Kirstie Bloody Allsop (Or How To Be A Trendy Peasant)

[Helsbells]

everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
Perhaps we should all just agree to disagree.

[anarchistinslippers]

Sounds good to me. I wasn't trying to upset anyone, honestly. I was being light-hearted, despite the annoyance at Kirstie.

[lovelygreenleaves]

I agree about respecting other people's opinions, I don't think anybody isn't respecting them. Discussion is healthy

[mrsflibble]

for me, I turned to ish as a money saving exercise, but it's nice that even the rich are starting to do recycling, make do and mend etc.

[Graye]

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately?) I've never seen one of the programmes mentioned although I did once see one where she was doing something to her own house in somewhere like Devon. So from that aspect I can't comment other than say you can have 105 loos or showers - if there are only two or three of you then you can only use them so often and probably no more often than if you had one or two.

But what I AM interested in is the definition of "posh". It's not a label I've considered over much. Are we posh because we are no longer wage slaves and still manage to enjoy our lives with a business we love? We do "ish" sort of things because we enjoy them AND we save money (irrespective of whether we have anything in the bank there is a certain satisfaction to managing to save a little), we like to think of green aspects AND we think growing our own stuff is good for us.

I must admit I've never for one second thought that I should leave those blackberries in the hedgerow for someone less well off than me, or that the old table I've haggled over at the boot sale might be ideal for someone else who was less well off than me (irrespective of where I might fall on the scale of well-offness). And to be honest, I don't see why I should!

[red]

I also have to confess the anger directed at Kirsty Allsop bemuses me. There she is, sticking her neck out and saying "it's good to recycle", "it's good to reclaim" and "it's good to use local craftsmen". And what does she get? Bitter sniping from a group of people who claimed to espouse those ideals.

hmm yeh - it seems its the fact she is (considered by some) 'posh' and doing this that upsets.

I watched the series (wasn't it on ages ago... has it been repeated or something?), and the general principals - that you can furnish a place with secondhand treasures and pieces made by local independant crafters - or indeed go on a course and learn it yourself is very commendable. She didn't actually do a lot of it though.. she didn't actually knit that toy.. someone else did. but perhaps we shouldn;t fuss about that. it was just to give us an idea.

the bit that does stick in my throat though, is the newspaper articles that came out at the time of the series with her cheerily saying how she furnished the place for a mere £23000.00 . I mean... how? 23k? I mean if all my furniture was nicked.. and i had to buy replacements.. i cant see me arriving at 23 thousand when i totted up the bill. granted.. its a 5 bedroom 3 bathroom home.. not her actual home.. this one is let as a holiday let...

its this sort of thing that makes me feel we are living in different worlds.. then suddenly i doubt i could afford the hand blown glasses.. etc...

all credit to her though.. she appears to have carved a successful career, brought the success down on herself. I expect the holiday home is very popular with holidaymakers.


still the new series (is that why we are talking about it now?) appears to be more about doing the same on a budget.. so...we shall see....

[anarchistinslippers]

Posh = Someone who can afford to spend £23,000 (albeit hand -rather than sweatshop/mass produced- stuff).

That is the best part of both our incomes combined.

While her heart was in the right place and I applaud her for supporting the little guys and dolls who are skilled in their art, £23,000 is a hell of a lot of money to spend on that kind of thing and from what I can gather, quite of bit of it was "stuff" rather than actual necessities, though I could start a whole other debate (I don't particularly want to!) on whether an armchair is a luxury when you already have a sofa. Most of our stuff is from charity and/or second hand. Partly out of necessity, partly because we like it like that. We subscribe to the Womble philosophy of "making good use of the things that we find, things that the everyday folks leave behind."

And still the likes of Radio4 say "The average salary in this country is £24k.." Really? Really really? Are you sure that isn't just a poll of your listeners who are more than likely graduates? Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-student (I think learning is the most important thing a person can do) but the fact remains that they earn a damn sight more than "normal" people. Granted most of the people in my phone are people I work with or have worked with, so I'm quite limited in demographic, friendship-speaking but most of my friends work in retail and they certainly aren't on the "average" wage. I know plenty of people who aren't in retail that do work hard (and plenty who don't!) who are on a lot more than the supposed average.

Sorry, feeling a little GAH! at the moment.

[jim]

No criticism implied or intended about her fashion sense but ....... doesn't Kirstie dress like the illustrations of "Mummy" in the old Ladybird books many infant schools used as preferred reading scheme from the late '50s onward? (The vocabulary is remarkably similar.....)

Love and Peace
Jim

[Milims]

[quote="anarchistinslippers"]Posh = Someone who can afford to spend £23,000 (albeit hand -rather than sweatshop/mass produced- stuff).
quote]

This "posh" thing really confuses me! I have a very lovely friend who speaks with plums in her mouth, lives in a big house, has worked in TV but was brought up on Tyneside, went to the local comprehensive and classes herself as common as clarts - it's just her accent that makes her appear different. When I was wee I went to a private boarding school, where I was considered common because I didn't have a pony. I then went to the local middle school where I was considered too posh because I'd been to private school. Isn't posh just something that everybody else thinks you are?
I have to say I rather like Kirstie. She's cooky, enthusiastic, intelligent, homely, creative, funny, curvy and not afraid to show it! We need more like her in TV rather than stick thin, stuck up, inflated boobed, ignorant popsicles like Jordan!
As to the program - if it gives anyone the spur to look at traditional crafts, make do and mend, recycling etc - I say go for it!

