The Cost Of Living 0893814393, 9780893814397

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photographs : martin parr | text : robert chesshyre

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the cost of living

cornerhouse publications

photographs

martin parr

text:

robert chesshyre

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The English middle classes are not what they were. This ought

hearts tha+ to belong to the middle classes still gives us

to be good news for a nation whose class structure had

enormous advantages. We stand, as it were, on the safe and

become a form of arthritis, stiffening the joints and restricting

solid side of an economic and social volcanic fault line.

ambition, while more nimble countries surged ahead, transforming themselves into efficient and thoroughgoing

We are highly mobile, rarely living near our relations, and are

democracies.

thrust, therefore, in upon the nuclear family, creating a self¬ absorption that trembles perilously close to selfishness. We

Social emancipation began in earnest during World War

reassure ourselves that we are decent people, even as we

Two, and has inched forward ever since. There remains a

haul the large plastic bags bearing designer labels through

chronic imbalance of wealth, but in the past 20 years there

the front door.

has been (by English standards) a positive explosion of people with middle class cravings and the money to indulge

A middle-aged liberal at a suburban London drinks party

them. Every traffic jam bears witness to the new materialism!

squirmed visibly as he explained how he had come to educate his daughters privately despite being a strong advocate of

It is, however, very much only a beginning, and there have

state schooling. His was a classic example of old-style middle

been false dawns before. For the English — even in their newly

class casuistry — of having one's cake and eating it.

affluent condition — continue to defer to status, accent, manners and happenstance of birth at the expense of more

He floated the normal raft of excuses — local schools had

virile and necessary qualities; they remain deeply suspicious

been going through the turmoil of reorganisation; one can’t

of social groups they find hard to pigeon-hole, such as

afford to sacrifice children for principle — before adding

intellectuals; and they are touchy to the point of paranoia on

happily (and ironically) that it had all come right in the end

the subject of class.

because his daughters had rejected the values of the exclusive schools to which — at great expense — he had sent

If we were born into the middle classes — with its confused

them.

connotations of social superiority, duty, cultural and civic responsibility — our skin still prickles when the issue of class is

For a generation now this established middle class has been

raised. 'Oh why do we have to use these dreadful class

both swollen and diluted by the newly affluent, who arrive

terms?' protested a woman in a silk dress at a West Country

largely free of the inhibitions and anxiety bestowed from

dinner party.

parent to child amongst the ancienne bourgeoisie. They see no reason not to enjoy whole-heartedly the fruits of their success.

Her previous amiability froze over, and the rest of a brief conversation was tense and stilted. She felt, I discerned, spied

Their emergence has reinvigorated the tired stock of the

upon, and that her sense of well-being on a warm summer

professional and colonial classes, much as the aristocracy has

evening had been violated by the introduction of a subject the

always been revitalised by embracing the truly rich. The new

English do their best to suppress.

middle class — more ambitious, more d: i jacketed left-overs from the inter-war yen:?

As we drink our fine wines, and spend money with a carefree

reckoned with.

abandon that would have deeply troubled our parents, a worm of guilt still gnaws our consciences. 'Nowadays, we're

They are articulate, assertive, quick to defend their privileges

all equal surely,' we try to reassure ourselves, knowing in our

— woe betide the government that threatens such middle class

benefits as tax relief on mortgages or state subsidies for

If we are now on the verge of establishing a literal 'middle

university students. They control the media, which trumpets the

class', might not that be something different? Something worth

virtues and interests of their class, while misleadingly

encouraging? When Americans use the term, it means what it

portraying them as an impotent 'silent majority'.

says — that broad mass of people, both blue and white collar, who earn a sufficiently decent living to have money beyond

These are the winners in contemporary social evolution. They

the needs of mere survival.

have no compunction in striving for and then enjoying what they conceive to be the best — whether it be in cars, schooling

The American plumber or car mechanic, earning two and a

or holidays. They exist — slightly uneasily — side by side with

half times as much as his British counterpart, can have a

the guilt-ridden middle classes of yesteryear.

weekend log cabin, take holidays in the Caribbean and run a second car. He has an economic abundance that makes him

Where the old were uncomfortable with outward show, the

much more nearly the equal of his educational superiors than

new glory in their spending power. The new have not gone so

he would be in Britain.

far as to embrace Ivan Boesky's notorious dictum: 'Greed is all right. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.'

