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Class War issue 80: The Water In Majorca
Dear Class War,
I would like to write about accents and stereotyping. I was dragged up on a council estate in the east end of London and attended a comprehensive school during the teacher's strikes of 1985/6. My grades were good enough to stay on for A levels and two years later I passed those buggers as well.
Having the option of getting a job or going to University, I took the easy option and got accepted into Reading University. It was there at 18 I first encountered class prejudice. Until then, apart from the odd sojourn to follow my team (a quick plug for Leyton Orient please) and the odd trip to Southend, I had never really been out of the confines of London and my "own people".
I moved into an old house, sharing with 5 others. I know that Reading Uni. is hardly Oxbridge but there were enough pretentious tossers there to irk me. On the first night we all introduced ourselves. One of the guys was a scrawny bloke called Ben. "All right Benny?" I said as we sat down to breakfast the next morning "My name's not Benny it's Benedict, kindly refrain from blah, blah, blah..."
I thought nothing of it until the jokes started about second hand cars, market stalls and scaffolding. At first it was just jokes but then it got vicious. At one of our conversations I heard wanky words like "prep school" and "house master." When I tried to explain to them about free school dinners and meal tickets etc I got accused of sponging off the state! Why are you here was a constant mantra.
I decided to leave University a couple of months into my course and joined the army. My greatest quarrel is just because someone has a strong accent be it Geordie, Scouse, Brum or whatever, doesn't mean they are thick or cannot do things. I still get people aghast with amazement when they learn I have a degree (I finished it in the army paid for by them). I am proud of my working class roots and believe my accent reflects that. Yet here in the forces in Germany they advertise for staff who are "smart and well spoken". When I phoned up to complain I was told "People don't wish to hear from our staff dropping H's all over the place".
Bexy, BFPO
CW Reply: Well done for at least challenging the bastards, you can bet your life they would have put the phone down and said "That guy's got a chip on his shoulder"!!!
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