Who's the poshest person on ILE? And why?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Do we have any titled, champagne-quaffing toffs who like a bit of ILE on the quiet?

― Will McKenzie, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Tom are you fancy?

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

People at Chadwell High 6th Form said I was posh and looked down at me as a result, which is quite ironic as I come from one of the least posh families imaginable.

― DG, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

well, i'm partial to a bit of champers. but i'd probably drink it out of a plastic champagne flute. or, come to think of it, the bottle.

― katie, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

surely we devised infallible scientific tests wrt what you call the *ahem* facilities, and at what pt in the poruing routine you spoil yr tea by putting milk in it?

champagne is extremely vulgar

― mark s, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I can't imagine that of you, Miss Grocott..! ;-) (or should that be :_S ?)

― Will McKenzie, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I am not that fancy. I'm posh by education but standard-issue upper- middle-class by birth. That might still make me the poshest on ILE for all I know.

― Tom, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think we're on equivalent paths, Tom, only you've got about 500 centuries of tradition behind you. Also, I didn't jump on the poshwagon until after high school. (Inventing the word "poshwagon" might also knock me out of the running.)

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If I was, I wouldn't admit it.

― Sean, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My "T-T" is an abbreviated double-barrel name and I grew up on the outskirts of Winchester.

Posh?

― chris, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i think we have a winner :):)

― katie, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Triple barreled = yer actual quality
Or indeed more: what's that "surname" which consists of the word Tollemache repeated several times, arbitrarily interspersed with other names culled from the Gotha Index (or whatever it's called).

― mark s, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"We hope that the previous eighteen generations of the [Tollemache] family would be pleased to see that their home [ie Helmingham Hall, from whose website this quote comes], built so long ago and protected by its sixty-foot-wide moat, still has its two drawbridges pulled up every night and lowered each morning."

Now that's what I call a solid Posh Tash.

― mark s, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was sent to a private boarding school, had chandeliers and au pair girls decorating my youth, and drove around in my dad's Bentleys and Rovers with CD (corps diplomatique) plates when we lived in Greece.

But my ancestors were genteel poor Hebrideans: teachers, post office workers and poets (in fact my great and great great grandfathers both won bardic crowns at the Mod, the annual Gaelic poetry competition, for their verse).

― Momus, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I am noveau pauvre. My grandmother's father was some kind of France/St Lawrence Seaway shipping magnate; my father had horses which they gave up when they moved to a street F. Scott Fitzgerald was raised on. Alas, the family fortune took a detour when her father died. Another grandfather once owned the land upon which the Mall Of America was built.

The rest of it...well..HOT DAMN! My trailer's showing! I have several relatives who find the 'pull my finger' joke absolutely hilarious.

― suzy, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm Irish, we're all scum so its not me. I looked very posh today though because I went to the supermarket to buy food (I decided to cook!!!!!!!) and the only stuff I wanted was in their fancy chinese food section. And then I bought prawns, and loads of vegetables. I'm planning on going cooking them any second now. I also bought some Ice Cream, loads of donuts, and Uncut magazine. I'm staying in tonight because I overslept and missed work this morning.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Prawns are about as vulgar as it gets.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's the way I eat them

― Ronan, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I found the complete uberposh surname I was thinking of: [xtian name] Tollemache- Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache Tollemache. Chris Duckyfuzz: is that T-T *your* T-T?

― mark s, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Does having an Audi TT make you posh?

― Sean, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

(PS.My question to Tom was just a repeat of a month old Hanley-Ewing interchange that had Ally gasping for breath. And Tom's reply to Mikey was a simple "No".)

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My surname is Carruthers which someone told me sounded like 'a man from the ministry'. I am quite blatantly upper middle class and also have grown up in Winchester. However, I didn't go to its really quite famous public school. (However, have had private education). I seem to be doing quite well here.

― Bill, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

See me? I'm scum.

― DavidM, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

One side of the family is generations of wholesome American farmers who don't even know which European country they're from anymore. The other consists of Armenian immigrants from Turkey (I'm second or third generation depending on how you count) who were not posh. I lose.

