Am I bothered?

When I was travelling down to Essex earlier this week, two chavettes got on the train at Basildon. This was about mid-morning, but it soon became evident from their loud conversation that they had been at an all night party. Most of it is not repeatable on a family blog, but I was interested to learn that some Essex boys insist on wearing their trainers in bed.

After a while, one of them said (in an appropriate Estuary accent), 'Some people say I talk posh. Do I talk posh? Do you think I'm posh?' I suppose she was posh in the sense that when Kate Nash affects an Estuary accent for her songs (as distinct from the classless accent she has in interviews), the result might still be considered 'posh'. Thus, Nash renders 'bitter' as 'bittah' just as these young women rendered 'daughter' (when discussing what to tell their mothers) as 'daughtah'.

Social class is now regarded as being of secondary importance in any discussion of contemporary Britain, but there is a sense in which it remains a very real phenomenon. Inverted snoberry in the sense of a fear of being seen as 'posh' is perhaps the stronger form. But then I suppose that 'Posh' Spice was so described because she gained some qualifications at age 16.