Middle class? Not us: 60% say they are working class... the same as 1983
- That's despite many enjoying incomes and lifestyles higher up social scale
- Survey also found trust in banks and politicians is at an all-time low
- Monarchy enjoy boost in support, but still well down from peak popularity
- And attitudes toward sex and marriage have grown more tolerant
Power to the People: Like Marxist revolutionary Wolfie from sitcom Citizen Smith, 60 per cent of Britons now see themselves as working class
More of us than ever qualify as middle class – but it seems we are just not ready to admit it.
For 60 per cent of Britons insist on describing themselves as working class even though in many cases their incomes and lifestyles place them higher up the social scale.
The apparent nostalgia for working-class status was revealed in the British Social Attitudes survey, an annual snapshot of the views of more than 3,000 people.
It found that the same number said they were working class as in 1983 – the first year the survey was taken.
Yet the intervening 30 years have seen the collapse of Britain’s heavy industry and a dramatic rise in wealth and home ownership.
The report, based on surveys carried out last year, said: ‘Although Britain has become a majority white-collar society, subjectively it is still inclined to feel working class, albeit perhaps not as closely as it once did.
‘Nor has the balance between those who describe themselves as middle class and working class changed as much as we might expect, given the substantial changes in the kinds of jobs people do over the last three decades.’
The proportion in a middle-class job or living in a home headed by someone in a middle-class job has risen from 47 per cent to 59 per cent since 1983, the report said.
But only 35 per cent call themselves middle class, just one point higher than 30 years ago.
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‘Class identities have not changed as much as theorists often assume,’ the report said.
‘Britain retains an intriguing attachment to a working-class identity, with far more thinking of themselves in this way than would objectively be defined as working class nowadays.’
Less trusting... more tolerant: Findings from this year's British Social Attitudes survey, published yesterday
Decline in political affiliation: The number of people who say they identify with a particular political party fell from 85 per cent in 1983 to 66 per cent in 2012
The survey found that trust in politicians and institutions has fallen to an all-time low.
Only 19 per cent say banks – blamed by many for helping spark the recession – are well run, down from 90 per cent in the 1980s.
And 93 per cent do not trust politicians of any party to tell the truth when they are in a tight corner, while only 18 per cent believe governments put the needs of the nation before party interests – down from 38 per cent in 1987.
But 45 per cent say it is very important to keep the monarchy, up more than ten points from the aftermath of the Queen’s ‘annus horribilis’ in 1993.
However, this is still much lower than the two-thirds who strongly backed the monarchy in the 1980s. Only one in 20 want to see the monarchy abolished.
God's going out of fashion: There has been a decline in religious affiliation, with 48 per cent saying they do not identify with a religion compared to 31 per cent in 1983
Growing tolerance: While in 1987, 64 per cent of people believed same-sex relationships were 'always wrong', that figure had fallen to 22 per cent in 2012
Attitudes to sex and marriage have become more tolerant.
In 1987, 64 per cent said gay relationships were always wrong but 25 years later only 22 per cent share that belief.
And while in 1989 70 per cent said people who wanted children should get married first, only 42 per cent say that now, the survey found.
Eight in ten still believe infidelity in a marriage is wrong.
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