6 Minute English ’11 – Posh People

Alice: Hello, I’m Alice.
Rob: And I’m Rob.
Alice: And this is 6 Minute English! This week we’re talking about the English class system.
Rob: The English class system. This is where people are classified by their class according to a number of social and financial factors.
Alice: Yes. So people get categorised as working class, middle class or upper class.
Rob: The upper class is where what are nicknamed ‘posh people’ are supposed to belong.
Alice: And some of these people are claiming to be persecuted. More on that in a moment but as usual, let’s kick off with a question.
Rob: OK Alice, let’s hear it.
Alice: Do you remember the all girl pop group, The Spice Girls?
Rob: Yes, I do!
Alice: Well, can you remember which member of the band was nicknamed Posh Spice? Was it:
a) Emma Bunton
b) Geri Halliwell
c) Victoria Adams
Rob: Mm…Yeah, well, Victoria is a very posh name, so I think it was Victoria Adams.
Alice: OK, well, as usual, I’ll tell you the correct answer at the end of the programme.
Now let’s talk a bit more about the word posh.
Rob: The word describes something that is often stylish, sometimes elegant and expensive.
Alice: And a posh person is usually upper class and quite often rich or powerful. But did you know the word is an acronym?
Rob: So each letter is an abbreviation of another word?
Alice: That’s right. It’s thought that P.O.S.H. stands for Port Out, Starboard Home.
This relates to the location of the best cabins for the richest people on long sea crossings, who preferred shadier cabins in strong sunshine – port side on the way out, starboard side on the way home!
Rob: That’s an interesting story!
Alice: Even then, it was perceived that posh people got the best of everything, mainly because of their wealth or power. Today, it still seems to be posh people who are running the country.
Rob: Well, now a highly respected playwright called Julian Fellowes has said posh people need to be protected from persecution.
Alice: Yes. He’s said that ‘poshism’, like racism or sexism, is the last acceptable form of discrimination against a minority. For example, having a posh accent might not help your career anymore.
Rob: So when you say ‘a posh accent’ do you mean like this?
Insert 1:
But it is also true that no one who looked to the future over the past centuries could have imagined the strength of the bonds that are now in place between the governments and people of our two nations.
Alice: That was Queen Elizabeth II speaking in an accent we would usually call posh.
It’s not really the way most ordinary people speak is it?
Rob: No. That’s what I would call ‘the Queen’s English’. Actually Alice, it’s not always cool to be posh, especially in certain jobs or social circles. Have you ever heard of mockney?
Alice: Ah, Mockney! That’s a combination of the word ‘mock’ meaning fake and cockney, the traditional London working person’s accent.
Rob: But back to the persecution of posh people. Another writer, James Delingpole, agrees with Julian Fellowes and says there is an open season, where you can say anything rude about posh people.
Alice: He wants posh people – or what he calls toffs – to be treated as equally as other minorities.
Insert 2:
I don’t think they need feeling sorry for exactly, what we want is a slight levelling of the playing field. There are now hate crimes that can be committed against black people, against gay people. There are all sorts of protected minorities, but it seems to me that toffs are the one minority where there against which there is a kind of open season still.
He was watching one of his favourite TV programmes, Loose Women, and one of the women said, ‘I hate posh blokes’, and apparently there was a cheer from the audience.
As you pointed out, if somebody had said I hate Americans, or I hate blondes, or I hate common blokes, there wouldn’t have been that reaction.
Rob: So James Delingpole doesn’t think posh people need sympathy, just a level playing field.
Alice: A level playing field – to be treated equally or the same as other protected minorities. He thinks posh people should be one of them.
Rob: He didn’t like people cheering a comment about hating ‘posh blokes’. People would have been more sensitive if there had been a comment about hating Americans or hating blondes!
Alice: I wonder if he’s being too sensitive?
Rob: Well, another writer, Owen Jones, might think so. He thinks the whole debate is not about whether you can or can’t laugh at posh people. It’s more an attempt to shut down discussion about how unrepresentative the UK political and media establishment has become.
Alice: So in other words, he thinks the debate is trying to disguise the fact that people from all classes are not represented in politics and the media?
Rob: Yes. But Alice, what I really want to know is the answer to this week’s question.
Alice: Oh, OK then. I asked you which Spice Girl was nicknamed Posh Spice?
Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell or Victoria Adams.
Rob: And I said Victoria Adams. And I was..?
Alice: Correct! Victoria Adams was called Posh Spice. She is now married to footballer David Beckham and together they get called Posh and Becks! OK, before we go, let’s hear some of the words and phrases that we’ve used in today’s programme.
Rob:
categorised
persecuted
elegant
perceived
discrimination
an open season
minorities
unrepresentative
(the) establishment
Alice: Thanks, Rob. Well, we hope you’ve had fun with us today on 6 Minute English – and that you’ll join us again next time.
Both: Bye.