" Great prestige is still attached to this implicitly accepted social standard pronunciation ". It is often called "Received Pronunciation" to indicate that it is the result of social judgement and wide acceptance because of its use by the BBC announcers. It is basically 'Educated Southern British English'  and is the form of pronunciation generally described in books on the phonetics of British English and the one generally taught to foreigners.

RP (received pronunciation) today is no longer the exclusive property of a particular social class in England and is generally equated with the correct pronunciation of English. Regional forms of pronunciation continue to exist. Some young people, however, have begun to reject RP as they wish to challenge traditional authority in every form.

Some forms of regional pronunciation are firmly established in Britain. Some of them, particularly Scottish, are accepted throughout the country, while others - popular London speech, for instance are less acceptable. American pronunciation is now completely accepted in Britain. Speakers of RP now realize that their type of pronunciation is used by only a very small minority in the English speaking world..