...since I appear to agree almost word for word with the current council manifesto for UKIP. This has come as something of a shock to me; I always regarded myself as a natural left-winger, not withstanding my disillusionment with the Labour Party in recent years; I assumed that fairness must reside with the left. But since Labour appear to have abandoned the disadvantaged to chase the Southern floating voter (most disgustingly with the failure to oppose the workfare clawback bill of IDS) I have been looking at alternative expressions of my views. I have long been sceptical of the EU, due to the fact that immigration has both depressed wages at the bottom of the labour market and displaced English workers from much casual work. I believe Tony Benn was correct and that it has done the man in the street no favours being part of the (expensive) club. We *should* leave.
So I guess I have no current affiliation, other than, tentatively, UKIP, along with many other disenfranchised former lefties. the future will be interesting. They aren't just little Englanders and Daily Mail readers any more.
Friday 26 April 2013
Two IPAs...
...American style, obviously, but both from rather cracking West Yorkshire breweries. First up one of my favourites, Ilkley Brewery's Lotus IPA. At 5.6% abv it isn't a heavy hitter compared to the US imports, but is fairly malty (like say a Czech pilsner) and full bodied, while being tangy and stuffed with tropical fruit flavours, it wallops all the bases rather than just being a hop bomb. A cracking beer I'd recommend to anyone.
Moving on to Saltaire Brewery's Stateside IPA, at a slightly more robust 6% abv. This sets out its stall immediately as a hop-forward gob-puckerer, thinner and less balanced than the Lotus but with some tasty pine resin and citrus US hop flavours. Goes down scarily quick for the strength and is very enjoyable. Another win for Saltaire - I actually wanted their excellent Kala Black IPA, but Keelham Farm Shop was out of stock so I got this to try instead. On balance I'd rather have the Kala as I'm a sucker for Munich malt, but this is a very good beer so I won't sulk too much. Doubleplusgood. *hic*
(Again, not my pic - this is actually off the SB website I think. Let me know if you'd rather I took my own pic lads if that's the case)
looks good... not my pic, just one off the interwebs. If it's yours and you don't want it on here ask me nicely and I'll find another, or disable hotlinking. ;)
Moving on to Saltaire Brewery's Stateside IPA, at a slightly more robust 6% abv. This sets out its stall immediately as a hop-forward gob-puckerer, thinner and less balanced than the Lotus but with some tasty pine resin and citrus US hop flavours. Goes down scarily quick for the strength and is very enjoyable. Another win for Saltaire - I actually wanted their excellent Kala Black IPA, but Keelham Farm Shop was out of stock so I got this to try instead. On balance I'd rather have the Kala as I'm a sucker for Munich malt, but this is a very good beer so I won't sulk too much. Doubleplusgood. *hic*
(Again, not my pic - this is actually off the SB website I think. Let me know if you'd rather I took my own pic lads if that's the case)
Thursday 4 April 2013
Class? I've got none, me. Oh alright, I'm a middle class tosser.
*May contain slightly inebriated rambling and contradiction*
I've been reading about the 'new' seven class model some social researchers have been bibbling about, and while fairly interesting it seems to lean on some fairly binary assumptions about peoples habits, and doesn't take into account the London/SE effect regarding the likelihood of someone renting as opposed to owner-occupying their home - for instance my modestly priced 4 bed terraced house in the North would buy you half a crappy flat in a dodgy area of London, if you're lucky, and before the property boom was within easy reach of most working folk, which is how I found myself a property owner twelve years ago. Nowadays I wouldn't have stood a chance as the same house is valued at 5 times the local average wage instead of 3. Down in That London where property prices are more nuts I can't imagine how people ever get on the ladder.