― Maria, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Does Victoria Beckham read ILE? Cuz she'd obviously win.

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I am an Esquire.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two barrels and public school (after state primamry though)

― Ed, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Some chick told me my pajamas were posher than anything in her wardrobe the other day, but that's all the claim to posh I've got.

― Otis Wheeler, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Grew up solidly upper middle class and had millionaire grandparents. Now my parents are millionaires or something. Not so much posh as rolling around in some sort of filthy lucre, I guess. But my parents' house is *the* most tasteful house around. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I am a raging prole trying thru pure will to muscle my way into the ivory tower.

― anthony, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

We're Nouveau Riche. All our friends are super rich. As a result we still feel poor.

― nathalie, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I love this! I feel so lower-middle class!

― DG, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The poshest thing that you can do is *not* compete in the posh race, but merely be. Boasting about poshness is so common and vulgar...

― Kate the Saint, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

hello, I'm a northern working class prole.

― cabbage, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My weird ex-house mates decided that I was so posh (=so much posher than them) I probably had a pony as a child and entered gymkhanas. This fictional pony was christened Twinkle and every time I went to see my parents they would ask after Twinkle's progress.

My auntie is posh, she has marble floors in her house.

― Emma, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Didn't we already go over similar ground to this in some thread long- since forgotten?

Apropos to nothing perhaps, but (according to Mr. Nabokov) the word poshlost' is roughly synonymous with "philistine." And what could be more philistine than to compete in the "posh" race? (Granting, of course, that the English "posh" probably has no relation to the Russian "poshlost'".)

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

BTW, my name is a hella lot more posh than my parent's social background. Apparently, my paternal grandmother's family was minor Polish gentry (szlachta is the term), as if that does me any good (I'm not inheriting any manor or any serfs). Maybe that's why I like Messrs. Nabokov and Conrad so much, two fellow expatriate and defrocked (so to speak) Slavic nobles :-P

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i'm form solid northern english working-class stock, only i'm now surrounded by the dutch bourgeoise, + have in-laws that take me to expensive restuarants + the opera. was quaffing champagne just the other day but I sure didn't pay for it. something about the self- regarding, we're rich + we know it, style really turns me off.

― stevo, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Kate is of course right, in a way, but WHERE'S THE FUN IN THAT? I am v.posh. Actually I'm probably not that posh, but my family have always moved in posh circles. My parents know the Earl of Sandwich. Ha!

― Nick, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

REALLY D. Nick?? Ask them to ask him about llama trekking.

My dad has a Title.

― Sarah, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What title, Sarah?

Why am I 'D. Nick'?

― Nick, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My dad has a title....................JANITOR!!!

― Ronan, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

D = Dreamy

― Emma, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Stevo, if they didn't know they were rich, would you call them hypocrites?

― nathalie, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It might have been that, Emma. Or it could have been "darling", "delightful", "dehabilitatingly dramatic" or "dumpster".

Ok I don't know if it's a title, but he went to see the queen last year or the year before and he got an OBE. Or an MBE. Whatever the PLEBS get anyway.

― Sarah, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

fair point nathalie, they're not hypocrites, they just enjoy their wealth: lavish holidays, collecting art/fine wines/antiques etc. virtually all of us in 'the west' have privileged life-styles compared with the rest of the world. the exclusivity of their particularly strain just seems to hit a raw nerve (because i'm a fish out of water in it perhaps). Eg discussions of the WTC/Pentagon attacks concerned primarily with share portfolios. yuk!

― stevo, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

All this reminds me of an Alexi Sayle anecdote about the time he met 'Sir' Paul McCartney, goes a lil sumthin' like:
"So, I'm with Paul McCartney! And I'm chatting politely with him about this and that, but what I really want to say is: GIVE ME SOME MONEY!"

So let's cut to the shit. All you la-di-da poshoes:
GIVE ME SOME MONEY!!!

― DavidM, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'Dreamy Nick' = Classic.

