Class Follow

When Victoria came to the throne in 1837 it was like a breath of fresh air to the middle class compared with her extravagent, arrogant and stupid uncles, two of whom had preceded her as kings.

Haig was the spitting image of the upper class officers portrayed in the film Oh What a Lovely War — decades behind advances in military technology, useless at strategy and preferring, in the words of AJP Taylor, "an unsuccessful offensive under his own command to a successful one under someone else’s".

Chavez RavineRy CooderNonesuch Records

Fado is the passionate, volatile and haunting acoustic folk music that is as vital to Lisbon culture as the blues is to Memphis.

The industrial district of Setubal was one of the most militant parts of Portugal during the revolution.

Class polarisation in Britain is growing. The figures for the distribution of wealth in society fly in the face of the idea that most people are contented, while only a minority at the bottom face the harsh realities associated with being working class.

America’s dirty little secret is class — something that simply cannot exist in the land of unlimited opportunity.

Bolivia was in the grip of a classic revolutionary situation last week. Popular assemblies spread across working class areas. Mass strikes combined with peasant rebellions. Insurrection was in the air and sections of the police fraternised with the insurgents.

Seven years ago government officials turned England’s primary schools upside down by insisting that there was only one way to teach reading. Every class had to follow the same pattern — the stereotyped "literacy hour".

Fernando Botero is Colombia’s best-known painter, famous for pictures of middle class families and plump businessmen. But his latest work is a radical departure from such cosy small town scenes.

Growing up in a working class area in South London, 22 year old Swiss began his musical career as an MC in a group called 2 Hype 2 Young with Sef, Mr Shabz, Megaman and Kaish.

You wrote the film Billy Elliot, which is set during the miners’ strike of 1984-5. The film was very much about an individual’s escape from the working class. How is the musical different?