This is the basis of American democracy. The repairman

But they would not, I suspect, find his statement either

visiting the professor's home does not feel cowed by or

outrageous or heinous.

resentful of the householder's status and possessions. He and his employer are far more likely to look each other firmly in

The class they have penetrated and largely captured had

the eye and chew the fat man-to-man than are their

grown stale and tired. As well as revering such virtues as hard

counterparts in Britain.

work, thrift, self-improvement, it could be narrow-minded and hypocritical (placing more value on form than on reality),

In one highly regrettable way we are going backwards, as

smug and sanctimonious; its culture was often skin deep.

increasing numbers of children are sent to private schools

Matthew Arnold, searching for one word with which to nail

(there are 34,000 more fee-paying pupils now than there were

the Victorian middle class, decided upon 'Philistine'.

in 1983) sowing further divisions in our fragmented society. But the claustrophobia — like mist driven by a gentle breeze —

The word I would choose about the middle classes of my

is beginning to disperse; somewhere, in the far corner of the

childhood is 'claustrophobic'. Enrolled at birth as a member of

room, someone has opened a window.

the class, I would sometimes feel like screaming for a breath of fresh air. Doing what is 'right' or'responsible' day in and

A recent opinion survey found that the numbers who

day out, keeping up appearances, speaking the right way,

donsidered themselves middle-class had doubled since the

eating correctly is terribly destructive of spontaneity.

war, and that one in five working class people now become middle class in the course of their life times. Another inquiry

I do, in any case, feel strongly that many of the trumpeted

established that the proportion of Britons who earn their living

virtues of the English middle class are a delusion, a

by manual labour has dropped from two thirds in 1964 to

confidence trick played upon the rest of the nation. Even the

under half today.

term 'middle' is as phoney as a fourpenny piece. It is the same misuse of language that allows us to label our most privileged

Mrs Thatcher's contribution to this trend is open to debate.

and exclusive schools 'public'.

The economy has — to some extent — been liberated, allowing at least the entrepreneur to flourish. But levels of education

and vocational training lag woefully behind those of other

The comfortable classes pursue leisure as assiduously as the

industrialised nations,- many millions still have no means of

aspiring middle classes once pursued self-improvement.

escape from the past.

Chains of shops have sprung up to sell 'leisure wear',- farmers queue to convert their land to golf courses,- membership of

Mrs Thatcher's actions belie her radical image. She educated

health clubs is booming,- lacking snow ourselves, we head in

her own children at upper-middle class schools (her son,

droves for the artificial ski slopes.

Mark, went to Harrow), and she reintroduced hereditary peerages, perhaps the ultimate symbol of an ossified social

In our restless acquisitiveness, we no longer seek the solid

system. She has also grossly exaggerated her own social

value cherished by our parents. We flit from trend to trend like

climb-, her family were substantial, very middle class, citizens.

butterflies. A decade ago it was Habitat and Biba,- today is is Ikea and Next. Dinner party conversation — even amongst

If we are truly to escape the claustrophobia of the past, we

serious people — is as likely to be about the opening of a

need a new definition for the middle class. Until someone

local Body Shop as about a political crisis or a new play.

coins a better term, I am happy with Martin Parr's notion of the 'comfortable' classes. A few minutes browsing amongst his

None of this is to suggest that within the new comfort zone

images and you will know what he means. The comfortable

there do not remain massive class distinctions. George Orwell

classes are the people who — now that their essential needs

wrote after the Second World War that an Englishman always

are well catered for — have the money and leisure to control

betrayed himself by his dress. I was startled to discover when

the shape and style of their own lives.

