British People Talk About Money
The Guardian interviewed fifteen people in the UK, from “all walks of life,” and asked them whether they felt rich or poor. These are all my favorite (favourite) lines:
• “One of my housemates will have Tesco Finest parma ham and mozzarella and olives and stuff in the fridge, and think it’s completely normal, not realising that’s extortionate.”
• “But when I find myself going into an upper-middle-class home, when I’m in the bathroom, looking at the Molton Brown hand soap, I say to myself, ‘What did I do wrong with my life?’”
• “I’m living in quite a rough part of London, where I see people who are really poor. When I go to Chelsea, I feel a complete scrote.”
• “What we are is the forgotten middle. By no means do we have a flash lifestyle.”
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Previously on The Billfold
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well my scrote knowledge is incomplete
“The Guardian interviewed fifteen people in England”
No, the UK. They interviewed someone in Glasgow too.
@snorkmaiden I WILL FIX! i am forevvvvvvvvvvver mixing this uppppppp
Favorite non-hilarious line: “I suppose if you don’t care about money, that’s because you have enough, and I just feel very lucky in that.”
Also, I really want to hear more about the eco-commune and about the world’s most expensive piano lessons.
@littleoaks my former piano teacher charges more than 300$ an hour. that’s a pretty expensive piano lesson
@oatmealshrapnel Does each lesson come with a free piano?
@stuffisthings complete with cat hair from craigslist!
@snorkmaiden. Thank you! Scotland is part of the UK too, yaknow!
@Amy Halliday@facebook Word. I’m forever correcting people. And informing them what kind of passport I have (not Scottish). And, occasionally, that English is the official and main language of Scotland.
DEM LIPS
You had me at “British People Talk”.
You need to do a piece on the deep class implications of supermarkets in Britain. E.g. a phrase like “He lives in _________ (decent neighborhood in London) but he hates it because Waitrose is too far away” is all you need to hear to form deep opinions about somebody.
@stuffisthings Yup, I already think that guy’s a wanker.
@Stephanie Boland@twitter (He also works in the City)
@stuffisthings Of course he does.
I have no idea how to start explaining British ideas about class. I tried with a Canadian housemate of mine, and I’m sure it just made her more confused.
@Stephanie Boland@twitter I’m Canadian, and maybe smarter than your housemate. Please explain to me!
Find an Australian article! Povo, povo, povo.
@Anne
Someone’s been to Mount Druitt lately…
Molton Brown is my favorite bath/body brand-that-sounds-like-a-Food-Network-chef
@lrodrigue I thought maybe it was Gordon’s less successful, dimwitted ne’er do well brother.
@stuffisthings But Alton’s trying to get him a spot as a sous on Iron Chef.
Least favorite advice:
“I strongly believe that you can afford anything. There’s a saying, isn’t there? Pay the deposit and the universe will supply the balance.”
You can’t, it won’t, and only a homeopath would be quixotic enough to think otherwise.
The last interview (the asylum seeker) was so sad.