Who says there's a "correct" way to talk?

Yes, I'm drunk. Think how I'd sound if I was sober. Anyway...

Just watching Michael McIntyre's comedy roadshow and it occurs to me that much of his comedy seems to revolve around, basically, how the working-class (or at least, people with accents) are essentially scum for not sounding like he does. Not in so many words of course - and he gives the modern "oh yes, I'm being ironic" wink to the audience - but there's certainly a class-based contempt when he ridicules Blackpool regarding its plebishness.

Later we have have Miles Jupp, who has an even more extreme variant - his entire act seems to revolve around the one gag of how he speaks..."properly", apparently. I get it, it's a joke - and sure, I found it pretty funny, but, like I said, I'm drunk - but it is emblematic of a larger problem - this notion of a "correct" way of speaking.

How is it, after centuries of suffrage and the seeming breakdown of class distinctions, Britain is still obsessed with ideals and, particularly, ideals of language?

Let's examine one big freaking signifier, kids - the UK still has a monarchy. Now, if you needed more proof regarding this idealism of class that we have in this glorious nation of ours, there it is...we are one of the few first world countries on the planet where we have an official government-sanctioned symbol of our acceptance that certain people - due to blood, wealth and breeding - are inherintly superior to others. And it is called the Queen's English, isn't it? That perfect mode of speaking we all aspire to...if only we could throw off the shackles of words like "shite" or "bairn" or "knees up mother brown" that keep us such simple country folk and prevent us aspiring to the heights of investment bankers or missionaries...

The point is...regional accents are not the "wrong" way of speaking - the ruling classes have always been a minority and language is the ultimate folk art. English has only had this standard set by the likes of upper-class linguiusts like Samuel Johnson who have set an ideal of language according to royal precedent. When Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales, notions of a "correct" English were unheard of and, as such, we have an amalgamtion of English according to his own interpretation -

"When that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour,
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tender croppes, and the yonge sonne"

Isn't that freaking awesome?! It's like Jazz - and I get it, I compare far too much stuff to Jazz - you take what is the basis, the basic melody perhaps whether it be "Basin Street Blues" or "When The Saints Go Marching In" and you improvise...English has a certain amount of set characteristics and similarities which have been forced into one set template over centuries of homogenisation, but it can still be used as a tool for development, offshoots and idionsyncrasies.

English has always been fluid and "dialect" should not be considered a pejorative term - the unique nature and individuality of accents is far superior to the bland recieved pronunciation forced upon us by the upper classes and the media. But, of course, as more and more people identify themselves as "middle-class", more and more people frown upon accents and dialects. And this is a real tragedy. The likes of Mark Twain, Brendan Behan, James Joyce, Eugene O'Neill and, like, whoever, have been praised for using the vernacular in their writing and have been called the greatest writers of all time and yet people still ridicule and lambast those who use of regional accents, all around the world. It's horrible, hypocritical and classist (is this a word? If not, then it proves my point even more adroitly)...

So to, like, conclude - you should be proud of your accent. It's not bad language - there is such a thing as bad grammar which is completely apart from this - it's better than the bland shite that is "recieved pronunciation", which should henceforth be referred to rather as "generic pronunciation".