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Who, or what, is being pushed out of position? The upper middle classes, of course. Entrepreneurs, bankers and other cash-savvy types are elbowing all the nice Sloanes and erudite professionals out of the picture. Their obscene wallets are setting impossible standards: competitive children’s tea parties, soaring second-home costs, out-of-reach school fees. The trend has even inspired a book, Notting Hell, in which a journalist , Rachel Johnson, lampoons the nouveaux arrivées of West London.
It’s a clever idea, although I wonder whether she has considered the consequences: if the book sells, Johnson might cease to be a bona fide POOP — and find herself — horrors — spending half-term in Mustique or hosting £200-a-head catered dinner parties.
This sense of lost entitlement among the Establishment is nothing new. But if you can afford to hire a whole fairground for your child’s birthday, good luck to you; if you can’t, either get out there and make some money — or get over it.
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