Anyway I digress. I did the quiz meself, and came out as 'New Affluent Workers', I assume because I own my home, use social media and have a middling income. But what does that actually tell you about your social class? Some folk don't think it matters. That's patently bollocks - it colours not only how you see yourself and your own prospects and the things 'people like you' can do, but how those outside your caste see you. And it isn't always about money. Being personal. I have recently realised after believing myself to be working class my whole life, that I'm not really. My dad is a skilled manual worker, who was able to command a good wage and conditions when working for others. (Tick the 'C2' box) However he also ran his own business several times with varying success, as a market trader and hard scrabbling one-man-band garage owner (C1? Really?). And my mum, who officially doesn't count in the traditional measure of class by father's occupation, after years of shop and factory work ('D') trained at college as a primary school teacher as a mature student, becoming edumacated and acquiring a professional job ('B') by the time I left home. We didn't have loadsamoney when I was growing up and there was a fair bit my schoolmates took for granted we didn't get - partly as my parents were frugal and wanted a decent foundation for their future. Very aspirational. So I was a bit confused as to whether I was working class or not. I felt working class - half my family lived in council housing and had traditionally working class jobs, and my family had earned its keep as skilled labour for generations.
But does this really apply to me, as a thirtysomething adult with a university degree and a disturbing fondness for poncy beverages? How many shelfstackers drink Lapsang Souchong and filter coffee, and if unable to pay for them would just not bother? Yes. I'm a tea and coffee snob. Its not an income thing, we're not flush. I'd rather have one cup of decent filter coffee when I get up - Aldi's filter coffee is actually very good, at £1.79 for 250g - than sup fucking supermarket instant all day, and for a difference of 3p a teabag I'll buy posh teabags that are tasty than the harsh generic stuff, I figure I save the difference since I don't have milk in it. The point - that isn't a typically 'working class' value judgement to have made. A small thing I know, but on such ephemera class identity these days turns.
Attitude - does the world owe me a living? Definitely, I'm with Crass on this one. You take us off the land, you owe us a means of sustenance. This isn't to say that one shouldn't need to work for it; merely to have a means of doing so, since self-sufficiency isn't a realistic option in post-industrial revolution Britain. In practical terms that means a realistic chance of a job paying a living wage, or help to fund a business of your own. So as far as that goes I suspect I'm a socialist in economic terms. I believe in equality of opportunity. Equality of outcome is in the lap of the gods to some extent and down to luck and individual talent for the rest. I don't resent the bloke up the road who spots a gap in the market and uses it to make some brass, more than me - if I had spotted it first and had the spare cash and relevant skills/contacts to do it first, I would have without a second thought. So I guess I also believe in free enterprise. Very thatcherite (curse, spit). Disclosure: My degree is in business and management. My cohort was full of entitled rich kids from fee-paying schools - I was a mature *cough* student with a young family, scraping by on a grant and working every hour I could get in the holidays (lucky me eh? No such ladder up nowadays, and not much casual work either). A fair few used daddy's connections to get a start in some corporation on graduating - fair enough. I still didn't like many of them, though I admired their confidence. So a mixed bag there, and probably consistent with my 'aspirational skilled working class' upbringing.
Back to taste, and aspiration. Culture is an important indicator of social class, according to the researchers mentioned, and going by my lived experiences. Both me and my better half have struggled with being intelligent and independently minded working class kids growing up, knowing that the things we found interesting or cool were derided or considered 'poncy' or 'boring' by our peers, while staring at the other class gap with our friends from middle class backgrounds who took their wider horizons for granted. It can leave you feeling disconnected - you have nothing to talk about with people who watch sodding Coronation Street, don't read books, get their opinions from the tabloid propaganda rags and look at you like you're an alien visitor if you try to talk to them about anything beyond what's on telly or what that bitch from down the street did on Friday night. Yet you don't feel like you belong with the affluent, complacent middle class types either. So you either feel like an impostor, or a class traitor - you're clearly not typically working class and actively look down on people 'like you' for being a bit thick, boring, or narrow minded, and still don't identify with being middle class because you didn't grow up with money and were sneered at and patronised by these people when growing up because the way they lived wasn't like us so we felt awkward in their homes, and didn't have the same assumptions about where our lives would lead after school that they did. At 15 I was sick to be a market trader, or to have my own small manufacturing business with friends where we could flog the cool stuff we'd designed and made. University wasn't really in there other than as an abstract - I assumed I'd be pushed into it at some point since I was flying academically, but I wasn't really interested in anything other than skateboarding and making money by working. I did squeeze in A levels at the local college while working part time, just in case. By 20 I was a young father-in-waiting, jumping from job to job while struggling to make ends meet, living with my fiancee in a high rise council flat. Some of my neighbours were *strivers*. Some were *druggie wankers*, and antisocial career claimants. So I didn't identify with many of them either, despite our dismal economic status. Nine months after the arrival of our eldest I was enrolled at university, aiming to make the best of our chances. I had the choice, due to previous efforts. It cost us dearly in financial terms, setting into motion a spiral of debt which persists more than 15 years later due to unforeseen circumstances, and I hope one day the gamble pays off.
