It was once common to regard Britain as a society with class distinction. Each class had unique characteristics.

In recent years, many writers have begun to speak the “decline of class” and “classless society” in Britain. And in modern Britain everyone is considered to be middle class.

But pronouncing the death of class is too early. A recent wide-ranging society of public opinion found 90 percent of people still placing themselves in particular class; 73 percent agreed that class was still a vital part of British society; and 52 percent thought there were still sharp class differences. Thus, class may not be culturally and politically obvious, yet it remains an important part of British society. Britain seems to have a love of stratification.

One unchanging aspect of a British person’s class position is accent. The words a person speaks tell her or his class. A study of British accents during 1970s found that a voice sounding like a BBC newsreader was viewed as the most attractive voice, Most people said this accent sounded “educated” and “soft”. The accents placed at the bottom in this study, on the other hand, were regional city accents. These accents were seen as “common” and “ugly”. However, a similar study of British accents in the US turned these results upside down and placed some regional accents as the most attractive and BBC English as the least. This suggests that British attitudes towards accent have deep roots and are based on class prejudice (偏见).

In recent years, however, young upper middle-class people in London, have begun to adopt some regional accents, in order to hide their class origins. This is an indication of class becoming unnoticed. However, the 1995 pop song “Common People” puts forward the view that though a middle-class person may “want to live like common people” they can never appreciate the reality of a working-class life.

Online secondhand store thredUP has shown its tenth yearly Resale Report, which shows that the secondhand clothing industry is growing rapidly in the United States, as well as around the world. The secondhand market in the US is expected to more than double by 2026.

When choosing what to buy, people are increasingly experienced in what can be resold. More than one-fifth of Generation Z shoppers say they’ll pay more for the clothes that they know they can resell, and more than half of them resold clothes last year.

This is a much healthier opinion than storing out-of-style or ill-fitting clothes in a closet (衣柜). As resale becomes easier thanks to mobile technology and online stores, increasing numbers of customers hope to turnover their closets. This helps the industry and keeps the market full of fresh finds, bringing people back for more.

Buying or selling things secondhand helps to reduce people’s worry about the environment. As thredUP reported in 2021, buying or selling things secondhand reduces a product’s carbon Footprint (碳排放量) by 82%. It requires far less water to produce. Besides, it’s a good way to save money.

Aja Barber said in her book: “Clothing is produced at a fast speed, so it is important that resale become a key part of people’s lifestyles. Accepting reuse is not always easy when we are faced with many choices — many of which encourage the buying of cheap, single-use clothes-but the rise of online resale is enabling people to make different choices and do so with pride and joy.”

It’s great to hear that resale is being accepted by more people, which can help us save money while protecting our planet.

For centuries, people have moved to and lived in cities. These urban centres are places to find work, friends and fun. It's no surprise that they continue to grow as more and more people flood in hoping to make the most of the chances they offer but adding to the congestion and pollution that already exist.

According to a report by the United Nations, 54 percent of the world's population lives in urban areas and it predicts that by 2050,this figure will have increased to around 70 percent. But as more and more people move from the countryside to the city to get better chances, they can end up with nowhere to live.

This is true in places such as Rio de Janeiro, where the people from the countryside can't rent or buy a home,and they end up building their own communities and houses on unoccupied land. These are called shanty towns— poor communities where the houses are built out of cheap materials—and often don't have any electricity or water supply.

These are, of course, not the future cities we want to see. Some serious urban planning is needed to make our cities of the future good, safe and modern places to live in. This involves improving the housing conditions, the chances for education and employment and so on.

Something urban planners are looking at now is the creation of“smart cities”. According to John Rossant, founder and chairman of the non-profit organisation New Cities Foundation, technology is the way forward. He thinks that it's generally accepted that “cloud computing, ubiquitous Internet, robust 5G networks etc, will change our cities”. He says technology is really “a game changer” in urbanization (城市化). It would collect large amounts of data about how a city is working and may improve how a city functions.