― the pinefox, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm a descendent of the kings of Fife. Therefore, I am thee poshest, as I am potentially royalty. Address me as Your Excellency in future.

― jel, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the English "posh" probably has no relation to the Russian "poshlost'

I thought this was common knowledge, but the word posh is actually an acronym:

Port Outward Starboard Homebound

British aristocrats and diplomats, sailing to colonial India, would generally specify POSH cabins. Something to do with the sun; preserving their lily-white skins, and hence their supposed racial superiority, no doubt.

― Momus, Thursday, 20 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Skipping 200 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

that has totallly redeemed the entire fiasco. i just spat coffee on my keyboard laughing. (will take this back if nathalie arrives again, tho).

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 24 May 2004 13:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Dave, are you nuts? It's not remotely comparable to those things, in my head, at least. It's not a boasting thing at all - I don't see being posh as being better than not being so, it's just a difference. As with boobs, I guess.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 24 May 2004 13:05 (twenty-one years ago)

no, i am a scumbag.

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 24 May 2004 13:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Jesus Dave, bugger off and form a board on which only Stelfox-approved subjects are allowed. Must you do this on every thread that chips your shoulder?

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 24 May 2004 13:10 (twenty-one years ago)

He's having vinegar on those chips.

― suzy (suzy), Monday, 24 May 2004 13:13 (twenty-one years ago)

well, it's daft subject for adults to be discussing really. anyway, i've started a prole thread where folks like me can feel at home. bye.

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 24 May 2004 13:15 (twenty-one years ago)

(markelby's anger springs from repressed middle-class guilt, btw. i forgive him.)

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 24 May 2004 13:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually I think being poshest would carry more of a stigma then anything else.

― bnw (bnw), Monday, 24 May 2004 13:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Ha, if anything these days I'm too proud of my background, also squarely bourgeois. Inverted snobbery is teh suck.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 24 May 2004 13:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought laughter would be the best medicine for Dave. : (

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 24 May 2004 13:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I never get the impression that Dave has heard of inverted snobbery.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 24 May 2004 13:21 (twenty-one years ago)

if we can't unite around making fun of Belgians, then the terrorists have won.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 24 May 2004 13:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Um, I agree with Mark. Some people are privileged because they have contributed to culture and therefore earned what riches they've got, and rightly so.

This is where little Nick Currie was brought up:

http://www.oldprints.co.uk/prints/ed/images/ed03.jpg

― suzy (suzy), Monday, 24 May 2004 13:23 (twenty-one years ago)

i am laughing

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 24 May 2004 13:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm quite posh, but most people think I'm common. My sisters are posher. People think my wife is posh, but she's not.

I think Dave Stelfox is very posh.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Monday, 24 May 2004 13:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I wear nothing but the best:

Gold Toe Socks

http://www.modells.com/graphics/product_images/p847999nm.jpg

― Spinktor au de toilette (El Spinktor), Monday, 24 May 2004 13:57 (twenty-one years ago)

eh? I bought a load of those for dirt cheap at century 21

they are ver ver comfy though

― chris (chris), Monday, 24 May 2004 14:03 (twenty-one years ago)

What can I say, I pamper myself.

― Spinktor au de toilette (El Spinktor), Monday, 24 May 2004 14:08 (twenty-one years ago)

The truely posh wear black socks and save the white ones to use as cum recepticles

― Hey-O! (Colin Beckett), Monday, 24 May 2004 20:59 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, post of the week.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 24 May 2004 21:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I ONLY wear black Gold Toe socks. I have instructed friends and family to only buy me this brand and color if they are going to buy me socks at all. Following this strategy will literally save me about 5 minutes a day trying to find matching socks to wear!!!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 17:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm posh. I wash my tracksuit every day.

― don (don), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 17:29 (twenty-one years ago)

spencer, do you know SmartWool? They are the fancy socks I'm addicted to.

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 17:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I have tried both gold toe and smartwool and have not been particularly impressed by either. I think this weekend if we end up back in the right neighborhood again I am going to buy some more of these timberland socks, they work for dress shoes but they're just thick enough for year-round wear, utter and complete brilliance.

