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The English middle classes are not what they were. This ought hearts tha+ to belong to the middle classes still gives us
to be good news for a nation whose class structure had enormous advantages. We stand, as it were, on the safe and
become a form of arthritis, stiffening the joints and restricting solid side of an economic and social volcanic fault line.
ambition, while more nimble countries surged ahead,

transforming themselves into efficient and thoroughgoing We are highly mobile, rarely living near our relations, and are
democracies. thrust, therefore, in upon the nuclear family, creating a self¬

absorption that trembles perilously close to selfishness. We

Social emancipation began in earnest during World War reassure ourselves that we are decent people, even as we

Two, and has inched forward ever since. There remains a haul the large plastic bags bearing designer labels through
chronic imbalance of wealth, but in the past 20 years there the front door.

has been (by English standards) a positive explosion of

people with middle class cravings and the money to indulge A middle-aged liberal at a suburban London drinks party

them. Every traffic jam bears witness to the new materialism! squirmed visibly as he explained how he had come to educate

his daughters privately despite being a strong advocate of

It is, however, very much only a beginning, and there have state schooling. His was a classic example of old-style middle

been false dawns before. For the English — even in their newly class casuistry — of having one's cake and eating it.

affluent condition — continue to defer to status, accent,

manners and happenstance of birth at the expense of more He floated the normal raft of excuses — local schools had

virile and necessary qualities; they remain deeply suspicious been going through the turmoil of reorganisation; one can’t

of social groups they find hard to pigeon-hole, such as afford to sacrifice children for principle — before adding

intellectuals; and they are touchy to the point of paranoia on happily (and ironically) that it had all come right in the end

the subject of class. because his daughters had rejected the values of the

exclusive schools to which — at great expense — he had sent

If we were born into the middle classes — with its confused them.

connotations of social superiority, duty, cultural and civic

responsibility — our skin still prickles when the issue of class is For a generation now this established middle class has been

raised. 'Oh why do we have to use these dreadful class both swollen and diluted by the newly affluent, who arrive

terms?' protested a woman in a silk dress at a West Country largely free of the inhibitions and anxiety bestowed from

dinner party. parent to child amongst the ancienne bourgeoisie. They see no

reason not to enjoy whole-heartedly the fruits of their success.

Her previous amiability froze over, and the rest of a brief

conversation was tense and stilted. She felt, I discerned, spied Their emergence has reinvigorated the tired stock of the

upon, and that her sense of well-being on a warm summer professional and colonial classes, much as the aristocracy has

evening had been violated by the introduction of a subject the always been revitalised by embracing the truly rich. The new

English do their best to suppress. middle class — more ambitious, more d: i

jacketed left-overs from the inter-war yen:?

As we drink our fine wines, and spend money with a carefree reckoned with.

abandon that would have deeply troubled our parents, a

worm of guilt still gnaws our consciences. 'Nowadays, we're They are articulate, assertive, quick to defend their privileges

all equal surely,' we try to reassure ourselves, knowing in our — woe betide the government that threatens such middle class
benefits as tax relief on mortgages or state subsidies for If we are now on the verge of establishing a literal 'middle

university students. They control the media, which trumpets the class', might not that be something different? Something worth

virtues and interests of their class, while misleadingly encouraging? When Americans use the term, it means what it

portraying them as an impotent 'silent majority'. says — that broad mass of people, both blue and white collar,

who earn a sufficiently decent living to have money beyond

These are the winners in contemporary social evolution. They the needs of mere survival.

have no compunction in striving for and then enjoying what

they conceive to be the best — whether it be in cars, schooling The American plumber or car mechanic, earning two and a

or holidays. They exist — slightly uneasily — side by side with half times as much as his British counterpart, can have a

the guilt-ridden middle classes of yesteryear. weekend log cabin, take holidays in the Caribbean and run a

second car. He has an economic abundance that makes him

Where the old were uncomfortable with outward show, the much more nearly the equal of his educational superiors than

new glory in their spending power. The new have not gone so he would be in Britain.

