me rather think less of a person, unfortunately, yes.

Speaking of those with a choice, that is, who have 'nothing wrong' with them.

Thanks guys, I've got a good feeling about this.

Good stuff.

Awww. And you get to spend the half term together now too! It's like "my girl" but with better music.

Seriously - good stuff, mate.

Her names not Madonna is it?

Good stuff, Mr Lewie P.

I am going to Pizza Hut for lunch. PIZZA HUT. I am commonchavscum, evidently.

I thought they were called Pasta Hut now?

A white hole?

Motion to chage the name of the forum to "Discuss Red Dwarf quotes and Pizza Snobbery with Each Other"

+85% funny!

You're closing on the elusive 100%, man.

Joans is riding high on a wave of funny this week. I predict a crash soon.

Following lunch, I declare that Pizza Express is clearly superior to Pizza Hut based on food alone. Nothing at Pizza Hut matches the sloppy guiseppe. ( ?)

Shush! Joans has brought an end to comedy boom and bust with his policy of prudence with his japery.

Unlike you, mr spunk it all over everyone in a profligate splashing person.

Wait, only this week? I've been trying for so long.

Market analysts have predicted a sharp drop in funny over the next few days.

I can only assume Joans has been replaced by a bodysnatcher with bigger balls. He never used to say boo to a ghost and now he's arguing with me all the time. This almost makes me like him more. Almost.

That's not a bad thing.

They should make Pasta Express

Yes, Pizza Express is by far superior. And it has a better class of clientèle.

Hut Express.

The thing with pasta is that I can make it to be almost as nice as restaurants. I can't do that with Pizza.

So I always buy pizza.

Yum Pizza!

how's this for awesome?

Went to pizza express tonight with a friend and used the BOGOF deal posted in the bargains thread. That's the cheapest main meal free, or two awesome pizzas for £9.

Here's the best bit. When the waitress was putting the pizza on the table, she accidentally caught a slice with her finger and it flipped over top down on the table top. She was mortified and said she'd give us another pizza, and wouldn't hear our protestations that it was OK, it was only one slice after all.

Anyway, I eat the flipped slice (perfectly good) and the rest of my pizza, and my friend eats hers. The waitress then gives us ANOTHER giant pizza worth over £9 for free, which she then boxes for me to take home. I've got cold pizza for lunch tomorrow for free.

So, for those of you paying attention, that's THREE awesome pizzas worth £27 for a grand total of £9. Pizza Express is AWESOME.

I like the thought that a man that spends 99% of his time washing his hands would eat pizza off a table top.

I'm confident that the table was pretty clean, and when last I checked nobody had rubbed their penis or arse against it.

Oh, that's ok then.

Wait, which branch of Pizza Express?

Cheadle. I can honestly say its one of the better ones, rarely have I had a bad experience there. The one time I complained about my coffee with curdled milk they offered a replacement and comped it from the bill.

I clearly rule. Good work on your end too!