Any Brits reading will know that, until recently, we had a good thing going in the United States. We were widely held to be smarter, politer, and more refined than we really were. In truth, British people are earthy and Hogarthian, more prone to drunkenness and profanity than Americans. But, for whatever reason, our American cousins insisted on seeing us as the epitome of courtliness.

Well, not anymore. The upper-middle-class accent, which Americans once found clever and, if we were lucky, sexy, now elicits pity. I visit the U.S. perhaps seven or eight times a year and, at some point in late 2024, I noticed a change in how people were reacting to what is, I suppose, my fairly posh pronunciation.