far as to embrace Ivan Boesky's notorious dictum: 'Greed is all

right. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.' This is the basis of American democracy. The repairman

But they would not, I suspect, find his statement either visiting the professor's home does not feel cowed by or

outrageous or heinous. resentful of the householder's status and possessions. He and

his employer are far more likely to look each other firmly in

The class they have penetrated and largely captured had the eye and chew the fat man-to-man than are their

grown stale and tired. As well as revering such virtues as hard counterparts in Britain.

work, thrift, self-improvement, it could be narrow-minded and

hypocritical (placing more value on form than on reality), In one highly regrettable way we are going backwards, as

smug and sanctimonious; its culture was often skin deep. increasing numbers of children are sent to private schools

Matthew Arnold, searching for one word with which to nail (there are 34,000 more fee-paying pupils now than there were

the Victorian middle class, decided upon 'Philistine'. in 1983) sowing further divisions in our fragmented society.

But the claustrophobia — like mist driven by a gentle breeze —

The word I would choose about the middle classes of my is beginning to disperse; somewhere, in the far corner of the

childhood is 'claustrophobic'. Enrolled at birth as a member of room, someone has opened a window.

the class, I would sometimes feel like screaming for a breath

of fresh air. Doing what is 'right' or'responsible' day in and A recent opinion survey found that the numbers who

day out, keeping up appearances, speaking the right way, donsidered themselves middle-class had doubled since the

eating correctly is terribly destructive of spontaneity. war, and that one in five working class people now become

middle class in the course of their life times. Another inquiry

I do, in any case, feel strongly that many of the trumpeted established that the proportion of Britons who earn their living

virtues of the English middle class are a delusion, a by manual labour has dropped from two thirds in 1964 to

confidence trick played upon the rest of the nation. Even the under half today.

term 'middle' is as phoney as a fourpenny piece. It is the same

misuse of language that allows us to label our most privileged Mrs Thatcher's contribution to this trend is open to debate.
and exclusive schools 'public'. The economy has — to some extent — been liberated, allowing

at least the entrepreneur to flourish. But levels of education

and vocational training lag woefully behind those of other The comfortable classes pursue leisure as assiduously as the
industrialised nations,- many millions still have no means of aspiring middle classes once pursued self-improvement.
escape from the past. Chains of shops have sprung up to sell 'leisure wear',- farmers

queue to convert their land to golf courses,- membership of

Mrs Thatcher's actions belie her radical image. She educated health clubs is booming,- lacking snow ourselves, we head in

her own children at upper-middle class schools (her son, droves for the artificial ski slopes.

Mark, went to Harrow), and she reintroduced hereditary

peerages, perhaps the ultimate symbol of an ossified social In our restless acquisitiveness, we no longer seek the solid

system. She has also grossly exaggerated her own social value cherished by our parents. We flit from trend to trend like

climb-, her family were substantial, very middle class, citizens. butterflies. A decade ago it was Habitat and Biba,- today is is

Ikea and Next. Dinner party conversation — even amongst

If we are truly to escape the claustrophobia of the past, we serious people — is as likely to be about the opening of a

need a new definition for the middle class. Until someone local Body Shop as about a political crisis or a new play.

coins a better term, I am happy with Martin Parr's notion of

the 'comfortable' classes. A few minutes browsing amongst his None of this is to suggest that within the new comfort zone

images and you will know what he means. The comfortable there do not remain massive class distinctions. George Orwell

classes are the people who — now that their essential needs wrote after the Second World War that an Englishman always

are well catered for — have the money and leisure to control betrayed himself by his dress. I was startled to discover when

the shape and style of their own lives. — 40 years after Orwell's pronouncement — I returned from

living in America how much could still be told from

If you want to check on them for yourself, they are most easily appearance.

to be found pursuing what has become our national past-time

— shopping. We have elevated buying into a quasi-religion,- You will see those distinctions here: the self-confident tilt of

the family that pays together stays together. the head of the woman in the horsey trilby with the wine glass

at her finger-tips,- the somewhat anxious demeanour of the

People even do it on Bank Holidays, dressing in their best first-time house buyers,- the under-stated dress of elderly

clothes to drive 20 or 30 miles to the latest mall to open. The garden party goers,- the politely Bohemian guests at an art

most lasting architectural legacy of the Thatcher years may gallery opening.

