>Does the accent make a difference today? I mean compared to years ago when an accent could get you into a club, get a better job, et al...

Not so much, but being a northener, with a natural, pathological hatred for southerners, yet living in the south and having to hear this odious accent every day, I try to instill some northern into their accents (e.g "bath" not "baaaaarrrrth"). But it's the new southern accent that bugs me even more. A smidgin of Oz in it. e.g Grace says, "I'm going home". Lydia says "Oi'm gaeiouing haeioume" (just pronounce each vowel as-is, not diphthong, running into the next one) :-)

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>>It's interesting that my elder daughter (11) has quite a "posh" accent while my youger (7) speaks with the local southern accent (we call it "Estuary English" as in that spoken around the Thames estuary). Now I have a distinctively posher accent than my younger brother. Hmmmmm