Class - Good or Bad?

I am a 'class' observer.  Major, Thatcher, great conservative grandees, are famously quoted as saying there is no such thing as 'class'.  I think they meant that 'power' no longer resides in class. I disagree.  Power is easier to observe looking up than down.

Britain must be the perfect place for observing class, and surely outsiders are best placed to observe.  I think of my picture of goldfish debating whether water actually exists. I'm drenched, so all I say is qualified by this.

I wonder at my father, who brought up in an aspiring working class family, showed few signs of his roots.  He was not particularly class conscious, but his interests and 'culture' had few connections with his past.

In the past 'class', power and money were bound together.  The middle classes developed as a by produced of the industrial revolution, which allowed intelligent and hard working men to make money.  They sent their boys to university and their girls to finishing school, like the Vincys in Middle march.

So how do I observe 'class'?
I have selected a number of themes.  These are also influenced by age and ethnicity.  Some localism may affect priorities.  Gender, sexuality and disability also have have a role. What about the urban/rural divide?

My observations are based on:-
1) Recreation, Sport, Social life, TV/films, Holidays.
2) Fashion, decor, art and culture.
3) Geography, employment, housing.
4) Education, politics, money (inheritance) and tradition.
5) Language - accents, vocabulary and dialect.

There are clear ends of the spectrum.
The working men's clubs vs Glynbourne.
Wrestling and boxing vs Polo and 'Rugby Fives'
Blackpool/Benidorm vs Bude/Tuscany
Littlewoods catalogue vs Boden or Joules.

I enjoyed the story told me by a friend and past colleague  about his family background.  When we met, we discovered that our NHS commissioner had worked in a children's home as my colleague's boss. He reminisced about how my colleague, after a staff party, had insisted the boss dropped him of at a rather insalubrious part of town late at night, and even now he ponder why.  "Bob" he said, "that was where I lived."  My colleague was the first person in his family to go to university.  He went to the local university to be near home. Later he was courious to visit his partner's parents home.  They lives in a large mansion, her father being a high court judge. My colleague looked forward to a weekend of luxury.  Of course he was bitterly disappointed.  The place was massive, and freezing.  "Put another jumper on, slap your thighs and be cheary, we are upper class Brits."