REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, LONDON - British people can now aspire to and despise four new levels of social classes, according to a new survey conducted by researchers in partnership with public broadcaster the BBC.

The Great British Class Survey found that the prevailing notions of a system comprised of the Upper Class, Middle Class and Working Class only related to a slice of the UK population, when analyzed according to income, assets, social connections and social activities.

An "Elite" class and a "Precariat" (precarious proletariat) were the two most extreme groups at either end of a new social scale of seven classes produced by researchers from the London School of Economics (LSE) and University of Manchester based on two surveys conducted by the BBC and research firm GfK. 

The Elites defined in the survey appear to have wealth, education, privileged backgrounds which the researchers said sets them at the apex of British society. However, there was no mention in the statement of Britain's landed aristocracy or royal family which sat at the top of the old class system's structure.

"It is striking that we have been able to discern a distinctive elite, whose sheer economic advantage sets it apart from other classes," LSE Professor Mike Savage said. 

In between Elite and Precariat, researchers Savage and Manchester University Professor Fiona Devine alongside others found that the vast majority of the UK population can be broken down into an "Established Middle Class", a "Technical Middle Class", "New Affluent Workers", the "Traditional Working Class" and "Emergent Service Workers".

The survey turns on its head the traditional British notion of class, best represented in a black and white 1960s television sketch by comedians Ronnie Corbett, Ronnie Barker and John Cleese for the "Frost Report".

In the sketch, the tall Cambridge-educated Cleese plays a bowler-hatted Upper Class person and the tiny Corbett a Working Class person in a flat cap, with medium height Barker in the middle wearing a trilby. The three explain the complexities of British class by saying how the Working Class looks up to the Middle Class and the Upper Class, while being looked down on by both.

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