As for the class system that you seem so obsessed by Yorick - I have never come across it in all my years of living here. If there is an aristocracy in Britain it consists of pop stars and footballers. Posh & Becks are the 'new' royalty.
My impression (perhaps flawed) was that the British military, civil service, and (to a lessening extent) politics were still largely in the hands of people who had gone to the best private schools, and then moved onto Eton and the like--not particularly different from the US, except that the system here is kept much quieter, given the prevailing suspicion and dislike for the well-educated.
Am I wrong?