prove to be the homogenised, pedestrianised shopping

precinct. There may no longer be a national genius for making Even spending is overlaid with symbolism: a yard of cloth

things, but there certainly is for buying them. bought at Laura Ashley is not simply a piece of material,- a

Volvo is not merely a mobile, metal box on four wheels. When

Appetite and wealth frequently outstrip discrimination: soap- the purchases have been safely taken home and deployed,

on-a-rope and cellophone bags of potpourri are eagerly they speak volumes about their owners. A rouched blind or a

snapped up. The word 'craft' disguises a thousand useless frilly lampshade indicate as much about the :

objects. This is the retail generation. Even history comes chatelaine as whether she says 'toilet’ or h

packaged in small, saleable parcels,- the final (and often most

important) port of call on a visit to a country house or museum Although pictures are silent and you cannot hear Par

is the gift shop. people, you can imagine many of their accents in the mind's
ear. Bernard Shaw wrote: 'It is impossible for an Englishman
to open his mouth without making another Englishman hate or
despise him.' That sentiment seems excessive today, but
accent remains an inextricable ingredient of the English social
cocktail.
Parr's quest is not the stereotype (still less the caricature),
often lovingly recorded by photographers who hasten to
Henley Ascot or Wimbledon to capture on film the English
middle classes flapping their feathers. Wonderful though the
opportunities in England are for nostalgia, such photography
is a lament for how things were, not a portrait of how things
are.
If you live in the home counties, the affluent south, the more
favoured parts of the north, you will recognise Parr's people;
they are certainly your neighbours, perhaps even yourselves.
They are all about us — in the garden centre, the wine
warehouse, the art gallery,- they are at the Conservative
coffee morning, the Natural Childbirth Trust session, the
gymkhana.
They are not to be pigeon-holded under one political label.
The freedom to make such gestures as boycotting South
African fruit or drinking Nicaraguan coffee is as much the
privilege of the comfortable classes, as is the freedom to shop
at Harrods or holiday in the Dordogne.
Parr has stalked his subjects patiently, and is gentle with their
pretentions. It is for us to decide what we think of the mint new
thatched and beamed house, of the straw boaters worn by the
public schoolboys, of the family bent in apparent adoration of
a credit card.
I am not going to sabotage his neutrality by loaded comment
on his subjects. But I would add a couple of cautionary
observations. The first is that the years have not invalidated
Matthew Arnold's judgment that the middle classes are
essentially Philistine. 'Culture' is often no more than a
commodity, to be purchased, paraded and quickly discarded
like an out-of-style garment.
A recent survey revealed that Britain's highest earners watch
twice as much television as their foreign counterparts. While a
sizeable majority of educated continental Europeans speak
English, still only a tiny handful of British speak another
tongue with any fluency. Executives said that they preferred to
have a drink rather than go to the cinema or theatre.
Money and status are replacing love and fun as priorities for
British young people. The Daily Telegraph commented that the
new British generation are 'young careerists with little interest
in the outside world or domestic politics and no time or
inclination for philosophy, contemplation or introspection.'
Over half the young people questioned by an opinion pollster
wanted jobs in either the City or marketing. A decreasing
number aspired to such caring professions as medicine.
My second observation is that it is easy for people in the
comfortable classes to overlook the fact that life beyond their
secure parameters is anything but comfortable. While the
affluent, who are seen here agonising over white sofas and
selecting their designer knitwear, are increasing, a bleak
underclass becomes yet further isolated from the good life.
The new bourgeoisie, in their determined pursuit of their own
interests and pleasures, are in danger of forgetting that a
society comprises all its people. While millions have been
joining the share- and property-owning classes, millions more
remain trapped in poverty and ignorance.
A doctor wrote: 'I listen every day to patients who are so
badly educated that they cannot find words for their thoughts,
and I receive letters from people who can barely write. That
the British are grossly undereducated is something that many
foreign visitors have remarked to me. Our antiquated class
structure helps maintain this deplorable situation.'
Evidence like that from the front line destroys utterly the
quaintly fashionable notion sustained by such people as the
newspaper columnist Peregrine Worsthorne that the
differences enshrined in our class system are a national glory, ourselves? As Parr intended, 'the cost of living' is an
and that an upper class is necessary to teach the lower ambiguous notion, worth pondering as you turn these pages.
classes manners.

