The fact is, you've got a widely-understood marker that is used to distinguish which class you belong to and a common understanding that a member of one class d

The fact is, you've got a widely-understood marker that is used to distinguish which class you belong to and a common understanding that a member of one class does not belong among members of another. The direction of hostility in your example doesn't really change things. Think about it - it's fairly common for members of the working class to resent those in the upper classes who rule them. But as kids you probably weren't thinking about what class you belonged to, or about any tensions between different classes and their origins. You just knew "the posh boy doesn't belong here" - and you picked all those things up without being explicitly told them because the UK deeply classist The resentment may go both ways, but the effect is completely different. Some children in a mining town making fun of some visiting kid’s posh accent is probably unpleasant for the kid. Adults from that mining town being on the receiving end of class-based discrimination (whether conscious or subconscious) when being evaluated for university applications, job interviews, salary reviews or promotions is something else entirely.