In her first speech as Prime Minister, Theresa May spoke of building a country which works for everyone and not just a privileged few. Despite this recognition, British society is still very much ruled by a stratified system of class which has long inspired prejudice, discrimination and classism — and not just of the lower-classes but featuring inverted snobbery of the more fortunate also.
The hierarchical British Class system, once an all together more simple device used to distinguish the socio-economic standings of three distinct groups identified within society — upper, middle, and lower class — has over time become more and more complex as sociologists, political scientists and anthropologists have tried to better reflect the ever-changing faces of the nation. That said, those were simpler times. We no longer live in the age of Downton Abbey where the ‘upstairs, downstairs’ divide was as profound as could be.
With the traditional three-class analysis outdated, the nation now faces a convoluted system that attempts to further stratify the population. In 2013, born out of the results of the Great British Class Survey, a new seven-stratum class model was introduced to the country — this placing the nation in to seven social classes from Elite to Precariat, with a plethora of new middle-classes in between. The trouble here, in addition to the supplement of further complexity to an already enigmatic notion, is that even with an added four apparent identified new sectors of class, society is far to complex to pigeon-hole the diverse socio-economic personalities of twenty-first century Britain.
In addition to the failure to effectively represent the true diversity of the nation, the system is also flawed by the glass ceiling, or class ceiling more fittingly, it inflicts on society. This makes endeavours of upward social mobility an arduous task for those who wish to transgress the limits imposed upon them through the circumstances in which they are born, such as location and parentage, these being the most likely determinants of what an individuals life chances will be.
This manifesto calls for a revolt against the system which so patently undermines and oppresses the true potentials of members of society, most notably in regard to ascribed social status. It proposes a reform of Britain’s class system, opting instead for a society built on a foundation of meritocracy, in which people have influence or status according to their abilities and achievements rather than because of the social class to which they are said to ‘belong.’
It is high time that social class be considered a mind set, something all together divergent from one’s wealth, that allows for all to be granted the opportunity to follow ambition and be ‘Elite’ regardless of background or beginnings. Through this proposed egalitarian society, the class-struggle that dominates the everyday lives of many may be minimised, ease of social mobility enforced, and societal prejudice quashed. Let us, as a nation, bring down the class ceiling once and for all.
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