[Graye]

Unfortunately "average" used in this sense does not mean "usual". You only need to fiddle around with a set of numbers for a while (sorry here but this is an accountancy brain coming to the fore) to see what just ONE exceptionally high or exceptionally low figure will do to the overall position, especially if your core selection is small in the first place. Let's say they only reviewed 100 incomes. The result will still be an "average" but if they include one or two MPs, footballers or city highfliers in there with plenty of people doing the usual sort of job then the average will creep up very quickly. In other words it's just a paper excercise and a pointless figure to consider.

I also come from the school of enjoying finding a bargain, re-using items, making my own, thinking of the size of the rubbish tips etc. But I think I would absolutely defend the right of anyone who had 23K to spend it on whatever they want. Also, we are talking about a TV programme here - the producers are looking at what will make entertaining fodder for their "average" viewer.

As for what she wears I wouldn't like to comment myself. As I said earlier I've only seen one of the programmes and that was not part of the current series I don't think. Then, I would probably upset the apple cart of "average TV viewing" as we very rarely do. On the other hand we have my mother staying here at the moment who freely admits her TVs (note the plural) are on 24/7 and insisted on her fix of Eggheads, Wycliffe, Poirot and some other miserable series last night. Fortunately we receive UK channels an hour late so she then went to bed and we turned it off! I seem to remember Kirstie Allsop as being a bit of a "jolly hockey sticks" type but she seemed presentably enough and nowhere near as irritating as some.

[lovelygreenleaves]

Posh = Someone who can afford to spend £23,000 (albeit hand -rather than sweatshop/mass produced- stuff).

The house had been derelict for many years, she had to completely strip the house back. If this figure included getting the house fixed, then it's not bad.

Posh doesn't mean rich, let's not get that confused. Posh can mean poor, with a big house handed down the family. Rich people are not necessarily 'posh'.

[red]

Posh = Someone who can afford to spend £23,000 (albeit hand -rather than sweatshop/mass produced- stuff).

The house had been derelict for many years, she had to completely strip the house back. If this figure included getting the house fixed, then it's not bad.

Posh doesn't mean rich, let's not get that confused. Posh can mean poor, with a big house handed down the family. Rich people are not necessarily 'posh'.

no it does not cover the cost of refurb - the 23K was the cost to 'furnish'

not sure therefore it this includes the baths or not. even so.. i struggle to get to 23K.

but I agree that budget does not equate to posh. I think someone could be poor but posh, or rich but er.. not posh. but to be honest.. this whole posh thing is just arguing who is in what class, and i don't play that game.

I also agree that someone can whatever they like on their own property.. my point was she seemed really pleased with how little she spent. Different worlds as i said.

[mrsflibble]

Posh = Someone who can afford to spend £23,000 (albeit hand -rather than sweatshop/mass produced- stuff).

The house had been derelict for many years, she had to completely strip the house back. If this figure included getting the house fixed, then it's not bad.

Posh doesn't mean rich, let's not get that confused. Posh can mean poor, with a big house handed down the family. Rich people are not necessarily 'posh'.

indeed, one can be property rich but cash poor........ me and jim are different however, on paper we're in the "normal" bracket for earnings, but when you take into account bills, high rent, car running costs etc we actually end up worse off on a week-to-week basis than a pair of freinds of mine who are on benefits.....

[Millymollymandy]

Posh = Someone who can afford to spend £23,000 (albeit hand -rather than sweatshop/mass produced- stuff).

So would you class someone like Katie Price (Jordan) posh then, who probably spends that just refurbishing one toilet.

As everyone has said, money has absolutely nothing to do with class. And Kirsty doesn't even talk with a plummy accent, just a normal what I call 'BBC newsreader' type of voice, i.e no accent.

[growingthings]

P O S H

"Port Out
Starboard Home

Its a travellers life for me P O S H P O S H "

Caracticus Potts definition of POSH

I just wanted to add that, I have nothing constructive to add to the discussion, but I am finding this confusion over the definition of Posh quite a read I'd never really thought too much of it before, but being the third generation of an immigrant family on my Dad's side from Norway, there was no accent only the one learnt in school (home counties!) and my Mums side are horse traders settled in the east, so she has a lovely thick accent, I talk like my Dad, my brothers accent is confused as being in the forces he mixes with people from all over the place and all walks of life. And my dear ol sis is a good ol norfolk gal livin in florida and its taken some time for her accent to mellow lol!

Does how you speak define you? Certainly not - but it definitely colours others opinions of you. Is that what its all about?

Oh I just realised that was fairly constructive