Somehow loutishness will be eliminated, Worsthorne believes,

by a healthy deference to well-entrenched money. The

opposite is, surely, the case. Those who are excluded from the

comfortable classes get their own back by turning the

accepted value system upside down. Every nob creates a yob.

We don't even derive particular social stability from the royal

family, venerated by many as a role model for their humble

subjects. We have more louts, vandals, litter, and poorly

educated fellow citizens than comparable, far less class-

ridden, republics like West Germany and France.

The royals are, of course, profoundly anti-intellectual. They

marry Sloanes like Di and Fergie, and if, like Prince Charles,

they show any pretensions to learning, they are vulnerable to

mockery. In their attitude to culture they reinforce our national

predilection.

At a speech day at a leading public school, a young 'old boy'

announced happily that he had been thrown out of university

for playing too much rugby and not working. His audience, his

parents and their friends, guffawed merrily. Presumably they

will help the silly ass to his feet.

Worsthorne has argued that the new middle classes — the

very ones who watch so much television and fail to learn

foreign languages — will somfehow give birth to a connoisseur

class, which will devote its wealth to patronising the arts. The

record is that book sales in Britain fell by 17 per cent in the

years 1981-89, while the new plutocracy was taking

possession of its BMWs.

One final thought. The comfortable classes may have shed the

angst of the more narrow middle class, but I am not sure that

they are much happier. Perhaps we no longer suffer the strain

of keeping up appearances, but have we yet learned to enjoy

first published in 1989 by

Cornerhouse Publications

70 Oxford Street ,

Manchester Ml 5NH

@ 061 228 7621

ISBN 0 948797 55 X

© Cornerhouse Publications

photographs by Martin Parr©

text by Robert Chesshyre ©

779*9 P2Ac 910632

colour prints by Peter Fraser
parrr Martinr 1952-
designed by Peter Brawne
The cost of living
typesetting by Jigsaw Graphics

printed by Jackson Wilson

all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or DATE DUE
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including

photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, 777T

without permission from the publishers

support is acknowledged from

Kodak

Royal Photographic Society

Photographers' Gallery Trust Fund

South West Arts

CPL, Bristol

Museum of Modern Art, Oxford

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES LIBRARY

PHILLIPS ACADEMY
ANDOVER, MASS.

OCMCO
 The middle classes are not what they were. Their ranks are
swollen year-by-year, as the newly affluent adopt the
lifestyle once enjoyed by a narrow band of English society.

The newcomers are less weighted down by notions of duty

and propriety than were the ancienne bourgeoisie. They
gratify their appetites, creating vast new markets — the
leisure industry and the retail trade can scarcely keep
abreast with the demand.

A fresh term is required for this social phenomenon, and

Martin Parr has coined the phrase 'comfortable classes.' His
photographs — avoiding both the stereotype and the
caricature — capture them as they spend their money and
pursue their recreations.

His people are at the heart of English society; they are

articulate and forceful, and their aspirations will largely
determine which way the nation goes. Parr's portfolio
constitutes a penetrating portrait of Britain after ten years
of Thatcherism.

Martin Parr has had three books published: Bad Weather

\r' 1982, A Fair Day 1984, and The Last Resort 1986, and
exhibited widely in Britain and abroad.

v.‘ The accompanying text is by Robert Chesshyre, a former

» ....

Washington correspondent and columnist of The Observer.

He has two books in print: The Return of a Native Reporter,
CORNERHOUSE
and — published in October 1989 — The Force: Inside the PUBLICATIONS
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