Not One of Us
DECODER
INTERPRETING THE ESSENTIAL WORDS THAT HELP EXPLAIN THE WORLD
AS A BRITISH JOURNALIST LIVING ABROAD, I get asked many questions, from the role of the queen to the peculiarities of Parliament. But one theme comes up again and again: poshness. What does it really mean? What’s posh, and what isn’t? Outsiders think they know the term, but they don’t understand it viscerally. And they often miss that when the British deploy the term, it comes with an edge whetted on the stone of class.
Understanding poshness matters, especially since it is in the air again: Like the damp in an old country house, it never truly goes away. And it’s back now with the current British prime minister, Alexander