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 2 June 2004 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

finally something spencer and I agree on! black gold toe cotton fluffies forever.

― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 17:47 (twenty-one years ago)

gygax, omg are we sock twins??? i have the red and grey ones

― HAMBURGER NEURON GROUP (ex machina), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

four years pass...

posh americans do not exist

hmmmmmm, american "posh" is diff. from euro-posh, but it exists

― velko, Friday, 27 March 2009 09:02 (sixteen years ago)

opened this thread hoping to find out posh spice was a secret ILXor, just found a bunch of britishers talking about their great grandaddy's money. disappointing thread, C-.

― ian, Friday, 27 March 2009 15:24 (sixteen years ago)

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/03/27/article-1165131-041C18BD000005DC-599_468x327.jpg

― Hard House SugBanton (blueski), Friday, 27 March 2009 15:28 (sixteen years ago)

is that what life in wales looks like?

― velko, Friday, 27 March 2009 15:30 (sixteen years ago)

it's what 'posh' in wales looks like, perhaps. i blame mtv

― Anthony, I am not an Alcoholic & Drunk (darraghmac), Friday, 27 March 2009 15:31 (sixteen years ago)

we need more Welsh people (who still live there) on ILX

― Hard House SugBanton (blueski), Friday, 27 March 2009 15:34 (sixteen years ago)

No internets in Wales, innit?

― Sickamous Mouthall (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 27 March 2009 15:35 (sixteen years ago)

"there's ISDN for you, look you boy"

― Anthony, I am not an Alcoholic & Drunk (darraghmac), Friday, 27 March 2009 15:53 (sixteen years ago)

we need more Welsh people

what for?

― ogmor, Friday, 27 March 2009 16:44 (sixteen years ago)

consonants

― mookieproof, Friday, 27 March 2009 17:03 (sixteen years ago)

i like to try being posh in a really fucking poor way

― Surmounter, Friday, 27 March 2009 17:04 (sixteen years ago)

here's why we need more welsh people:

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

woman at local post office- " we just call it hcchlan fair PG luv"

― Anthony, I am not an Alcoholic & Drunk (darraghmac), Friday, 27 March 2009 17:21 (sixteen years ago)

Hi there Ian!

― Posh Spice (jel --), Friday, 27 March 2009 17:23 (sixteen years ago)

we need more Welsh people

what for?

Because they're fun:

http://ajanlo.kapu.hu/pics.php?d=cardiff

― StanM, Friday, 27 March 2009 22:02 (sixteen years ago)

Do they wear leeks in their Monmouth caps on St. Tavey's day look you? If so, they are most welcome on this thread.

― Neotropical pygmy squirrel, Friday, 27 March 2009 22:07 (sixteen years ago)

Well, at least they know how to hold their liquor and maintain their dignity...

xpost

― It is not enough to love mankind – you must be able to stand (Michael White), Friday, 27 March 2009 22:07 (sixteen years ago)

seven years pass...

I am boringly lower middle-class, I always aspired to befriend some properly posh people and sponge off them for the rest of my life, but I never managed to do this, I have to make do with looking at pictures from Tatler

http://img.tatler.co.uk.s3.amazonaws.com/1080x720/a_c/Cirencester-7-Tatler-18May16-tweeddiaries_1080x720.jpg

http://img.tatler.co.uk.s3.amazonaws.com/1920x1280/a_c/Cirencester-9-Tatler-18May16-tweeddiaries.jpg

― soref, Saturday, 29 October 2016 22:39 (eight years ago)

http://img.tatler.co.uk.s3.amazonaws.com/400x600/a_c/archie-manners-and-kitty-jenks-tatler-18oct16-lara-arnott_b_400x600.jpg

http://img.tatler.co.uk.s3.amazonaws.com/400x600/d_f/ella-may-sangster-and-alex-cherry-tatler-18oct16-lara-arnott_b_400x600.jpg

― soref, Saturday, 29 October 2016 22:40 (eight years ago)

