A question for UK listers

[Paul Nightingale]

I think I would have to (partially) disagree with David: when compared to
the days of the Cleese et al sketch, Britain is not now "relatively
classless", although the myths of meritocracy and openness are certainly
more powerful. The gap between rich and poor is greater now, for example.
Access to further and higher education is, in theory, a reality now: witness
the routine (and certainly tedious) attacks on 'dumbing down' in the
conservative press. However, for the most part the increased participation
comes from the same social groups as heretofore.

The 50-something executive might have come through private education, in
which case he might ("beefy"?) have a thing about rugby union (as opposed to
rugby league). On the other hand it's possible he has little in the way of
formal education. If working-class, his credentials are confirmed by his
support for a football (aka "soccer") team: his hometown team, to emphasise
that he hasn't forgotten his roots. Whatever his background he might well
boast he never finished a book at school, and hasn't started one since. And
he might affect an ersatz working-class accent. He has likely sent his own
children to a private school, although it might be a pretty downmarket
establishment. These are important class signifiers.

A working-class executive: the character (caricature?) played by Michael
Gambon in Peter Greenaway's The Cook ... (1988/89?) is an interesting
example of the yob-made-good, an updated (transformed, brutalised,
Thatcherite) version of the aspirant working-class chancer in 1950s' novels
by John Braine.

The Times and the Telegraph will get you inside the heads of contemporary
captains of industry. Certainly, The Sunday Times book/culture sections are
designed for people who want to know which names to drop at dinner parties.
Not terribly interested, they might well mix with people who have read a
book: Sebastian Faulks is popular.