Do you refer to your brothers and sisters as ‘siblings’, spend time in ‘the countryside’, or love watching Stephen Fry on The Traitors while tucking into a jacket potato?
Well, according to Nicky Haslam these are just some of the signs that make you common in 2025.
The Eton-educated interior designer – who is friends with Queen Camilla and claims Princess Margaret’s husband Lord Snowdon was once his lover – has released his seventh Common List tea towel just in time for Christmas.
His £50 cloth, £70 if signed and personalised, features a delightfully snobbish list of traits, phrases and people that the Cotswolds-based octogenarian considers to be lower class.
Nobel Prizes, Stonehenge and striped socks all make the vulgar list as well as phrases such as: ‘Let’s have a little listen’, ‘bums on seats’ and ‘What’s not to like?’.
He’s also against saying ‘travelling’ instead of ‘going’ and referring to The Spectator as ‘The Speccie’.
As usual, some individuals also feature, including actor Stephen Fry and TV presenter Dan Snow.
Perhaps rather bizarrely, death threats, leg room and sun block are also ‘common’, according to Mr Haslam, whose mother was a goddaughter of Queen Victoria.
Do you use the phrase ‘siblings’ or ‘the countryside’? Or maybe you love watching Celebrity Gogglebox or are a fan of Stephen Fry (pictred)? Well, according to socialite Nicky Haslam, 86, these are just some of the signs that mark you as distinctly common in 2025
More understandably, items such as air fryers, Kilner jars, lanyards and nduja all make this year’s list.
Meanwhile, saying ‘I’m a hugger’ or ‘that’s a great question’ equally suggests you’re not ready to mix with high society, claimed Mr Haslam.
Clapping the chef after a meal, leg room and playing sudoku or Wordle were also frowned upon by the interior designer, whose clients have included Sir Mick Jagger and Sir Rod Stewart.
The socialite first released his tea towels in 2018, and since then, the annual list of ‘common’ qualities has become a cherished holiday tradition for some.
But despite becoming an arbiter of everything that should be avoided by those wishing to mix in polite society, Mr Haslam once raved about one very affordable high street store.
He told the Daily Mail’s Jan Moir: ‘You have to stay modern and not limit yourself. Now I adore Primark. Three perfect T-shirts in a pack for £9 — and they last for years.’
This year’s most vulgar aspects of life include Nobel Prizes (pictured, former President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Barack Obama poses with his medal and diploma at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at City Hall in Oslo, in 2009), Stonehenge and ‘the BBC ‘s forced jollity’
Released annually just in time for Christmas , the £50 cloth, £70 if signed and personalised, consists of 40 playfully snobbish traits, phrases and people that the high society octogenarian considers to be lower class. Pictured, Mr Haslam with this year’s offering
