Read on Twitter
Fscinating article and one I can absolutely agree with. God forbid the #middleclass should recognise their #privilege, they might have to acknowledge social injustices. Screw that, let's just keep blaming the real working class for their situation! 1/x https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/18/why-professional-middle-class-brits-insist-working-class
I spent 13 years grafting, fighting and working 80+ hour weeks as a self employed company owner. I put my heart an soul into it and I had not one scrap of help from any financial institution. I was constantly rejected. 25-35% year on year organic growth, 1st page on Google 2/x
Respected in the European professional community. I taught lessons! I helped shape regulation,first stop for others who couldn't fill contracts due to skill or technical ability. But I was a single mother in rented accommodation with only GCSE's and an NVQ2 in Retail.
3/x
3/x
I was refused grants, business funding, loans, overdrafts, even premises whose rent I could easily afford. I was a *risk*. I finally got a boost when my beloved late nan left me an inheritance (£8k), half of which paid off debt from my previous marriage.
What toppled me?
4/x
What toppled me?
4/x
Ive had rheumatoid arthritis since I was a baby, officially diagnosed at 12. I worked myself into the ground, because I couldn't secure the finances to evolve my company. I needed more staff, better IT, and liquid capital to make bigger raw material purchases.
5/x
5/x
I was in a flat spin. I was doing so much of the actual work I couldn't spend time doing the boring stuff, but I couldn't get someone to do the boring stuff because I didn't have resources to retain them. Throw in a greedy father with early Alzheimer's...
...who saw me as his retirement plan,flat out lied about his wife's commercial* and residential property* and then invented 6 months of rent debt (it's v complicated but yeah), and I woke up one day with nothing and no recourse. My name was mud. I got death threats 
6/x
6/x
My health tanked through stress and suddenly stopping the momentum of the work I was doing. My consultant was shocked at the decline. I was signed off work indefinitely & have accepted my disability.
Hiding behind meritocracy throws the true working classes under the bus.
7/x
Hiding behind meritocracy throws the true working classes under the bus.
7/x
It won't kill you to admit you had a decent childhood and didn't have to worry about your next meal. My mum was a single mum and I was her carer. I had a very rough start and that has held me back at every turn. I spent a long time denying it.
Oh, daddy? Get some popcorn...
8/x
Oh, daddy? Get some popcorn...
8/x
Mum and dad split after a rocky marriage when I was 11. He was a self employed locksmith. On paper we were middle class. Own home, company, foreign holidays, new cars, he was a Freemason.
He dropped us like a stone. Bat out of hell. I last heard from him when I was 15?
9/x
He dropped us like a stone. Bat out of hell. I last heard from him when I was 15?
9/x
We languished on a violent S London estate, I escaped as soon as I could. Too many nights on suicide watch for my Bipolar mother only to be completely abandoned by social services at 16 when she was committed. I was left to raise my younger brother on £46 a week. Yes really.
10/x
10/x
So Iarries the wrong man in a desperate attempt at creating stability and had 4 kids. Ended violently, and during that divorce with 4 kids under 5, I started my business for something to distract me. No family support at all. I was just us 5. Fast forward 10 years...
And an email arrives from the father. He's been searching all this time, he's heartbroken at the missed time and wants to reconnect. Suspicion is off the chart. But I allow him a chance because I have no one. So, over 2 years a relationship blooms. I meet his (very rich) wife
12/
12/
and adult sons, and the question comes up about living situations. They have a big house with commercial property attached and they are retiring to France. They don't want to sell, so why don't I rent it cheap? Room for the growing kids and the growing business!
13/
13/