Finally - on benefit claimants. From what I've already disclosed, it should be apparent that I'm an aspiring, educated, apparently middle class person who wants to succeed and is willing to work hard to do so. Yet currently, we do receive some state benefits. According to the ConDems and most of the media this negates everything else and makes me shiftless lazy scum, sleeping off a lifestyle choice (I get up at 6.45 every day, sorting out a scrum of schoolkids before cracking on with a variety of chores, a part time college course and other activities. Don't let that stop you imagining me sat in a vest, watching jeremy kyle in front of our fictional 50" plasma screen telly all day while I laugh at my hardworking neighbours). I doubt I'm the only one in this position. Hopefully I won't be for much longer. So am I middle class, working-class or 'Shameless' style underclass dependency junkie?
*Head explodes*
I've been reading about the 'new' seven class model some social researchers have been bibbling about, and while fairly interesting it seems to lean on some fairly binary assumptions about peoples habits, and doesn't take into account the London/SE effect regarding the likelihood of someone renting as opposed to owner-occupying their home - for instance my modestly priced 4 bed terraced house in the North would buy you half a crappy flat in a dodgy area of London, if you're lucky, and before the property boom was within easy reach of most working folk, which is how I found myself a property owner twelve years ago. Nowadays I wouldn't have stood a chance as the same house is valued at 5 times the local average wage instead of 3. Down in That London where property prices are more nuts I can't imagine how people ever get on the ladder.
Anyway I digress. I did the quiz meself, and came out as 'New Affluent Workers', I assume because I own my home, use social media and have a middling income. But what does that actually tell you about your social class? Some folk don't think it matters. That's patently bollocks - it colours not only how you see yourself and your own prospects and the things 'people like you' can do, but how those outside your caste see you. And it isn't always about money. Being personal. I have recently realised after believing myself to be working class my whole life, that I'm not really. My dad is a skilled manual worker, who was able to command a good wage and conditions when working for others. (Tick the 'C2' box) However he also ran his own business several times with varying success, as a market trader and hard scrabbling one-man-band garage owner (C1? Really?). And my mum, who officially doesn't count in the traditional measure of class by father's occupation, after years of shop and factory work ('D') trained at college as a primary school teacher as a mature student, becoming edumacated and acquiring a professional job ('B') by the time I left home. We didn't have loadsamoney when I was growing up and there was a fair bit my schoolmates took for granted we didn't get - partly as my parents were frugal and wanted a decent foundation for their future. Very aspirational. So I was a bit confused as to whether I was working class or not. I felt working class - half my family lived in council housing and had traditionally working class jobs, and my family had earned its keep as skilled labour for generations.
But does this really apply to me, as a thirtysomething adult with a university degree and a disturbing fondness for poncy beverages? How many shelfstackers drink Lapsang Souchong and filter coffee, and if unable to pay for them would just not bother? Yes. I'm a tea and coffee snob. Its not an income thing, we're not flush. I'd rather have one cup of decent filter coffee when I get up - Aldi's filter coffee is actually very good, at £1.79 for 250g - than sup fucking supermarket instant all day, and for a difference of 3p a teabag I'll buy posh teabags that are tasty than the harsh generic stuff, I figure I save the difference since I don't have milk in it. The point - that isn't a typically 'working class' value judgement to have made. A small thing I know, but on such ephemera class identity these days turns.
