PaulH@1911. I agree about posh people 'talking down' but many accents seem to be 'put on' to me. They seem like regional affectations. I have flattened vowels and say bath, castle and cubs in a particular way...as they are spelled, not baarth, caarssew and cabs. So Bath Buns often provokes hilarity in the estuary english. Similarly my Newcastle raised eyebrows among the Northern tribes who think it's Nucassl. If bath was baarth and Newcastle was either Noocarssul or Nucassl or Noocarsuw then the words would have been written like that. Don't get me started on Birmingham etc bloimey.