Get Serious, and Stop Pretending You're Not Rich

When I was growing up, my mother would sometimes threaten my brother and me with elocution lessons. It is no secret that how you talk matters a lot in a class-saturated society like the United Kingdom. Peterborough, our increasingly diverse hometown, was prosperous enough, but not upscale. Six in 10 of the city's residents voted for Brexit — a useful inverse poshness indicator. (In Thursday's general election, Peterborough returned a Labour MP for the first time since 2001.)