Sounds like a good topic for a thread Dex 
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Certainly things have changed in the UK regarding class but it is probably still there in some form, I can’t see those in power giving it up easily. It was certainly writ large during the Queen’s funeral.
When I lived there how you spoke largely determined your social standing but I suspect that has drastically diminished if it hasn’t gone altogether.
My first job in Australia was a bit of shock, calling employers, managers and directors by their first name, drinking with them after work was not the norm I had experienced. As a GPO employee in the UK AEEs and above for example were “Mr” even when I worked briefly as a postman the supervisors were “Gov” never their first name and they stayed purposely remote from their charges, something that never happened in Australia. Of course this was all a long time ago.
Working for BT one meets all types and so called class of people . Best to treat all the same way and just be yourself.
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@Bruce The way you speak has, as you say changed, but only on the BBC!
When l meet up with my grand daughters Freind’s,( she is presently at
Cambridge uni) or travel on trains with uni students l have noticed the
change in their behaviour if l happen to to speak with them!!
They become awkward and sort of ashamed ?? 
It’s no5 just a British thing class discrimination is all over the world .
India for example is very class conscious .
As for equality many countries of the world discriminate against 50% of their own people and award them no respect at all - these people are called women .
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Didn’t want to take your thread off-topic, but this is related and worth a watch:
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Hi
Whilst all humans are born equal, they are not born with the same opportunities
Your opportunities rely very largely on who your parents are, it is a lottery.
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I know just how they feel.
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wasn’t it something called communism that tried to get rid of old class structures? and now they maybe about to teach the west a lesson or two?
Every country and culture have a class system doesn’t it, even if not patently obvious, it’s certainly not exclusive to the British…
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For sure. And many are years behind Britain in bringing equality. Many European capitals are far more segregated than London. I was on a Lisbon train in the 90s that had first and second class carriages.
Now many on this site with remember that back in the 60s, 50s, 40s Britain. In fact, before the mid 50s there was 3rd Class rail travel.
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What’s that old saying, “In every equal society some will always be more equal than others” 
I would just like to say that equality can never be achieved by being rich, that just makes life easier & people who get rich are often created by poorer people who want a rich life.
As a child the corner shop provided what food we needed, and they knew our names! Supermarkets make a fortune out of us now by selling us food at lower prices, mainly because they have made so much money, they can pressure the people who farm the food to sell cheaply. There could never be financial equality unless we go back to trading things, like food for pluming or electrical work, and we all know that will never happen. Barry’s quote is true because some people are greedier than others!
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Hi
Barry has a point.
India has it’s caste system, Russia it’s oligarchs etc etc
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It’s not the inequality l mind so much , It’s the snobbery ?? 
What lesson or two? All they’re doing is precisely what has happened throughout history, but they don’t call their leaders kings or queens, and there doesn’t (always) appear to be a familial hereditary system to pass power down.
I was born at the end of the 50s, grew up in the 60s and 70s when all this started to get rejected
But I did hear bits of it from my country granny
She was in service when she was young, a real Mrs Bridges style housekeeper, and she did have a lot of deference for her “betters”, king and country and knowing your place, Sunday school, church etc
And my grandad, ……… didn’t! 
I’d hear tales of her being mortified when he wouldn’t touch his cap to gentry etc
But the big one was when a member of the gentry was doling out coal to the poorest. They qualified but when he went to collect it you were supposed to kiss the lady bountiful’s hand…literally!
He got told off when he wouldn’t, so he told her to stick it up her arse, went up the woods and got some wood and shot a rabbit
Granny never recovered!
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Snobs are pitiful slaves to their social superiors, humour them.
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I’m not sure that we can say that, Azz.
Are those born in some down at heel foreign dictatorship, where there is little food and small chance of getting education & work, equal to those born into an affluent family home, with private Medicine, money in the bank, and servants to take care of cleaning your nappies?
Even at birth, the risks of catching. or inheriting, some horrible disease is right there & higher for some, than for others.!
To me, what is very important is all about your health, right from the start, and then having the intelligence & training to build the “Nous” which gets you where you want to be…
Edited to add that much of the intelligence is, already, passed on to us via our parents, some of it before we are even born!
No, we are not all born equal!
IMO
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