Are you or your employees "working class"

Automation of manual/menial tasks and the vision of "university for all" have meant that the class system is now a shadow of its former self.

I'm sure it's exactly the topic that Sociology theses are concerned with.
 

SteveHants

Member
Livestock Farmer
Isn't the concept of social class more to do with heritage than occupation?
There's lots of definitions floating around, I suppose if you want to boil it down you either own the means of production, in which case you are middle class, you don't and are working class; or you sit somewhere in between (see: "professionals").

But this would probably mean that all their employees were "working class" by definition. :LOL:
 

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
Such a bizarre announcement. As if being more working class (whatever that is nowadays) will somehow make the company more effective or competitive. Anyway, how is is defined? Its as much cultural as practical these days.

"my great grandfather worked in a pit" You're in!
Sound like when "choosing" which country to play sport for.
Grandfather once had a pint of Guiness and kissed a girl in Dublin.....Welcome to the Irish Olympic team 👍
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
Such a bizarre announcement. As if being more working class (whatever that is nowadays) will somehow make the company more effective or competitive. Anyway, how is is defined? Its as much cultural as practical these days.

"my great grandfather worked in a pit" You're in!
well paid professional jobs, tend to go to children of well paid professionals, there is some kind of "leg up" into the professions from their parents, so advantage leads to advantage. However a lot of well paid professionals try to identify themselves as Working Class, and will also tell a convoluted story, "my great grandfather was a miner" etc, to prove they are working class. This is a way of saying, I have got this advantage in life, because of my hard work, not because of the advantage of my birth. The upshot of this is, the advantage of parents (or disadvantage of coming from a disadvantaged background) and subsequent outcome in life is seen as a product of your own "hard work" and not inbuilt bias. This allows social injustice to continue over generations, without any guilt. We had a little period in the middle of the last century where through Grammar Schools those born with social disadvantage were able to advance through their own hard work and innate ability (Such as Maggie becoming PM, I know she was not socially disadvantaged, but she equally did not come from the "top drawer" either). However with the stopping of Grammar Schools and the Labour Party no longer really having working class MP's both those roads to advancement have been closed.
 

robs1

Member
People can be very judgemental on how people look or dress, this morning I was unloading some new wardrobe doors for our holiday flat, I had strapped them into our pick up with a ratchet strap and used some baler twine to hold some plastic sheeting round the cardboard to keep the rain off on the journey, I heard a estate agent complaining to the flats porter that me being parked outside in my truck and stacking the doors inside the lobby was making the place look rough, and couldnt he make the "workman" move and shift the doors out the way, he told her that I owned one of the flats and was a director of the managing company, she then said to me that when I first walked in that I might be the prospective buyer until she saw what I was wearing, ( shorts and tee shirt) I told her I probably had worn this we we viewed ours and clothes were only to cover our skin but manners came from much deeper and poor ones were harder to cover . Just because someone is "posh" doesnt mean they have class.
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
People can be very judgemental on how people look or dress, this morning I was unloading some new wardrobe doors for our holiday flat, I had strapped them into our pick up with a ratchet strap and used some baler twine to hold some plastic sheeting round the cardboard to keep the rain off on the journey, I heard a estate agent complaining to the flats porter that me being parked outside in my truck and stacking the doors inside the lobby was making the place look rough, and couldnt he make the "workman" move and shift the doors out the way, he told her that I owned one of the flats and was a director of the managing company, she then said to me that when I first walked in that I might be the prospective buyer until she saw what I was wearing, ( shorts and tee shirt) I told her I probably had worn this we we viewed ours and clothes were only to cover our skin but manners came from much deeper and poor ones were harder to cover . Just because someone is "posh" doesnt mean they have class.
Many years ago, I worked in Otley College and I remember one of the part time lecturers (I wonder if he is a member on here?) telling me, he was taking a cull cow off to market in the stock box and pickup. On the way back he called into a Landrover dealership and walked in, and asked about a Discovery (they were new then), the sales man looked him up and down and said "we don't have any second hand Discoveries", he turned round walked out, and said over his shoulder "I am buying a new one". He did, but from another dealer.
 

Chieftain

Member
Mixed Farmer
Farmers, especially farm workers are all 'working class'. Struggle to find many other professions where the work can get so hard for so little reward. Politically there's no working class any more, they're all cut from the same branch in a fancy orchard at Eaton.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.1%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,287
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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