Attitude - does the world owe me a living? Definitely, I'm with Crass on this one. You take us off the land, you owe us a means of sustenance. This isn't to say that one shouldn't need to work for it; merely to have a means of doing so, since self-sufficiency isn't a realistic option in post-industrial revolution Britain. In practical terms that means a realistic chance of a job paying a living wage, or help to fund a business of your own. So as far as that goes I suspect I'm a socialist in economic terms. I believe in equality of opportunity. Equality of outcome is in the lap of the gods to some extent and down to luck and individual talent for the rest. I don't resent the bloke up the road who spots a gap in the market and uses it to make some brass, more than me - if I had spotted it first and had the spare cash and relevant skills/contacts to do it first, I would have without a second thought. So I guess I also believe in free enterprise. Very thatcherite (curse, spit). Disclosure: My degree is in business and management. My cohort was full of entitled rich kids from fee-paying schools - I was a mature *cough* student with a young family, scraping by on a grant and working every hour I could get in the holidays (lucky me eh? No such ladder up nowadays, and not much casual work either). A fair few used daddy's connections to get a start in some corporation on graduating - fair enough. I still didn't like many of them, though I admired their confidence. So a mixed bag there, and probably consistent with my 'aspirational skilled working class' upbringing.
Back to taste, and aspiration. Culture is an important indicator of social class, according to the researchers mentioned, and going by my lived experiences. Both me and my better half have struggled with being intelligent and independently minded working class kids growing up, knowing that the things we found interesting or cool were derided or considered 'poncy' or 'boring' by our peers, while staring at the other class gap with our friends from middle class backgrounds who took their wider horizons for granted. It can leave you feeling disconnected - you have nothing to talk about with people who watch sodding Coronation Street, don't read books, get their opinions from the tabloid propaganda rags and look at you like you're an alien visitor if you try to talk to them about anything beyond what's on telly or what that bitch from down the street did on Friday night. Yet you don't feel like you belong with the affluent, complacent middle class types either. So you either feel like an impostor, or a class traitor - you're clearly not typically working class and actively look down on people 'like you' for being a bit thick, boring, or narrow minded, and still don't identify with being middle class because you didn't grow up with money and were sneered at and patronised by these people when growing up because the way they lived wasn't like us so we felt awkward in their homes, and didn't have the same assumptions about where our lives would lead after school that they did. At 15 I was sick to be a market trader, or to have my own small manufacturing business with friends where we could flog the cool stuff we'd designed and made. University wasn't really in there other than as an abstract - I assumed I'd be pushed into it at some point since I was flying academically, but I wasn't really interested in anything other than skateboarding and making money by working. I did squeeze in A levels at the local college while working part time, just in case. By 20 I was a young father-in-waiting, jumping from job to job while struggling to make ends meet, living with my fiancee in a high rise council flat. Some of my neighbours were *strivers*. Some were *druggie wankers*, and antisocial career claimants. So I didn't identify with many of them either, despite our dismal economic status. Nine months after the arrival of our eldest I was enrolled at university, aiming to make the best of our chances. I had the choice, due to previous efforts. It cost us dearly in financial terms, setting into motion a spiral of debt which persists more than 15 years later due to unforeseen circumstances, and I hope one day the gamble pays off.
Finally - on benefit claimants. From what I've already disclosed, it should be apparent that I'm an aspiring, educated, apparently middle class person who wants to succeed and is willing to work hard to do so. Yet currently, we do receive some state benefits. According to the ConDems and most of the media this negates everything else and makes me shiftless lazy scum, sleeping off a lifestyle choice (I get up at 6.45 every day, sorting out a scrum of schoolkids before cracking on with a variety of chores, a part time college course and other activities. Don't let that stop you imagining me sat in a vest, watching jeremy kyle in front of our fictional 50" plasma screen telly all day while I laugh at my hardworking neighbours). I doubt I'm the only one in this position. Hopefully I won't be for much longer. So am I middle class, working-class or 'Shameless' style underclass dependency junkie?
*Head explodes*
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