— 40 years after Orwell's pronouncement — I returned from living in America how much could still be told from

If you want to check on them for yourself, they are most easily

appearance.

to be found pursuing what has become our national past-time — shopping. We have elevated buying into a quasi-religion,-

You will see those distinctions here: the self-confident tilt of

the family that pays together stays together.

the head of the woman in the horsey trilby with the wine glass at her finger-tips,- the somewhat anxious demeanour of the

People even do it on Bank Holidays, dressing in their best

first-time house buyers,- the under-stated dress of elderly

clothes to drive 20 or 30 miles to the latest mall to open. The

garden party goers,- the politely Bohemian guests at an art

most lasting architectural legacy of the Thatcher years may

gallery opening.

prove to be the homogenised, pedestrianised shopping precinct. There may no longer be a national genius for making

Even spending is overlaid with symbolism: a yard of cloth

things, but there certainly is for buying them.

bought at Laura Ashley is not simply a piece of material,- a Volvo is not merely a mobile, metal box on four wheels. When

Appetite and wealth frequently outstrip discrimination: soap-

the purchases have been safely taken home and deployed,

on-a-rope and cellophone bags of potpourri are eagerly

they speak volumes about their owners. A rouched blind or a

snapped up. The word 'craft' disguises a thousand useless

frilly lampshade indicate as much about the

objects. This is the retail generation. Even history comes

chatelaine as whether she says 'toilet’ or h

:

packaged in small, saleable parcels,- the final (and often most important) port of call on a visit to a country house or museum

Although pictures are silent and you cannot hear Par

is the gift shop.

people, you can imagine many of their accents in the mind's ear. Bernard Shaw wrote: 'It is impossible for an Englishman

to open his mouth without making another Englishman hate or

A recent survey revealed that Britain's highest earners watch

despise him.' That sentiment seems excessive today, but

twice as much television as their foreign counterparts. While a

accent remains an inextricable ingredient of the English social

sizeable majority of educated continental Europeans speak

cocktail.

English, still only a tiny handful of British speak another tongue with any fluency. Executives said that they preferred to

Parr's quest is not the stereotype (still less the caricature),

have a drink rather than go to the cinema or theatre.

often lovingly recorded by photographers who hasten to Henley Ascot or Wimbledon to capture on film the English

Money and status are replacing love and fun as priorities for

middle classes flapping their feathers. Wonderful though the

British young people. The Daily Telegraph commented that the

opportunities in England are for nostalgia, such photography

new British generation are 'young careerists with little interest

is a lament for how things were, not a portrait of how things

in the outside world or domestic politics and no time or

are.

inclination for philosophy, contemplation or introspection.'

If you live in the home counties, the affluent south, the more

Over half the young people questioned by an opinion pollster

favoured parts of the north, you will recognise Parr's people;

wanted jobs in either the City or marketing. A decreasing

they are certainly your neighbours, perhaps even yourselves.

number aspired to such caring professions as medicine.

They are all about us — in the garden centre, the wine warehouse, the art gallery,- they are at the Conservative

My second observation is that it is easy for people in the

coffee morning, the Natural Childbirth Trust session, the

comfortable classes to overlook the fact that life beyond their

gymkhana.

secure parameters is anything but comfortable. While the affluent, who are seen here agonising over white sofas and

They are not to be pigeon-holded under one political label.

selecting their designer knitwear, are increasing, a bleak

The freedom to make such gestures as boycotting South

underclass becomes yet further isolated from the good life.

African fruit or drinking Nicaraguan coffee is as much the privilege of the comfortable classes, as is the freedom to shop

The new bourgeoisie, in their determined pursuit of their own

at Harrods or holiday in the Dordogne.

interests and pleasures, are in danger of forgetting that a society comprises all its people. While millions have been

Parr has stalked his subjects patiently, and is gentle with their

joining the share- and property-owning classes, millions more

pretentions. It is for us to decide what we think of the mint new

remain trapped in poverty and ignorance.

thatched and beamed house, of the straw boaters worn by the public schoolboys, of the family bent in apparent adoration of

A doctor wrote: 'I listen every day to patients who are so

a credit card.

badly educated that they cannot find words for their thoughts, and I receive letters from people who can barely write. That

I am not going to sabotage his neutrality by loaded comment

the British are grossly undereducated is something that many

on his subjects. But I would add a couple of cautionary

foreign visitors have remarked to me. Our antiquated class

observations. The first is that the years have not invalidated

structure helps maintain this deplorable situation.'

