Brummies would rather sound like the Queen
Three out of four Brits don't like the sound of their own voice and would rather sound like the Queen, a survey has found.
Asked if they could speak with any accent they wanted most said they wanted to talk like HRH.
Across the UK 1 in 20 wanted to sound Cockney, but only 1 in every 100 people said it would be okay to speak with a Brummie accent.
Even in Birmingham - the houme of foul-mouthed rocker Ozzy Osbourne - they don't like the way they speak, the city had the highest rate for people wanting to sound different.
Linguistic expert Tony Robinson said: "It seems Britain is being gripped by an epidemic of accent envy and accent self loathing.
"The majority of Brits now aspire to Received Pronunciation (RP) and to share the sound of their voice not only with The Queen but with celebs like Liz Hurley and Hugh Grant."
The poll of 2,000 people - which was commissioned by SpinVox - also found the Scots, Geordies and Welsh were the most proud of their accents.
Robinson continued: "Accents are intricately tied into our own sense of identity. It's interesting that those with distinct cultural or class identities are more satisfied with the way they speak and it's precisely those accents that the rest of us want to acquire.
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