Are you middle class or do you think you are? Do others think you are... middle class that is? Do the political classes, their leaders, and the media and its editors think you are? The situation in terms of political analysis is currently so dire and confusing that talking of class distinctions may be as misleading, boring and pointless as trying to predict who will win the next election right now?

And the comments about the Budget and who it was allegedly good, not good or terribly bad for, demonstrated such confusion in terms of the terms working and middle class that nobody can really make any sense of it. Could you? If you are middle class do you think the Budget was just designed to help you out, and if so, did it? If you are working class (now there’s a misnomer of a definition with its hangover connotations of socialism, Marxism and all sorts of other isms) did you feel betrayed by the Budget as some contributors and journalists claimed? And what class are the unemployed, (you know your bajjad, your tiler) and those living on social security and pensions? Are they all working class because their income is low, at least on paper?

I mean if you are a baggage handler at the airport and take home more than say a teacher or a junior doctor, (sad but true in some cases) does that make you middle class? Is class today more about job, status or income, plus your accent of course! Because comments in some newspapers about only the middle classes benefiting had me baffled. Are you middle class because you earn a miserable Lm8,000 per annum for heavens sake?

And by miserable I mean it only gets you so far. If you take home say around Lm500 per month from that, and you are an average Maltese family with three children, what is middle class about that amount, particularly if you are paying school fees or donations, have a loan and have no inherited money or help from the family.

Your job or declared income in Malta certainly gives a very unrealistic picture of how we live. Take two identical men (or women) who work say in a bank; the one who was helped to set up the family home by his parents and who married a partner with money, lives a totally different life to the one who married, has no family help or inheritance or even potential inheritance. People live so differently in Malta, even though on paper their lives are so similar that political strategists, whether red, blue, black or green, must find it very hard to have clear policies and strategies to gain votes.

Certain groups are of course sure they are middle class. We can start with the English speaking Maltese not as a point of superiority but just to start somewhere. This group usually sends their children to private schools, usually values education highly, often uses private health care and a host of other characteristics. This group are not as small or elitist as some imagine. They are, though, concentrated in certain electoral districts, so the voting issues are clear. They are not, as a rule, involved in politics at all, but they perhaps, up to recently anyway, represent one of the more disillusioned in terms of politics groups at present

Who else is middle class? We could define this by certain jobs. A hospital consultant would certainly consider herself or himself as such, and probably is viewed as such. A lawyer, a notary, an architect. Generally, the professional classes think they are middle class and are viewed as such.

Then there is big money. Who has the most money today? It used to be the professionals and certain businessmen. It is still business but the big money is in our building industry, and today some of the captains of industry are really our building contractors. There is quite a lot of resentment about this but these are the new super rich and to call them working class would be ludicrous.

Are young people much interested in class? They are certainly interested in money, but class? Today more than ever, before those guys with the real gold cards can get, if they so wish the hottest trophy chicks, money talks and opens more than just doors. Money often marries money, except now it is often new money and new money rather than the old moneyed connections, which happened when I was still a schoolgirl.

Essentially, political commentary from both politicians and journalists/ commentators needs to become a little more sophisticated, classier perhaps? Today people align along many different fronts. They align say on environmental issues which often crosses class. They align on certain tax and income issues. They align on certain justice issues. They align on health issues, (our hospital is a great class leveller); they align on religious allegiance such as the charismatic movement among others.

As in the States where various lobbies are becoming very powerful, including unusual ones like the overweight lobby, here we have the Gift of Life lobby, the hunters lobby, the pro divorce lobby, those who want a moratorium on any development for a few years lobby. Political parties today have to appeal to lobbies, not to class because many lobbies cut across class, sex, age or traditional political orientation.

Then of course there are things the vast majority of us do want, but again this is irrespective of class. Cheaper electricity bills (the rich complain very loudly about this too), a cleaner and better environment, (particularly roads and cleanliness) more equity in our health care system.

This is the age of the lobby, not the age of class. Our middle classes (as there is more than one) have long been maligned, misunderstood and misused. Now, increasingly, people form lobbies and come election time do their weighing up. The large numbers who are saying they won’t vote or they don’t know how they will vote testifies to the death of class and the birth of the lobby. You win an election today by striking as many lobbies as possible. Now there’s a classless fact.

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