Matthew Arnold's judgment that the middle classes are essentially Philistine. 'Culture' is often no more than a

Evidence like that from the front line destroys utterly the

commodity, to be purchased, paraded and quickly discarded

quaintly fashionable notion sustained by such people as the

like an out-of-style garment.

newspaper columnist Peregrine Worsthorne that the

differences enshrined in our class system are a national glory,

ourselves? As Parr intended, 'the cost of living' is an

and that an upper class is necessary to teach the lower

ambiguous notion, worth pondering as you turn these pages.

classes manners.

Somehow loutishness will be eliminated, Worsthorne believes, by a healthy deference to well-entrenched money. The opposite is, surely, the case. Those who are excluded from the comfortable classes get their own back by turning the accepted value system upside down. Every nob creates a yob.

We don't even derive particular social stability from the royal family, venerated by many as a role model for their humble subjects. We have more louts, vandals, litter, and poorly educated fellow citizens than comparable, far less classridden, republics like West Germany and France.

The royals are, of course, profoundly anti-intellectual. They marry Sloanes like Di and Fergie, and if, like Prince Charles, they show any pretensions to learning, they are vulnerable to mockery. In their attitude to culture they reinforce our national predilection.

At a speech day at a leading public school, a young 'old boy' announced happily that he had been thrown out of university for playing too much rugby and not working. His audience, his parents and their friends, guffawed merrily. Presumably they will help the silly ass to his feet.

Worsthorne has argued that the new middle classes — the very ones who watch so much television and fail to learn foreign languages — will somfehow give birth to a connoisseur class, which will devote its wealth to patronising the arts. The record is that book sales in Britain fell by 17 per cent in the years 1981-89, while the new plutocracy was taking possession of its BMWs.

One final thought. The comfortable classes may have shed the angst of the more narrow middle class, but I am not sure that they are much happier. Perhaps we no longer suffer the strain of keeping up appearances, but have we yet learned to enjoy

first published in 1989 by Cornerhouse Publications 70 Oxford Street , Manchester Ml 5NH @ 061

228

7621

ISBN 0 948797 55 X

© Cornerhouse Publications photographs by Martin Parr© text by Robert Chesshyre ©

colour prints by Peter Fraser designed by Peter Brawne typesetting by Jigsaw Graphics

779*9 P2Ac 910632 parrr Martinr 1952The cost of living

printed by Jackson Wilson

all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system,

DATE DUE

777T

without permission from the publishers

support is acknowledged from Kodak Royal Photographic Society Photographers' Gallery Trust Fund South West Arts CPL, Bristol Museum of Modern Art, Oxford

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES LIBRARY PHILLIPS ACADEMY ANDOVER, MASS.

OCMCO

The middle classes are not what they were. Their ranks are swollen year-by-year, as the newly affluent adopt the lifestyle once enjoyed by a narrow band of English society.

The newcomers are less weighted down by notions of duty and propriety than were the ancienne bourgeoisie. They gratify their appetites, creating vast new markets — the leisure industry and the retail trade can scarcely keep abreast with the demand.

A fresh term is required for this social phenomenon, and Martin Parr has coined the phrase 'comfortable classes.' His photographs — avoiding both the stereotype and the caricature — capture them as they spend their money and pursue their recreations.

His people are at the heart of English society; they are articulate and forceful, and their aspirations will largely determine which way the nation goes. Parr's portfolio constitutes a penetrating portrait of Britain after ten years of Thatcherism.

Martin Parr has had three books published: Bad Weather

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1982, A Fair Day 1984, and The Last Resort 1986, and exhibited widely in Britain and abroad.

The accompanying text is by Robert Chesshyre, a former

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Washington correspondent and columnist of The Observer. He has two books in print: The Return of a Native Reporter, and — published in October 1989 — The Force: Inside the

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