"Recognising socio-economic class as crucial in how society operates doesn't mean that rich and/or well connected people never work any more than it means that poor and/or powerless people aren't ever indolent."

I totally agree.

Grab - The ability to speak standard English has nothing to do with intelligence. Education is certainly a way to improve your language skills, but lets face it, access to higher education is seriously limited to the socio-economic class of your parents. Of course there are always those who can break the barriers but these people are the exception, not the rule.

I don't live in England but I have been told that you can determine a person's socio-economic status by listening to their speech patterns and their accent. If you don't speak "properly', you won't get far. Is this true?