I know my place

Good answer, gillybob. And I will never be at the top! I guess we are all somewhere on the ladder, does it really matter where?

Let's turn it on its head, (NOT boasting), and say we live in £1million house, have a holiday home abroad, 2 cars. What would people think about that then? Is it the top of society? I've never given it a thought. It's just what it is

Not the top of society at all, Lillie just extremely fortunate.

I can see it obviously matters to you Annie and a lot of others. I'm questioning how I would feel if I were also actually in that position.
NO, thinking about it, I never really question at all. I agree with baubles
never considered ourselves to be anything other than equal to anyone, whether they lived in a mansion or a single end.

Let's turn it on its head, (NOT boasting), and say we live in £1million house, have a holiday home abroad, 2 cars. What would people think about that then? Is it the top of society? I've never given it a thought. It's just what it is.

I agree the media is to blame for stirring up the inequalities in society, but no one should feel inadequate or even guilty.

I think it has been a term used by the popular press and the television news broadcasts many times over the past week.

Isn't it a bit dusty in there GG?

It is a very unfortunate term and the fact that we can't define it says to me that it is meaningless.

Who has said anything about anyone being anywhere in society. It is a bit difficult to discuss in a vacuum.

So who is top of society?

So you have heard this "several times" Annie. I may have missed something but who actually said it? A link would be useful as seeing things in context helps understand what was meant at the time.

Until I went to secondary school we lived in a tenement flat owned by my parents. It was a little damp and they'd been on the housing list for a long time. When they were eventually allocated a council house my father sold the flat for the price he'd paid for it as he refused to make a profit from another working man.

He, and consequently we, never considered ourselves to be anything other than equal to anyone, whether they lived in a mansion or a single end. I had friends who lived in both.

Council house dwellers the bottom of society? I think not.

Shame on David Lammy , and I lived in a private rent for nine years, he was minister of universities and skills .

He caused upset when we were waiting for the appointment of the Pope, he thought the berb speaking of white or black smoke had made a racist remark , and following riots he said corporal punishment would have avoided riots

Wise owl isn't he

I think it all depends what you mean by Bottom of Society.....if you want to translate it to 'Most in Need' then even then I do not feel that many of the people interviewed on the TV seemed 'Needy' Yes, some had low incomes or were out of work but being a council tenant does not in any way simply mean that you are poor and out of work.....it just means you rent your home from a large organisation and there will always be people who, for many different reason do not want to or cannot buy their own home in many different parts of the UK. Many of the people I saw came across as dedicated family people working hard and generally contributing to life.
There are those in this world who contribute nothing, have children who do similar....people who seem to feel society owes them everything yet they refuse to live by its rules. People who abuse the police and see anyone in authority as a potential enemy. I saw none of that on the news....just people from many races and cultures living lives, perhaps unremarkable lives but decent lives.

No riverwalk, I care about people and am cross that bottom of society was even said,

For you it means unfortunate, in which way do you consider unfortunate?

Not owning an house, being homeless ? Being disabled ? Having cancer?

Just as The media like to do . Divide and stir up trouble .

I agree with Annie. I don't see the need to label people as "the bottom" or anything else. Society is all of us: all of us are what make society. Besides which, some of those flats were bought, and worth a very pretty penny. I feel its just the media stirring the pot by labelling people as less fortunate, more vulnerable, etc.

But council tenants are not the most unfortunate - they are a mixed bunch but they all have one thing in common, they have a home.

To me being bottom doesn't mean dregs - it implies being the most unfortunate.

You seem to be spoiling for a fight Annie.

Council housing is not and never was for the "bottom of society" It was and is for anyone who applies and meets the criteria and is next on the (long) list.

My father was a teacher, my mother a cook. I lived with them in council houses in four different cities, and my parents were still in one years later. The neighbours worked at all kinds of jobs - I remember a naval officer and his family, a young lawyer and his wife and child, a driving test examiner, a postman, several nurses and nursing assistants, office workers, sales assistants, a bus driver, labourers, gardeners. Not people to be treated patronisingly as the bottom of the heap. There was also people with no work, some actively looking for it, some not, and in some parts there were anti-social idiots who were not liked by the others. A microcosm of society as a whole, in fact. I didn't know of any millionaires, but there may have been some somewhere.

I am now an owner-occupier (not in an ex-council property) Some of the people I meet in the area have never lived anywhere but in a pleasant suburb, and have this same blinkered view of council tenants. One informed me that her neighbour, a nice chap who had committed the sin of parked his car outside her house, "Came from a scheme, of course, so he has no idea about being considerate"

I certaintly no not consider myself the bottom of society , I don't consider anyone the bottom of society, bottom of means dregs to me , don't consider snyone the top of society either. Society is people who breathe the same air .

As David Lammy recently said, those truly at the bottom are homeless or in private rented accommodation - they have no security and often are in very sub-standard conditions.

apologies but things just keep popping into my head.

There have been reports of so called socialist union leaders who refuse to move out of their council houses despite earning huge amounts of money. Thus depriving someone in genuine need of a secure roof over their head.

The irony is luckygirl that many people living in rented accommodation actually pay more in rent than many pay in mortgage!

"Bottom of society" is a horrible term, deliberately used to provoke anger. How dare the media (or anyone) refer to someone living in rented property as being the "bottom of society".

Does this mean if you live in a home you own you are the top of society? or just damned lucky?

I was brought up in a council house and lived in one myself with my children until I met and married my DH. I would have loved to buy my council house but as a single parent I was unable to secure even a small mortgage (even though my weekly rent was higher). My dad lives in a beautiful (recently modernised) local authority bungalow. I would like to point out that whilst they tend to be cheaper and of much better quality than private rented property, local authority housing is still by no means cheap. My dad pays over £100 per week in rent which would cover a mortgage!

I agree with what you are saying Anniebach and listened to a recent interview where people who live in LA high rises in London class themselves as "extremely lucky" to have secure LA tenancies when the alternative is often homelessness or grotty private rental. (Obviously before anyone jumps on me this does not mean they were lucky to be in that terrible fire).

Bottom of society Luckgirl, does society mean income to you?