My background is middle-class:

- I went to public school, as did my father and mother

- My father was a regular soldier, and scion of a family with money from commerce

- My mother was raised in Hong Kong, and spoke with a very posh-sounding colonial accent; but she was a teacher's daughter. My father was also well-spoken.

- I ended up with a public school accent. Living in Liverpool, I was often mocked.

I fetched up in London, and began to affect a mockney accent. It wasn't even proper mockney - it was the accent spoken by London hippies and drop-outs. I made no effort to acquire that accent; it just moved in. I'm pretty sure that anyone who was interested could observe the public-school accent shining through.

I've now shed that mockney accent, I'm glad to say; it disappeared the same way it arrived - with no effort on my part.

Along with a public-school accent, you acquire manners and customs. The combination of a noticeable public-school accent with the manners and customs, is attractive to prospective employers. Especially if they happen to share your accent, manners and customs. And public-school-educated people tend to be over-represented among employers.

I'm not an academic; I have no idea how poshness or connections affects funding decisions. I have never gained any advantage from either family or school connections. I suppose I might have been able to, had I been so inclined.

A public school education definitely makes it easier to get into a decent university, and so get a reputable degree; there is constant wringing-of-hands in government circles about how to address that imbalance in intake (it seems to me to be as plain as the nose on my face: stop giving huge tax-breaks to public schools, and spend a lot more money on state education).

My second wife was a farmer's daughter from Leicestershire. She spoke with a mild accent, except when she was in Leicestershire; then her accent became quite broad. She always felt inferior because of her accent (she was bright and accomplished, and her manners and customs were middle-class).

I pointed out to her that her father had been a landowner, and her mother was from a fairly wealthy family; that my family were landless; and so if anything, she was posher than me (but with a regional accent). My remarks made no difference - TTBOMK she still feels bad about her regional accent.

It's not obvious to me that Hannah deliberately acquired a posh accent; it may well have 'osmosed' in, just because she was hanging out with posh people. My sister went to private secondary school, but in downtown Liverpool. She acquired a scouse accent.

Some working-class people are impressed by a posh accent; they think it marks you as being more intelligent than they are. People pay more attention to speakers with Received Pronunciation, and give greater respect to their views. This actually causes me to hold back on expressing opinions; I'm ashamed to take advantage of that kind of unearned respect.

BTW: I've never known anyone who spoke with such an outrageous accent as Jacob Rees-Mogg. It's obvious to me that he exaggerates it for effect. His father certainly didn't speak with such horribly-contorted vowels. That is: he's a fake, and he gets away with it; he's trading on a poshness that he never really had.