I probably missed my chance when I was at university, because I hardly ever cross paths with posh people these days

― soref, Saturday, 29 October 2016 22:43 (eight years ago)

oh my god thanks for this, just went to Tatler and found this amazing article about DNA testing the peerage rolls

'Now' means post-Pringle. There had, said Woodcock, of course been precedents, but precedents that involved current holders of titles, rather than going back generations. The 9th Marquess of Londonderry divorced his wife in 1971 after he had 'proved his son wasn't his son, and so the son ceased to be Viscount Castlereagh [his title] and Londonderry's wife went on to marry Georgie Fame, who was the boy's father.' (Georgie Fame was described in the Marquess's Daily Telegraph obituary as 'a Lancastrian weaver's apprentice turned pop star'). In the Londonderry case, a blood test was used and proved conclusive. But DNA is even more conclusive, and it was DNA that figured in the 'mess', as Woodcock put it, that was the succession to the 3rd Lord Moynihan.
Moynihan died, according to the Independent, 'from a stroke in 1991 while running a string of lucrative brothels in the Philippines'. By 1996, there were two young Filipinos vying for the barony, the sons of Moynihan's fourth and - allegedly - fifth wife. Wife No. 4, Editha, claimed that her signatures on her divorce papers were forged, a claim accepted by the Queen's Proctor. Which would seem to give her and Moynihan's son, Andrew, the title. Alas, DNA tests on Andrew and on samples left by Moynihan showed that Andrew could not have been Moynihan's son.
You'd have thought that would have made his heir Daniel, his son by Wife No. 5, a belly dancer called Jinna. Wrong - because Moynihan's divorce from Editha was fraudulent, his marriage to Jinna was bigamous and Daniel was therefore a bastard who could not inherit the title. Instead it went to Colin Moynihan, a former MP and Oxford cox - a mixed blessing for Colin, who'd been keen to pursue a political career in the Commons. (To add even more spice to the story, the late international drug smuggler Howard Marks told me that an old rowing chum of Colin's had persuaded Howard to dig around in the Philippines to find evidence of the 3rd baron's sexual adventuring. Howard had an interest: the 3rd baron had grassed him up to the US Drug Enforcement Administration.) If that was a mess, the Ampthill affair was even messier - as Woodcock rather nervously said, 'You wouldn't want to re-open a case like that.'

― El Tomboto, Saturday, 29 October 2016 23:03 (eight years ago)

link http://www.tatler.com/news/articles/october-2016/peerage-titles-legal-ruling-dna

― El Tomboto, Saturday, 29 October 2016 23:04 (eight years ago)

this article about gender transition and primogeniture is quite something:

http://www.tatler.com/news/articles/august-2016/trans-toffs

Until 2004, transgender people were not formally recognised by English law in their acquired sex. Then came the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) 2004, which allows them to be fully recognised in their new gender by the law, provided they meet certain criteria. But the lawyers who thrashed out the act must have debated the issue of trans toffs, because they made one exception. Section 16 states: 'The fact that a person's gender has become the acquired gender under this Act (a) does not affect the descent of any peerage or dignity or title of honour, and (b) does not affect the devolution of any property.' So, as the law stands, the marquess's transgender brother would not get the dukedom.

― soref, Saturday, 29 October 2016 23:20 (eight years ago)

Today, science, medicine, the law and the media have all rethought their position on the transgender community. It is no longer viewed as an aberration, but as a fact of life. The only section of society yet to embrace it formally is the aristocracy: for them, male primogeniture is enshrined in law, and transgender people are not allowed the same rights to inheritance as their siblings. It's true that a sex-change duchess would represent the overlapping of two teeny tiny circles on a Venn diagram - the nobility and the transgender community. But were it to happen, nothing could raise the profile of these very different minority groups better.

― soref, Saturday, 29 October 2016 23:22 (eight years ago)

That 3rd down pic that you linked upthread could quite easily belong to the "so unlikely to happen but probably will because of base class logistics rather than brutal Darwinism thread".

― calzino, Saturday, 29 October 2016 23:29 (eight years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.